By Guy Page

1.8 million times in 2024, our readers decided what’s news. Below are the 12 best-read stories of the Vermont Daily Chronicle in 2024. 

Sometimes we at VDC are baffled by what’s hot and what’s not. Number #4 in the top 12 was Here she is! Miss Vermont crowned April 14. We didn’t see that coming. But congrats anyway to Meara Seerey, 24 of Brattleboro. 

But usually we have a pretty fair idea that a story will be what r cops & courts reporter extraordinaire Mike Donoghue calls a “talker.” On such days, I’ll get a 10 AM call and the gruff voice on the other end will say, “Hey boss [a polite honorific], I got a real talker for you.”

Such was indeed the case with #2, “Toddler left in car died of overheating.” The child died after her pediatrician mom went into work at a Milton clinic, leaving the child behind. In fact people are still talking about this story. At a holiday party yesterday a cousin-in-law wanted to know whether any legal action has been taken. I don’t know, but we’ll look into it. 

The two biggest ‘talkers’ were both about heroism in the midst of tragedy.

No. 1, by far, was Paul Bean’s post on August 15: Mennonite women removed 45 tons of muck ‘with joy and singing.’ Like the Miss Vermont ‘good news’ story, this one went viral nationally as well as statewide. 

No. 3 – another Mike Donoghue talker – was curiously non-covered by much of Vermont’s news media. What was more interesting in mid-January than the video of “State trooper dives into icy pond, saves 8-year-old girl”?

No. 5 – yet again, covered dismissively or not at all by most statewide news media – September 18, “State police investigating social media claims about VT pedophile MAP gathering this weekend.” It’s almost as if news about a gathering of people desiring sex with children was treated as ‘nothing to see here, move on.’ Except, perhaps, with an admonition to avoid hate and fear. 

No. 6 – BIG Talker from Mike Donoghue on June 11: Free meal train set up for Burlington mayor’s family. Given the opportunity to kindly thank her supporters for delivering free meals to her, her very well-paid spouse, and their child, Burlington’s new mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak just doubled down on the stress and strain and importance of her new job, leaving many with a bad aftertaste. 

No. 7 – “Woman found beaten to death in Burlington.” Another, infinitely sadder MD talker, published on August 9, besting all news about the upcoming primary election. 

No. 8 – With all of the depressing crime victim news, it was a pleasure for many to read and click on this headline: Vermonter shoots home invader with muzzle-loader, scares off accomplices.

No. 9 – Energy policy also ranked high this year, and none higher than  this April 2 bit of newsy advice: ‘Want a gas-powered car when ‘banned’ in Vermont? Go to NH.”

No. 10 seemed to speak to concern about our free-spending legislature, especially in the expanding arena of education and school meals: “State to issue summer EBT cards to supplement school meals.”

No. 11 – Burlington and its elected officials are always a popular source of reader indignation and frustration, hence another MDT (Mike Donoghue ‘talker’): “Burlington School Board member busted for fentanyl trafficking.”

Readers’ concern that the State of Vermont’s focus on carbon emission reduction was both expensive and inefficient was reflected #12: “New electric school buses lose up to 80% range in winter.”

The most-commented on story? We don’t rightly know. WordPress won’t tell us. We do know that 76,200 comments in 2024 have been made through 11:44 PM today. Thank you to all of our readers and commenters for choosing VDC in 2024.