As a historian, I am fascinated by Vermont’s past. As a Vermonter, I care deeply about its present and future. That’s why I consider VTDigger’s mission so important. Over the last two-plus decades, the rise of the Internet has devastated our state’s once-thriving newspapers, which for more than two centuries were the backbone of Vermont journalism. The economics of our high-tech era have starved newspapers of revenues and resulted in major newsroom staffing cuts. But journalism matters. Without it, we simply cannot be informed citizens. Community and statewide newspapers are having to be scrappy and wildly innovative in this challenging environment, and Digger has been a leader in this reinvented landscape.While newspapers across the state have had to shrink their staffs, VTDigger has found an economic model that can support quality journalism that is notable for both its breadth and depth. With the financial help of readers, VTDigger has managed to hire an impressive team of journalists. Early in my career, I worked as an editor and reporter for several Vermont newspapers. I’ve been delighted to see many talented former colleagues become part of VTDigger’s staff, where they have joined other gifted journalists whose excellent work I deeply appreciate.Journalism is crucial to my historical research for the “Then Again” columns that appear in VTDigger. I am always amazed by how transportive it is to read old newspapers, not only offering insights on the politics and wars of the day, but bringing us into the lives of everyday people. While browsing newspapers in an online archive, I stumbled upon the story of a massive manhunt in 1925 for a missing farmhand who was believed to have abducted a young girl. The newspapers of the day reported the frantic search for the pair in great detail, allowing me to piece together the gripping story. Journalists provided such telling facts as how selectmen from the girl’s hometown were initially in charge of the search until the county sheriff took over (there was no state police yet), how the Vermont attorney general called for the man to be captured “dead or alive,” how reports flowed in from Vermonters who claimed to have seen the missing pair, and how a revered police dog that had successfully tracked fugitives in Germany had joined the search. After the farmhand and girl were discovered and more information about the case was revealed, the papers documented the swift shift in public opinion in favor of the farmhand. These compelling and poignant details bring the past alive, and would have been lost to history if not for the journalists of the time.Novelist L.P. Hartley once noted: “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” Old newspapers are an invaluable way to get the lay of this foreign land. They help explain what people knew and believed at the time.Our world today can feel as foreign and disorienting as the past. To understand the present moment, and get a sense of what might happen in the near future, journalism is as important as ever. If you want to know what is happening in Vermont and what people think about it, there is no better place to turn than VTDigger. I want to thank the readers who rely on VTDigger for making this website the go-to place to stay up to date with what is happening in their communities and across the state. And I am grateful that Digger offers a place for writers to go deeper with their stories in order to offer context, strengthen our sense of place, and build community.Please consider supporting VTDigger before the end of 2024 with a one-time or monthly donation today and it will be tripled.Triple your donationIf you can, please consider becoming a sustaining member at a level that works for you. Sustaining members make it possible for VTDigger’s journalists to dig deeper. Become a sustaining member at $15/month and you’ll receive a free VTDigger t-shirt.Sincerely,Mark BushnellJournalist and authorRead the story on VTDigger here: Why VTDigger deserves your support: A historian’s view.