From the Publisher: Publick Eye

Every year, the New England Newspaper & Press Association bestows up to 16 Publick Occurrence awards. The weirdly spelled citation is a reference to America’s first newspaper, established in 1690, which strove to be an independent voice in the New World. Predictably, a story in the first issue offended the British colonial government, which promptly shut it down.

The modern-day Publick commendations are for “the most outstanding work” produced by New England newspapers, either by an individual reporter or a team, over the course of a 12-month period.

Last week, three of this year’s 15 awards went to Seven Days. None of the other winning media outlets received more than one.

The judges liked our 2021 collaboration with Vermont Public, “Roaches and Broken Locks,” about a local rental housing empire ruled by the Bove brothers — of tomato sauce fame. Derek Brouwer and Liam Elder-Connors documented the Boves’ practice of leasing substandard apartments to immigrant families who may be too scared to complain about the conditions. After the story ran, the Boves promised to make changes to address the problems the writers revealed.

NENPA raved about “The Doctor Won’t See You Now,” Seven Days‘ investigation last fall of long wait times to see Vermont doctors, calling it “fascinating reporting” and “by far the most impactful and best-told story.” Reporters Colin Flanders and Chelsea Edgar worked together on this one. The judges noticed: “The weaving of patient and practitioner stories with data on medical care in Vermont was first-rate.”

The third award went to our yearlong “Locked Out” series chronicling Vermont’s housing crisis. Although only half of the 12 stories had been published by the competition deadline, the judges called the collection an “exhaustive report on Vermont’s struggles with the relatively high cost and the scarcity of housing in that state.” Next year they’ll get to read the six stories we wrote between July and December!

Not to boast, but these are ambitious reporting projects for a newspaper in our small state. We embrace them, on top of the massive amount of work that already goes into the weekly paper, to better serve you. Reporter for reporter, we are producing a substantial amount of quality journalism — as much as or more than any media outlet in the state.

How do we pay for it? Mostly the old-fashioned way: by selling advertising to local businesses. Although Seven Days is independent and 49 percent employee-owned, we aren’t structured like our nonprofit competitors. That means we can’t access many of the grants from national foundations that are available to them.

Thankfully, two kinds of readers are chipping in to help us pay the bills: Super Readers give one-time gifts or monthly donations that collectively generate a hugely helpful $2,000 a week; other readers are directing checks or contributions from donor-advised funds to our fiscal sponsor, Journalism Funding Partners, to support specific projects — including our investigative fund — that qualify them for a tax deduction.

This generous expression of community support signals that our readers recognize and appreciate our efforts, which is all we can ask.

Neither of the above arrangements makes Seven Days itself tax-exempt. When and if the paper makes a profit, all 15 owners pay their share. From front to back, the paper enriches the community. Last I checked, that’s called a public, er, publick service.