Organization: VTDigger

Location: Montpelier, VT

Website: https://www.vtdigger.org

Grant amount: $50,000

Project description: VTDigger will launch self-serve portals for user-generated content like press releases, classifieds and birth, wedding and engagement announcements.

Why we’re supporting this project: Classifieds were a critical component of the newspaper business model, and they have disappeared as competitors such as Craigslist took over the market. We want to see if there’s a way that news organizations can provide valuable services to readers in a new way that also generate revenue.