Inside Seven Days

Looking for fun, educational projects to keep the kids busy over winter break? Help them take the Good Citizen At-Home Challenge!

This statewide youth civics initiative is organized by Burlington-based Seven Days newspaper and its parenting publication, Kids VT, with support from the Vermont Community Foundation. Since 2018, the Good Citizen Challenge has encouraged young Vermonters to learn about history, government and news literacy, as well as ways they can pitch in to help out their communities.


Adult-child teams are encouraged in the new Challenge, which launched December 9. It includes more than 40 activities designed for this pandemic winter — many of them provided by Good Citizen partners. Participants choose which activities to do. All of them can be completed at home or from a safe social distance.

At-Home Challenge activities include:

• Listening to episodes of VPR’s “But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids” and "Brave Little State," as well as “Before Your Time,” a podcast from the Vermont Historical Society and Vermont Humanities
• Shoveling snow for neighbors
• Reading five articles in a local newspaper
• Making a poster for Green Up Day
• Organizing a donation drive for a local charity using Front Porch Forum
• Streaming films including The Social Dilemma, Boys State, Coded Bias, Ethan 2018 and The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords

Seven Days, Vermont’s free, independent newsweekly, is a New England Newspaper of the Year. The paper bested dozens of other regional large-circulation newsweeklies in a competition organized by the New England Newspaper & Press Association. The results were announced in a virtual award ceremony last month.

The judges were impressed by the ”tremendous amount of content” in Seven Days — both in print and online — and praised everything from the presentation of obituaries to the web design and navigation. “I could spend hours on the site!” one observed.

As for story selection, another noted, “They appear to cover stories that are controversial and that other papers may not cover. Lots of … important local issues but also interesting and thought-provoking articles.” The judges hailed the paper’s hallmark feature stories, food and drink section and “extensive coverage of all types of entertainment."

Asked what struck them most about Seven Days, the judges answered; “The investigative reporting;” “Tons of ads and classifieds;” “The amount of content;” and “I would read this every week.”

The recognition is well-timed, according to Seven Days publisher Paula Routly. “Everyone on the team can celebrate this one,” she said, “and that’s just what we all need to keep going in this pandemic.”

Seven Days also received two “Publick Occurrences’” awards in the competition — named after America’s first newspaper in 1690 Boston. NENPA presents up to 16 Publick Occurrences awards annually for “the very best work that New England newspapers produce each year.”

The judges selected "Worse for Care," a joint investigation by Seven Days and Vermont Public Radio that exposed safety violations in Vermont’s state-regulated eldercare facilities. One judge noticed the “smart and convincing reporting and editing” in the series, produced by VPR’s Emily Corwin and Mark Davis, and Seven Days’ Derek Brouwer, Matthew Roy, Candace Page, Andrea Suozzo and James Buck.

The second award went to "Guarded Secrets," an investigation into Vermont’s prison system written by Paul Heintz. One judge called it “a top-notch investigative report.”

Seven Days, Vermont’s free, independent newsweekly, won four first-place awards from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia in a virtual ceremony on September 18. One of the winning entries, a joint project with Vermont Public Radio about Vermont’s state-licensed assisted living and residential care homes, received a national Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting from the Radio Television Digital News Association on October 10.
The AAN Awards recognize the most artful, compelling and courageous journalism produced each year by the alternative newsmedia. AAN member publications from cities like Austin, Chicago, Boston and Burlington compete against each other. This year’s contest included entries submitted by 55 publications in the U.S., Canada and Norway.

Vermont Public Radio and Seven Days have won a 2020 National Edward R. Murrow award for their 2019 series “Worse For Care,” a joint investigation into Vermont’s assisted living and residential care homes for the elderly. The award for Investigative Reporting in the Small Market Radio Division was presented by the Radio Television Digital News Association on October 10.

“It’s an honor to win for a collaborative journalism project that pulled together the best reporting, editing and data skills at our two organizations,” said Sarah Ashworth, VPR’s vice president of news. “By working together we were able to do something much larger in scale than we would have been able to do alone. It’s a good reminder that when two organizations set aside competitive pressures and work toward a common goal, we can have a big impact.”

VPR and Seven Days reporters obtained five and a half years’ worth of complaints and state inspections, detailed in thousands of pages of documents. The series revealed troubling patterns of inadequate care that led to dozens of injuries and indignities, and at least five deaths.

“Worse for Care” was produced by Emily Corwin and Mark Davis of VPR, and Derek Brouwer, Matthew Roy, Candace Page, Andrea Suozzo and James Buck of Seven Days. In addition to a series of print, digital and on-air stories over four weeks, the project included Vermont Elder Care Navigator, a searchable database at eldercare.sevendaysvt.com, built by Suozzo, Seven Days data editor, and populated by the project team.
"This project was months in the making," said Seven Days news editor Matthew Roy. "In November 2018, both of our newsrooms reported that the State of Vermont had seized control of three eldercare facilities from an out-of-state owner after food shortages and financial problems. That's what prompted Andrea Suozzo to file our initial public records requests in January 2019. Unlike nursing homes, which are regulated by the federal government, Vermont's eldercare facilities are monitored by the state and the recordkeeping discourages public scrutiny. This series helped shed light on the cracks in the system, and made the state's inspection reports readily accessible. It also familiarized our newsrooms with these issues — knowledge that has helped us cover the coronavirus pandemic."

