As the Vermont media landscape changes, The Valley Reporter is joining many of the state’s longest publishing newspapers in creating a nonprofit arm to allow the paper to seek grants and accept tax deductible donations.
The Valley Reporter has served the Mad River Valley since 1971. It is currently co-owned by publisher Patricia Clark and editor Lisa Loomis who took ownership when the late Al Benjamin died in 2015. Clark joined the paper as a typesetter in 1981 and Loomis joined the paper as a staff writer in 1985.
Together with director of sales and advertising/webmaster Jeff Knight who joined the paper in 2001 and Susie Conrad, graphics and design, they produce the weekly paper. They are helped by contributing writers, community photographers, and David Clark who handles deliveries.
“Nationally and in Vermont, the newspaper industry’s economic model has been disrupted for two decades. Since 2005 more than 3,200 print newspapers have ceased production, most of them weeklies like The Valley Reporter," Loomis said.
“During the pandemic, readers made important contributions to help us weather the local business closures and resulting loss of ad revenue. That was critical and we are deeply appreciative. From that we learned that we can help make donating more attractive to readers by making it tax deductible and that we can qualify for state and national grant funding by creating a nonprofit trust,” Clark explained.
The Valley Reporter Trust, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Clark said, will allow readers and foundations whose mission is supporting democracy and civic engagement through local journalism, to make tax exempt donations. The nonprofit will work hand-in-hand with The Valley Reporter, as well as independently, to promote excellence in local journalism and promote civic engagement and education.
Here’s how the new trust will work. There’s a seven-member board for The Valley Reporter Trust that includes Loomis, Clark, Brian Shupe, Waitsfield; Eric Friedman, Moretown; Erika-Nichols Frazier, Waitsfield; Kathy Cadwell, Fayston; and Tony Italiano, Waitsfield.
“We’re grateful to the community members who have agreed to serve on our board. They represent a deep bench of people with history, community presence and most importantly, they understand and share the mission of local media as a means of connection and communication,” Loomis said.
“We’re excited about this next step and the potential it has to advance the work of The Valley Reporter, helping us keep our community connected, informed, and engaged. Those things are important for our Valley and for our democracy,” she added.
“Because of our small staff and weekly production schedule, we have not had the bandwidth to be more active stewards of civic engagement. We’re too busy just producing the newspaper,” Loomis continued.
“But we’re passionate about local news and our community and our weekly paper recording the history of the Mad River Valley. Local media is best positioned to understand the people and the issues and politics of this community. We love our work and we’re deeply engaged in our community. This matters to us,” she added.
She said The Valley Reporter and the Valley Reporter Trust hope to be able to hire community correspondents to increase the flow of news through the paper and expand community outreach, coverage, and staffing.
“What this means for our readers and subscribers is a continuation of accurate and fair local journalism put together by the award-winning team at The Valley Reporter,” she added.
Additionally, The Valley Reporter is excited about working more closely with the Harwood Unified Union School District to get e-subscriptions into the hands of middle and high school students (and perhaps younger students) to cultivate a healthy interest in the role that newspapers and local news can play in civic life and discourse.
The newspaper and the trust will remain two separate entities and readers, subscribers and advertisers will see no changes in their weekly paper. On a quarterly basis, the newspaper will write grants for news projects and initiatives that would benefit the paper (and The Mad River Valley) and the nonprofit will consider whether to fund them. Loomis will serve as the initial chair of the nonprofit board.
Donations to the trust can be mailed to Valley Reporter Trust, P.O. Box 119, Waitsfield VT 05673. Donations can also be made at valleyreporter.com (LINK FOR PAYPAL DONATE BUTTON) and a Venmo option is coming soon.
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