Scenes from VTDigger’s stories of the year. Clockwise from top left: Flooding in Richmond, a surveillance tower in in Derby Line, deer tracking, the eclipse and the Burlington ‘pod’ shelter. Photos by Glenn Russell and Patrick Crowley/VTDiggerVTDigger published more than 2,600 stories this year — set in every corner of Vermont and tackling every topic imaginable. But which of these stories resonated most with readers?Our most-read story of 2024 — by a mile — was among the more recent. Hundreds of thousands of readers checked out Shaun Robinson’s December investigation into surveillance towers that have cropped up along the U.S.-Canada border in recent years. Robinson also penned our second-most-read story in September, localizing a Politico report on potential security vulnerabilities in new software being developed by a firm that works with Vermont election officials. Though the Secretary of State’s Office said the issues did not affect Vermont, the story caught fire in the runup to a bitterly contested national election. Not surprisingly, extreme weather events kept readers glued to VTDigger’s homepage. Weather stories generally — including big snowstorms in March, April and November — continued to attract eyeballs, but the most consequential stories of the year came out of Vermont’s two big summer floods. The day after we finished publishing Downstream, our 10-part series documenting the July 2023 floods — and on the one-year anniversary of the storm that caused them — the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl rolled into Vermont, causing another crisis. VTDigger reporters fanned out across the state to report on the immediate danger, aftermath and recovery. Within 24 hours, we published more than 20 stories on the flooding, including this roundup, one of our most-read stories of the year.Weeks later, another major rain event — this one centered in the Northeast Kingdom — brought more historic flooding. VTDigger kept up its coverage, which included Emma Cotton’s vivid account of a Lyndonville woman being pulled down a flooded waterway. Our coverage of astronomical phenomena was a bit more lighthearted than that of meteorological events. In April, as millions of people gazed upward for a total solar eclipse, VTDigger reporters hit the crowded streets to cover the celestial, once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. Reporter Auditi Guha wrote about the awe experienced by Vermonters and the thousands who flocked to the state for prime viewing. Photographer Glenn Russell and others captured stunning images of the eclipse and the atmosphere surrounding it. And intern Juan Vega de Soto captured how the eclipse brought families together to share the moment. Our readers seemed especially interested in the latest cloud-cover forecasts, where to watch the eclipse and where the traffic was particularly bad after the sun was fully visible again.Housing and homelessness continued to captivate readers in 2024. They closely followed VTDigger and Vermont Public reporter Carly Berlin’s coverage of evictions caused by the winddown of the state’s motel housing program — and especially the impact on children and families. And readers were interested in reporter Patrick Crowley’s examination of Burlington’s pod program and Cotton’s remembrance of Tammy and Lucas Menard, who died in a tent on family land the day before Thanksgiving. Many of VTDigger’s investigations this year were among our most widely read stories, including Statehouse bureau chief Sarah Mearhoff’s piece documenting a reprimand Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman faced last year, reporter Corey McDonald’s coverage of allegations against Vermont Construction Company and even intern Catherine Hurley’s reporting on a county prosecutor’s vicious dog. Readers kept a close eye on stories about Vermont’s economy and businesses. They eagerly consumed reporter Kevin O’Connor’s coverage of major changes at Killington — as well as stories about layoffs at a federal immigration center in Essex and at Vermont Castings in Randolph and Bethel. An even more important metric than the number of people who read a story is how much time they spend absorbing it. We know we’ve delivered the goods when the “time-on-page” for a given story far exceeds the average. Among the pieces that most consistently kept VTDigger readers’ attention, according to this metric, were Mark Bushnell’s “Then Again” columns on Vermont history. His most closely read pieces this year included ones on a 1925 alleged kidnapping, the Battle of Bennington and an early hike of the Long Trail. Readers were clearly drawn to VTDigger’s long-form reporting, sticking around for Berlin’s exploration (for Vermont Public’s “Brave Little State”) of whether Vermont’s motel housing program was a “magnet” for out-of-staters experiencing homelessness; Mearhoff’s profile of a man seeking to change Vermont’s sexual assault laws; Cotton’s “Wild Divide” series about the battle over hunting and trapping; and reporter Ethan Weinstein’s coverage of a lack of access to special education. And a number of profiles and obituaries of influential Vermonters — including Sen. Dick Mazza, Renaissance man Bill Mares and former political operative Tim Hayward — had some of the greatest “time-on-page” of the year, as did Mearhoff’s election-season profile of Gov. Phil Scott and intern Habib Sabet’s exit interview with former Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger. What’ll attract your attention in 2025? Stick around to find out. Read the story on VTDigger here: What captured the attention of VTDigger readers in 2024.