Since 1971, RTDNA has been honoring outstanding achievements in broadcast and digital journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards. Among the most prestigious in news, the Murrow Awards recognize local and national news stories that uphold the RTDNA Code of Ethics, demonstrate technical expertise and exemplify the importance and impact of journalism as a service to the community. Murrow Award-winning work demonstrates the excellence that Edward R. Murrow made a standard for the broadcast news profession. A full list of 2020 award winners is available here.

In addition to the Murrow Award, “Worse For Care” won an Association of Alternative Newsmedia award — first place in the Innovation category. Find a full list of 2020 award winners here. The AAN awards recognize the most artful, compelling and courageous journalism produced each year by the alternative newsmedia. AAN member publications vary in size and circulation; publications such as the Austin Chronicle, Chicago Reader and Seven Days compete against each other. This year’s competition consisted of entries submitted by 55 publications in the U.S., Canada and Norway.

Seven Days has found plenty of fascinating characters tucked away in these Green Mountains and valley s over the past 25 years. On the road less traveled, which inevitably turns to dirt, we’ve turned up a tornado chaser, two Vermont Supreme Court justices and the first female football coach in NCAA Division 1 history — at Dartmouth College. Almost all of them were eager to talk about their lives and work.

One exception: Republican strategist Stuart Stevens resisted Seven Days for two years before finally agreeing to be profiled. In a 2017 cover story titled “GOP Refugee,” Paul Heintz wrote 5,000 words explaining the “Trump-bashing, ad-making, novel-writing adrenaline junkie” who worked on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign — and four other White House races. After the 2016 election, Stevens retreated to Vermont to “lick his wounds” and ponder his next moves.

Three years later, his Stowe home has become a film set for powerful television ads for the Lincoln Project, in which a former Navy SEAL calls out President Donald Trump for cowardice and worse. In his new book, It Was All a Lie, Stevens describes Trump as a “traitor.”

Political operatives, poets and professors. Entrepreneurs, attorneys and activists. When you read about a Vermonter in Seven Days, you get the full story of a life. Our reporters spend weeks researching and interviewing their subjects, and that includes speaking to other people, friends and foes, about them. Does a person’s background and experience predict their passions? Their successes and failures? Reading about others gets at the heart of human nature and, in the hands of a good writer, reveals something about ourselves.

If you appreciate Seven Days’ in-depth profiles of Vermont people and can afford to help us financially, please become a Super Reader.

For the past 25 years, our local media company has depended almost entirely on advertising revenue from local enterprises to pay the bills. Since March, COVID-19 has severely challenged that business model.

To thrive for another 25, we need your help. Can you cover us?

For the past 25 years, our local media company has covered news, arts, music, food and culture in Vermont. To celebrate the milestone, we asked Seven Days staffers, local celebs and one lucky Super Reader to "pass it on" in this video by Eva Sollberger. It features lots of familiar faces and an original song from the Seven Days house band Enemy of the People.

Seven Days promoted eating local long before the term “locavore” became a thing. We wrote about Vermont food in the very first issue of the newspaper, on September 6, 1995. Three weeks later, it was on the cover. In a story headlined “Olive Me,” James Beard Award-winning chef and food writer Jim Dodge recommended more than a dozen local markets, from Ray’s Seafood and Healthy Living to Greg’s Meat Market and Settlement Farm.

Although it sounds obvious now, his thesis was novel 25 years ago: “Tourists may know Vermont for its cheddar, maple syrup and Macs, but for those of us who live and shop here daily, the Burlington-Middlebury-Montpelier-Stowe area has become a trapezoidal treasure of special stores with special foods,” Dodge wrote. “Made-in-Vermont wholesomeness has met the ex-urbanite’s desire for diversity and the result is excellent eating.”

As the local food movement grew heftier, so did Seven Days. Our first food‑themed issue, in June 1996, was the biggest to that point: 40 pages. Among its dozen stories was our first creemee map of Vermont; another, titled “It’s a Wonderful Loaf,” naïvely asked: “Is artisanal bread here to stay?”

The twice-a-year food issues were also stuffed with restaurant news, the precursor to today’s popular Side Dishes column and Bite Club e-newsletter. In 2006, we hired our first full-time food writer, Suzanne Podhaizer. She filled five pages a week with stories about chefs, farmers, butchers and brewmasters, and also expertly assembled our then-new annual dining guide, 7 Nights.

By 2007, the quirky and boldly carnivorous Alice Levitt had begun contributing. Soon she was on staff and appearing weekly on WCAX-TV. Since then, at least two full-time food writers have juggled the busy food beat. Our current team — Melissa Pasanen, Jordan Barry and Sally Pollak — has rigorously covered the impact of the pandemic on Vermont’s restaurant industry and its local food producers.

