News for Chester

There’s a new local news site up for Chester VT. It’s run by a local writer/businesswoman, Cynthia Prairie. I had the chance to have a terrific talk with her about her new venture a couple of months ago, and I think she’s going to be a big success with it. I wish her all the success in the world with her new venture.

I really think the future of local news for smaller communities is with this sort of hometown news site, either run by entrepreneur/journalists like Cynthia or by community groups. A few years ago, a group of Poultney residents got together to set up a restaurant business in the old train station, then went out and found a chef to take it over from them. That’s an intriguing business model if you’re from a town like Springfield, which is on the periphery of coverage for a few newspapers but doesn’t have one of its own looking out first and foremost for Springfield. And I know Bob Flint of the Springfield Regional Development Corp. is also a friend of Cynthia’s (he was the one who suggested we talk in the first place). If SRDC could backstop an independent news site, then link it with The Chester Telegraph, iBrattleboro.com, VtDigger for statewide news … that starts to look like a functioning local media outlet for an underserved corner of the state. Worth watching at any rate …