BRATTLEBORO — On the heels of taking home two prizes from the New England Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest from an awards ceremony in Boston on Feb. 8, The Commons, which has served readers in Windham County since 2005 as a project of Vermont Independent Media, has relaunched its Web site, www.commonsnews.org.
The goal of the new site, in limited operation since Feb. 16, is to offer more meaningful coverage in between the paper's monthly print issues, Editor Jeff Potter said.
The newspaper intends to build the Web site “slowly and methodically,” he said, gradually building its readership with traditional news coverage.
Citing multiple studies showing increasing numbers of users - particularly younger readers - preferring their news online, Potter said the new site could offer the four-year-old nonprofit community newspaper new reach and wider readership.
“With daily newspapers nationwide struggling with their finances and long-term survival, there's never been a more urgent time to have the infrastructure in place for the local press to grow into the news operation the Windham County community needs it to become,” he said, adding that the Web operation is a "critical first step" toward ultimately publishing the newspaper in print more frequently.
The Web site will offer substantial benefit to readers in the form of unlimited additional space for material that would not otherwise fit in print.
The Commons, supported by donations, grants, advertising, and volunteer help, envisions municipal news coverage of Windham County towns, a comprehensive daily column of obituaries, births, weddings, anniversaries, and other milestones that Potter described as “keystones of traditional community journalism.
“We all love print here,” Potter said. “But there's a place and an urgent editorial need for a Web component of what we're doing that will allow us to fulfill our mission. We hope readers will share our excitement.”
Newspaper wins contest
The Commons won first place in biweekly/monthly division for general excellence in the NEPA contest. The story “Racist acts grip region” from the July 2008 issue, by editor Jeff Potter, also received first place in the category for general news story.
The newspaper was also a finalist in the George Speers Newspaper of the Year award in the biweekly/monthly category but lost the first-place prize to Vermont Woman of South Burlington.
NEPA members are eligible to enter their papers into a number of categories in the annual contest, judged by volunteer members from similar associations in nearby states to avoid conflicts of interest.
Other Vermont newspapers winning prizes in the competition include the Bennington Banner, Addison County Independent (Middlebury), the Waterbury Record, the Essex Reporter (Essex Junction), the Stowe Reporter, The Reporter (Brandon), the St. Albans Daily Messenger, and the Chronicle (Barton).
Readership survey
As part of the paper's efforts to learn more about its readers and their preferences, The Commons invites readers to complete a survey on page 19 of this issue.
The survey asks readers to tell the staff and the Vermont Independent Media board of directors, which oversees both the newspaper and the Web site, how well its mission is being addressed, how they feel about the print paper's various departments, and what improvements they would like to see.
Readers can also complete the survey online at www.commonsnews.org/survey/.