Once again, the state’s signature culinary community and Seven Days are on a parallel path and, due to COVID-19, it’s a rocky one: Both face existential threats.

If you appreciate our reporting on Vermont’s food, drink and farms and can afford to help us financially, please become a Seven Days Super Reader.

For the past 25 years, our local media company has depended almost entirely on advertising revenue from local enterprises to support our award-winning journalism. Since March, COVID-19 has severely challenged that business model.

To thrive for another 25, we need your help. Can you cover us?

Seven Days started out as a 28‑page arts paper; for the first five years, most of the bylines belonged to its culture-writing founders, Pamela Polston and Paula Routly. Soon, though, there were 80 to 120 pages to fill each week. Adding local news to the mix seemed like the next logical step.

Seven Days hired its first staff writer, Ken Picard, in 2002. He started churning out news features, including the first exposé of Mexican farm laborers toiling in secret on Vermont dairy farms, published in June 2003. The next year we launched the “Local Matters,” section, located between Peter Freyne’s “Inside Track” column and the paper’s extensive arts coverage and comprehensive event listings. For decades Kevin J. Kelley, one of Seven Days’ most prolific freelancers, reliably contributed news stories and art reviews.

When the Great Recession hit in 2008, the internet and websites like Craigslist had already begun to beat up daily newspapers. Vermont newsrooms contracted in response.

Seven Days did just the opposite. Knowing that responsible, fact-based journalism is essential to a functioning democracy, its owners decided instead to expand.

Today our news team is one of the largest in Vermont, made up of experienced local journalists — including three editors in the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame — as well as a rising generation of talented reporters, writers and multimedia storytellers. In recent years, this team has investigated Vermont’s nonprofit economy, the opioid epidemic, sexual misconduct in Vermont prisons and neglect in eldercare facilities. Another frequent topic: the state of local media.

If you appreciate Seven Days’ in-depth news coverage and can afford to help us financially, please become a Seven Days Super Reader. Your recurring donation will provide a reliable revenue stream to help fund the award-winning journalism we continue to provide during these challenging times.

For the past 25 years, our local media company has depended almost entirely on advertising revenue from local retailers and events to pay the bills. Since March, COVID-19 has severely challenged that business model.

To thrive for another 25, we need your help. Can you cover us?

Seven Days has been writing about Vermont politics — with color, verve and insight — since columnist Peter Freyne joined our team in the fall of 1995. His first “Inside Track” for the paper combined a takedown of side judge and “political spin doctor” Althea Kroger with an update on South Burlington’s efforts to shut down a strip club on Williston Road.

Freyne wrote about politics in a way that made it understandable and entertaining. He asked the questions no other reporter would. Even U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, with whom Freyne had a complicated relationship, found kind words for him when he died on January 7, 2009.

But the truth is: Many of Freyne's columns would not have passed muster with our current team of news editors. Over the years Seven Days' political coverage has become increasingly rigorous and thorough. Paul Heintz's first cover story was a smart, even-handed analysis of Burlington's 2012 mayoral race among Kurt Wright, Miro Weinberger and Wanda Hines; more recently, he delivered an in-depth, remarkably suspenseful look at how Gov. Phil Scott handled the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic. In the years between, he traveled all over the country covering Sanders' historic, back-to-back presidential runs.

If you appreciate Seven Days’ political coverage — from Peter Freyne to Paul Heintz — and can afford to help us financially, please become a Seven Days Super Reader. Your recurring donation will provide a reliable revenue stream to help fund the award-winning journalism we continue to provide during these challenging times.

For the past 25 years, our local media company has depended almost entirely on advertising revenue from local retailers and events to pay the bills. Since March, COVID-19 has severely challenged that business model.

To thrive for another 25, we need your help. Can you cover us?

This summer, Seven Days assistant arts editor Dan Bolles was working on a cover story about Vermont banjo legend Gordon Stone in anticipation of the musician’s long-awaited anthology double album, set to be released this month. Banjo fans saw Stone as a stylistic trailblazer who ranged from bluegrass to rock and jazz to world music. Local friends and fellow musicians knew he was also a troubled soul who struggled with addiction.

Stone had been speaking with Bolles about both aspects of his life when the musician died tragically on July 10 — and the profile became an obituary. In this week’s Seven Days, Bolles pays tribute to a complex character who “understood that his musical legacy was important. But he also knew that the pain he’d caused to others was another kind of legacy.”

The connection of creativity and humanity is on display in every corner of Vermont. From day one, Seven Days has kept readers informed about local music, movies, books, theater, dance and visual art. A vital community resource, it’s also covered Vermont news, people, presidential campaigns and, most recently, a pandemic.

For the past 25 years, our local media company has depended almost entirely on advertising revenue from local enterprises to pay the bills. Since March, COVID-19 has severely challenged that business model.

To thrive for another 25, we need your help.

If you appreciate our work and can afford to help us financially, please become a Seven Days Super Reader. Your recurring donation will provide a reliable revenue stream to help fund our award-winning journalism.

Can you cover us?