We’re sticking around: How to support Waterbury Roundabout

September 12, 2020  |  By Lisa Scagliotti 

A little over four months ago, we went live with a new website called Waterbury Roundabout with the goal of stepping up to provide local news coverage after the demise of our weekly newspaper. 

For 13 years the Waterbury Record provided Waterbury, Duxbury and the nearby area with critical information, interesting stories, and an ongoing account of life in our community. 

This new online effort came about with help from students in the University of Vermont’s Reporting and Documentary Storytelling program and with the guidance and volunteer contributions of professional journalists in the community. 

We’ve spent the summer building a rhythm of covering stories and sharing them with a growing circle of readers. More than 1,000 readers have subscribed to our student-produced weekly email newsletter and nearly as many have found us on social media. Our site shows a steady flow of readers regularly stopping by to catch up on the news. 

What began as a class project is catching on and we would like to see if we can make this sustainable. There are likely many steps ahead toward achieving that goal. 

We’re introducing the first step today as we join more than two dozen other newspapers across the region in a program sponsored by the New England Newspaper & Press Association. Its 501(c)(3) nonprofit scholarship fund has created the Local Community News Fund of New England. Its purpose is to provide a fundraising portal for newspapers -- those in print and/or online -- to receive tax-deductible donations. 

The fund has created portals for readers of participating newspapers to visit to contribute to their local newsgathering operation. 

We invite you to visit our page. The site allows for online contributions using credit cards, Venmo and PayPal. As an alternative, there is a form to download, print, and mail with a check to the Local Community News Fund. 

We appreciate the support of our readers as we continue to build the Waterbury Roundabout into a sustainable local news source. 

Lisa Scagliotti is editor of Waterbury Roundabout.