The Boston Globe looks at both no-longer-alt newspapers, both of which I have read semi-regularly in the past for Bernie and Jane Sanders news.
But, are they always as "investigative" as can be?
Take this:
"Orton" would be Lyman Orton, owner of Cabot Creamery, who gave VT Digger founder Jane Galloway $7K in start-up money long ago, then with his partner, provided $1 million in a "growth fund" and asked other companies to join in.
If Cabot pollutes Vermont groundwater with runoff from a cheese plant, does it get investigated? Especially since Cabot gets "Sponsor Spotlight" puff pieces? And, when something mildly critical is published, it gets full rebuttal space. Betcha Bernie Sanders, b´ete noire of both VT Digger and Seven Days, wishes for similar.
I included Seven Days at the top (while eventually deleting it from the header) just because the Globe story is about both. But, it follows a "traditional" alt-weekly ads-based model, along with donations, but not the Digger/Texas Trib model. And, contra Seven Days' claim:
VTDigger and The Texas Tribune are similar, but not the same.
“My understanding is we’re the only online nonprofit that publishes breaking news, policy reporting, and investigative work,” says Galloway. “I believe all three are important for a statewide organization to gain the readership necessary to sustain operations financially.”
While the Trib may not do much in investigative journalism by itself, it does partner with Pro Publica on it. Policy reporting? Probably not much, though Evan Smith gets into that at his roundtables.
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