By Guy Page
In late June, I promised to announce a Big Change at the Vermont Daily Chronicle. Here it is:
The Vermont Daily Chronicle has its first ever full-time, permanent news reporter: veteran Vermont news professional Michael Bielawski.
Michael graduated from Seton Hall University in 2005 after studying journalism and a minor in psychology. He wrote articles in New York City and Seoul, South Korea for several years before moving back to his home in Troy NY and then Vermont in 2014 to write for the Hardwick Gazette. He also wrote for Vermont Watchdog, True North Reports, and others. He’s writing a psychology-theme book about Zelda Fitzgerald. He has three young boys and a Korean wife. He loves landscaping his rural property and driving the backroads listening to Siouxsie and the Banshees and other music.
While the whole state will be his beat, his focus will be Burlington. That’s because Burlington is (for better sometimes but often worse) a pace-setter. Vermont tomorrow could look like Burlington today – like it or not.
Bielawski has already offered unstinting looks at the desperate measures Queen City businesses are taking to fight the seemingly unstoppable retail theft crime wave. This week, he will examine how the media covered – or didn’t cover – a former Burlington city counselor seizing a microphone from a citizen only 90 seconds into his allotted two-minute comment at a recent City Council meeting. At a meeting where a report critical of Burlington Juneteenth celebration spending decisions was discussed, The speaker had been calling out hypocrisy in Burlington’s DEI movement.
Also, my oldest son, Tim Page of Barre, is working out splendidly as the assistant editor. He’s a graphics whiz and a willing hand at the ‘grunt work’ of news formatting. I’m blessed! During my recent stint in the hospital, he was a godsend for continuity of publication.
Growth is a wonderful thing. But it isn’t free. Labor and online costs are both up. We welcome your support. Please send a check [$108 annually to become a Contributing Subscriber] to Vermont Daily Chronicle, P.O. Box 1547, Montpelier, VT 05601 or go to www.vermontdailychronicle.com and click on the ‘Contribute to Vermont Daily Chronicle’ tab below the masthead to contribute via PayPal. Thank you!
Free Speech Forever,
Guy Page, Publisher