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- Galloway Finds Her North Star
- Digger Is Born
- An Early Partnership
- Finding The Money
- You Have to Do More Than Just Exist
- The Game-Changer Story
- Reporting Expansion
- The Movers and Shakers
- Entrepreneurial Spirit
- The Growth Fund
An institution often adopts the personality of its leadership. For Digger, the similarities are striking. The organization, like its founder, is intensely passionate about the mission and dogged in pursuit of both watchdog journalism and sustainability. Meet the Digger staff and you’ll immediately see it: They, like Galloway, embrace the grind. Gal...
Starting a news organization from scratch, and without the backing of a wealthy supporter, would prove to be the hardest work imaginable. But, she said, there was simply no other choice. This was 2009, a wretched year for the news business as the recession further battered an already beleaguered newspaper market. Galloway knew this wasn’t a blip; n...
In late 2009, Digger was posting about two stories per week, mostly long-form state policy coverage. Galloway was building out her site to be more than a blog and trying to figure out how to raise money. Meanwhile another startup, the Vermont Journalism Trust, was charting its own course. Its original concept — to fund independent reporting that co...
Among Galloway’s early instincts was to avoid relying on foundation support alone. She envisioned an NPR-like mix, with underwriting, large donations, and memberships, all of which would need to be built from scratch. As she set out to secure corporate sponsorships, reality set in. “I had to learn the lingo. I had to learn to sell,” she said. “Then...
Galloway and her team, from the earliest days, understood in theory the relationships between journalism, audience and revenue. But in practice they had a problem: Too few stories, not enough eyeballs, and not enough revenue. In 2009, shortly after Digger launched, it became very clear that publishing only a couple stories a week would make it more...
In 2014, Digger first caught wind of potential fraud at Jay Peak Resort — one of Vermont’s top ski destinations and a major employer in the state — stemming from misuse of funds through the EB-5 visa program. EB-5 grants permanent residency to foreigners who invest $500,000 or more in U.S. businesses and create at least 10 full-time jobs. The devel...
Digger’s original focus — on investigative reporting and daily statehouse coverage — remained at its core. But over time, after watching the continued decline in local reporting by the state’s daily newspapers and the Associated Press, Galloway was convinced Digger had an opportunity and responsibility to expand, when the time was right. By 2013, D...
An often-overlooked ingredient in the success of any enterprise is the makeup and effectiveness of its board. Digger’s board of trustees— still technically the Vermont Journalism Trust — is 14 strong, with a healthy mix of backgrounds in journalism, finance, fundraising, public relations, and philanthropy. “People with expertise in various fields a...
Galloway, from Day One, has been intensely focused on making money to support Digger’s existence. Every major line of revenue has grown (typically double-digit percentage growth) year-over-year. Membership has grown from $10,000 in 2010 to nearly $330,000 in 2017. Corporate sponsorship, a tough nut to crack for many local news organizations, nonpro...
In 2016, after the recognition that came from Digger’s EB-5 coverage, Galloway was introduced by board members to Lyman Orton, whose family owns The Vermont Country Store. After a couple of meetings it became clear to Galloway that Orton appreciated Digger and wanted to be part of something transformative. “He liked us and what we were doing,” she ...
In 2010, VTDigger merged with the nonprofit Vermont Journalism Trust. As part of the Trust, a substantial portion of support comes from the government and the general public, including sponsors, gifts, and organization membership. VTDigger made only $21,816 from advertising revenue in 2018.
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Jun 17, 2024 · Overall, we rate the VTDigger Left-Center biased based on editorial positions that moderately favor the left. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record.
