Have you ever considered writing for VTDigger’s opinion section? Can you think of anyone who should? Are you frustrated that you haven’t seen a certain point of view articulated or a certain subject tackled in our opinion pages?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, we want to hear from you.
As VTDigger seeks to continue improving its opinion section, we’re hoping to identify new voices willing to share their views on issues facing Vermont. Here’s how you can help: Fill out this form to share your suggestions of topics to cover or writers to recruit. And if you’re interested in picking up a pen yourself, check out our submission guidelines and send your work to opinion@vtdigger.org.
Why are we making this ask now? Put simply, our research has confirmed what we already suspected: We’re hearing from — and publishing — those representing a narrow slice of Vermont. We want to make space for opinions from people of a variety of demographic, ideological and experiential backgrounds. In short, we want our pages to represent the breadth of Vermont.
This effort builds on the work we’ve been doing over the past year to revamp our opinion section, with a goal of making it more structured, diverse, engaging and factual. Some of the changes have been small, like using imagery to make clear what is an opinion piece and what is not. Others have been more systemic, like scaling back on our publishing quantity to allow for more thorough fact-checking.
Here are some of the bigger changes we’ve made:
We are concentrating on pieces that deal specifically with Vermont issues, or look at broader topics through a Vermont lens. That’s the focus of VTDigger’s news coverage, and we think it makes sense for it to be the focus of our opinion section, as well.
We’ve built new fact-checking systems for our opinion pieces. Though our writers will and should come to different conclusions, we must ensure that their arguments are based on a foundation of factual information. We’re now asking our writers to link to their source material so that we — and, more importantly, our readers — can understand and verify it. If a piece includes statistics, quotes or provable claims, we’re seeking to ensure that those are accurate.
We are running fewer pieces. This is partly due to the enhanced fact-checking process and a more intensive editing process. But we’re also trying to take a more active role in selecting which pieces to feature. We’re not running everything that meets our guidelines. We’re instead trying to feature a range of pieces that are interesting, well-written, challenging, surprising and reflect a variety of viewpoints.
We’re trying to understand who we’re hearing from — and whose voices are missing. From time to time, we’re surveying our opinion writers with a series of demographic questions. The data we collect helps inform our efforts to broaden our pool of writers.
We’re limiting the frequency of submissions and reducing the number of opinion categories. VTDigger has historically run letters-to-the-editor, commentaries and columns. While most opinion writers were limited to one published piece a month, a select group of columnists were published as often as every other week. We’re now phasing out the columnist category and holding everybody to the same standard of a maximum of one piece a month. We hope this will lead to a greater variety of views.
We’ve simplified the submission process. If you have an opinion piece to submit, no matter the length or format, you should send it to opinion@vtdigger.org.
We know there’s much more we can do to improve our opinion section, and we hope you’ll share your thoughts on what we should prioritize. Drop us a line here or below — and keep reading and writing.
