Michele's List
Building blocks in the emerging local news ecosystem

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Statistics
Unique monthly visitors

34,000
Average page views

47,000
E-newsletter

  • Yes, a single newsletter
E-newsletter subscribers

900
Facebook likes

4,408
Facebook followers

4,468
Twitter followers

0
Instagram followers

0
You Tube

0
Revenue

  • $51,000 -$100,000
Primary revenue source(s)

  • Local advertising (including web and e-newsletter ads)
Ad products

  • Traditional Web display advertising sold directly by your organization
  • Video advertising
  • Other(s)
Other products

Calendar
Paywall

  • No
Distribution

  • Direct to web/mobile
Total personnel/contributor FTE

2.25
Date of most recent publisher update

05/23/2019
Last Publisher Update

  • 2019-05-30 20:42:45 UTC
The Chester Telegraph
Vermont
The Chester Telegraph

The Chester Telegraph is the source for local news for Chester, Andover, Cavendish, Londonderry, Grafton, Weston and surrounding communities in Vermont. Revenue: Advertising.

Who is in charge?

Cynthia L. Prairie

Job title

Editor

City

Chester

State

Vermont

Zip code

05143

Year launched

2012

Tax status

  • LLC

Geographic scope

  • Other

Other geographic focus

Multi-town/regional

Population of coverage area

9,000

Scope of coverage

  • General news or a number of topics that are not necessarily closely related to each other

Primary focus

  • Current news and events

Topics of coverage

  • Business in coverage area
  • Crime & justice
  • Education & schools
  • Government
  • Planning & development

Other content topics

Breaking local news, government transparency

Watchdog journalism?

  • Yes, occasional

Facebook link

https://www.facebook.com/ChesterTelegraph

Effective engagement practice

On a personal level, since we live in small communities, many of our readers already know us, so it isn't unusual for us to be approached in public. We also vend at a farmers market and several festivals in the area. (People come for our fresh-squeezed, made to order lemonade, and stay to chat about happenings around their communities.)

We also have large company magnets on both our cars, which attract enough attention that people will stop us to chat.

We also are members of our communities' FB pages and have permission to post to them pertinent articles.

We also donate to a lot of local organizations: The Rotary scholarship fund, the Family Center that provides food and heating help to local families in need, local volunteer fire departments and rescue squads, beautification committees. alumni assocation. It tells people we are part of these communities and that we care about them. This year, we are sponsoring a car at the Alumni Day Parade for the high school. It will have brand new magnets on it.

It's all very low tech. But our pageviews continue to climb every year. And the good feedback we get is pretty constant.

Revenue challenges

Time and energy. It's difficult to sell ads when you are doing everything else including news, ad design, billing, etc. etc.

In the news

Chester Telegraph claims TRSU board violated state Open Meeting Law
http://www.chestertelegraph.org/2019/05/08/chester-telegraph-claims-trsu-board-violated-state-open-meeting-law/

TRSU board to answer open meeting claim in special session
http://www.chestertelegraph.org/2019/05/15/trsu-board-to-answer-open-meeting-accusation-in-special-session/

TRSU chair Orzechowski: ‘We violated open meeting law’
http://www.chestertelegraph.org/2019/05/22/trsu-board-chair-orzechowski-we-violated-open-meeting-law/

TRSU Board admits Open Meeting Law violation, training scheduled
https://vermontjournal.com/featured-articles/trsu-board-admits-open-meeting-law-violation-training-scheduled/