Shaun Robinson, who won a Publick Occurrences Award at the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s fall conference on September 21, 2024, pictured earlier that month at the Manchester Community Library. File photo by Glenn Russell.
The New England Newspaper and Press Association has named VTDigger a “distinguished” news organization. It also honored the nonprofit digital news site’s reporting on Vermont’s 2023 flooding and a pitched battle over Abenaki identity.
The association, which represents more than 450 news organizations in the region, bestowed the awards Saturday at its annual fall publishers’ conference in Providence, Rhode Island.
VTDigger was a runner-up for “newspaper of the year” in the online news publication class, alongside Connecticut Inside Investigator. Rhode Island Current won top honors in the category.
VTDigger won two of the association’s Publick Occurrences Awards, which recognize “the very best work that New England newspapers produce each year.” The award is named after the first newspaper published in North America, in 1690; it was shuttered within days by British colonial authorities.
One Public Occurrences Award went to the full staff of VTDigger for its coverage of the catastrophic flooding that swept through Vermont in July 2023. Contest judges wrote that VTDigger had followed “the most hallowed tradition of American journalism, when something big takes place in your community, all hands respond.” The reporting, judges wrote, “provided life-saving information and has led to deeper stories on inequities that are associated with such disasters.”
Reporter Shaun Robinson also won a Publick Occurrences Award for his examination of a conflict between Odanak First Nation leaders and four groups recognized as Abenaki by the state of Vermont. Robinson spent more than six months reporting the story — traveling to Quebec and interviewing members of both groups, academics, state officials and others.
Sky Barsch, CEO of VTDigger, praised her colleagues for the depth and breadth of their work.
“This shows that VTDigger continues to excel at deep, investigative journalism, such as with Shaun’s piece,” she said. “And we spring into action and cover breaking, emergency events like the devastating flooding over the past two summers. It’s a real service to our community that our team is capable of doing it all — and at an award-winning level.”
Editor-in-chief Paul Heintz said he was particularly proud that the association honored the entire staff of VTDigger for its overall work and specifically for its coverage of last year’s flooding.
“Every story we publish is a team effort,” he said. “I’m grateful for the work our reporters, photographer, editors and revenue and operations staff do day in and day out to produce this top-notch journalism. It’s work that would not be possible without the support of our readers.”
Read the story on VTDigger here: New England journalism organization honors VTDigger for coverage of flooding and Abenaki identity .