''The Chester Telegraph'' is an online newspaper serving

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, Andover, Londonderry, Weston, Grafton, Windham and Cavendish in the U.S. state of

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

History

''The Chester Telegraph'' was launched in January 2012 by Cynthia Prairie, a veteran journalist with a background in editing and reporting in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Buffalo and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. The ''Telegraph'' grew out of an earlier grant-funded project to provide information about two major bridge closures in the town, funded by the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

. Working on that project, she says, made her realize that Chester, and many small towns in Vermont, were in "news deserts," and that she could help fill that gap. In 2018 it was one of 18 online-only news publishers to win "micro-grants" from the Local Independent Online News Publishers. It was one of the first online-only news outlets focused on a small town in Vermont.

Operations

As an online news source, ''The Telegraph'' publishes news as it becomes available rather than on a daily or weekly schedule. Every Wednesday morning, it sends out an email "news alert," a digest of all the news gathered since the previous news alert was sent. ''The Telegraph'' focuses on local government and accountability coverage as well as business and the economic health of these small Vermont towns. It also covers the Two Rivers Supervisory Union, which is made up of the Green Mountain Unified School District and the Ludlow-Mt. Holly Unified Union School District, and has provided extensive coverage of the formation of these districts under Vermont's Act 46 school consolidation law. ''Telegraph'' articles are indexed and archived by NewsBank, which makes the articles available to universities, libraries and government entities throughout the world. It is listed on the official website of the town of Chester.

References

External links

Official website

USNPL entry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chester Telegraph American news websites Newspapers published in Vermont Newspapers established in 2012 2012 establishments in Vermont Windsor County, Vermont