Vermont News & Media launches digital foreign bureau | Business

This month, the Reformer and Vermont News & Media are undertaking a partnership with overseas journalists to better tell the stories of Vermont’s newest neighbors, residents with ties to the Near, Middle and Far East.

Vermont is proving to be a landing spot for newcomers. Many emigrants have made Vermont their home as an act of choice; others, such as refugees from Afghanistan, relocated here because of strife in their home country, where war has been waged for decades. Bennington and Windham counties have recently welcomed dozens of Afghan refugees in our communities. Meanwhile, the US is also clearing a path for Ukrainian refugees to come here too for safety and new life.

Vermont News & Media’s expansion last month of its Ukraine content received a sizable increase in readership — upward of 37,000 new visitors from more than 200 countries and territories stopped by at reformer.com — showing Vermont News & Media and the Reformer that readers are interested in pressing and meaningful world content.

To meet the demand for world news, Vermont News & Media will be launching a digital foreign bureau with correspondents in Qatar, Oman and New Delhi, India, as a way to enhance our global news coverage in a unique way. This reporting is held to the same standards as our stateside coverage and will demonstrate how it really is “a small world after all.”

One of the correspondents is Gautam Viswanathan, who moved to Oman from India when he was 3 months old … not by himself, he assures. The country has been his second home ever since. He tells Vermont News & Media that he enjoys finding the human interest angle in stories, as he believes “such sentiments bring people together.”

He tells us that he is looking forward to writing for an American audience. See his first story for VNM on Ramadan recipes and tradition, as he chats with chef Dina Macki of the United Kingdom and even previews opening ticket sales the World Cup, in case any of our readers fancy some pitchside seats.

He writes for the Times of Oman, where you can find his earlier reporting. Soon, he’ll touch base with Brattleboro chef Nash Patel and “his mum,” for a chat about how flavors of Hyderabad, his original hometown, have mingled with his plates here.

Another correspondent is Hritam Mukherjee, a young journalist, studying at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, in New Delhi.

He has working experience with print, broadcast and new media in political and entertainment beats. Mukherjee also has prior experience in copywriting, podcasting and public relations management. He’ll have upcoming stories soon on former out-of-staters who now call Vermont home, some of whom might be awfully familiar.

A third is Armstrong Augusto Vaz, an Indian-born reporter living in Qatar. Fluent in several languages, he brings international writing experience to the table and has published widely.

More correspondents are expected to help out, showing through their stories how Vermont reaches the far corners of the world and how the world touches down here, too. Imagine cricket, international commerce and educational exchanges.

This is global content you won’t get anywhere else, and it’s something VNM plans to expand upon in the future. Best of all, these articles and photos will be free and available on our newest page at reformer.com/global.

“Vermont News & Media newspapers already are the conduit between the world of information and Southern Vermont. We’re making sure that conduit is wide open and welcoming for our newest residents,” Jordan Brechenser, publisher of Vermont News & Media, said. “This addition is another way to add to our ongoing effort to provide our readers with coverage you can’t get elsewhere.”

Assistance in gathering English-speaking journalists candidates came from Sarthi Bharara in New Delhi, employed by Paul Belogour as an associate director at Australian Mutual Funds Exchange.

Further, said Noah Hoffenberg, executive editor for VNM, highlighting Vermont residents who were born elsewhere in the world will help reduce discrimination and stigma, much of which is heaped upon people from Asia, the Middle and the Near East, especially since the pandemic began and 20 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Most of us are relative newcomers to this old land we call the United States. By telling the stories of our newest arrivals to Vermont, we can dispel misconceptions about them, while sharing news about the ripple effects their presence here will have on culture and commerce, education and the arts,” Hoffenberg said.

Sources for the stories will come from all corners of the globe, including Vermont, to the benefit of readers, no matter their location, Hoffenberg said. The rates paid for the work are unified between the states and overseas, he added.

“This is about spreading the word about what a wonderful place Vermont is to visit, vacation, do business or even settle down,” said Paul Belogour, founder of Vermont News & Media. “By building global connections with places like India, China and the Middle East, we can put the Green Mountain State on the global map.”

Did you travel from across the world to live or do business in Vermont? Tell us about it at [email protected]. Visit reformer.com/global to see how Southern Vermont cross-pollinates with the world. We’ll start with a couple stories per week, and see where the effort takes us.