The top executive at online news site VTDigger is stepping down after about three years on the job. Schuyler “Sky” Barsch will remain CEO until June 1. Digger announced her departure in a story it published Tuesday.
Barsch joined Digger in April 2023 after working as a vice president of marketing at Chalkbeat, nonprofit news organization focused on education reporting.
Before that she had stints in local and national media, including roles at the Burlington Free Press, the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus and The Nation magazine. She had also held positions at Vermont Life, which closed in 2018 and Vermont Sports, a magazine dedicated to outdoor sports and recreation in northern New England.
Barsch took the helm of Digger after founder Anne Galloway stepped down in 2022. Over 13 years, Galloway grew the online organization into the largest newsroom in the state.
“It’s been an honor to lead VTDigger and to serve Vermonters alongside such a talented staff and dedicated board,” Barsch said in the Digger piece. “I’m incredibly proud of the journalism we’ve produced and the trust we’ve built with communities across the state. VTDigger is strong, mission-driven, and well positioned for the future — and I’m excited to support the organization as it takes its next steps.”
Barsch told Seven Days that the decision was a difficult one.
“There is never a good time to leave but I feel like we’re in such a stronger position than we were three years ago,” she said.
Barsch, who lives in Middlesex, was hired to expand audiences at the news site and grow revenues, which had declined during the pandemic.
Under Barsch’s leadership, the organization “strengthened its financial foundation, expanded and deepened readership and donor support across the state,” Digger reported. She also helped the news site “articulate a vision of VTDigger that is larger than any one person: a news organization built to serve Vermonters for generations,” its story says.
VTDigger is a project of the Vermont Journalism Trust, a nonprofit.
When Barsch took over in 2023, the organization had just lost over $1 million, she told Seven Days on Tuesday. In response, the outlet didn’t fill some open positions, closed its satellite Burlington office in 2023, and moved its main digs in Montpelier to smaller quarters, she said.
That helped shrink the loss to about $700,000 in 2023 and $100,000 in 2024, she said. A similar loss was anticipated for 2025, she said.
She gave credit for the organization’s turnaround to its “dynamite” board, and its committed journalists, particularly its Pulitzer-prize winning editor-in-chief, Geeta Anand.
Digger and the union that represents 14 editorial staffers have been in negotiations for nearly a year.
Earlier this month, staffers handed out literature outside the Statehouse expressing concern that the organization wanted the right to use artificial intelligence in the production of news stories.
Barsch said Digger already uses AI for limited tasks, such as transcribing interviews, but everything is reviewed by humans who are and will remain integral to the organization.
“I just want to keep an open mind about technology for the future,” Barsch said.
She said she hopes a new contract can be inked with the union before she departs.
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