The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 52

High news standards pay off in Barton ir-' Xr f-r 'i- AJufiBly iiff irtii iiwii i hMBMMMMiMttLKiiiMHiMMn By BILL MARES an you apply the standards of good journalism to a rural weekly paper, find people to write to those standards, and finally get people to read the product?" Chris Braithwaite asked rhetorically. Braithwaite should know the answer, lie is publisher, editor, circulation manager, maintainence-man and general factotum of the Barton Chronicle, circulation 2,100. And the paper's office looks the part: an awesome roll-top desk gorged with papers, letters, files, and Ixioks, floor strewn with stacks of newspapers and second-hand furniture, walls crowded with make-up tables. But outside was no Main Street, U.S.A., rather the placid greens and browns of farmer Lmdon Young's fields, seven miles from the village of Barton. Braithwaite runs the paper out of his rambling yellow farmhouse and that Friday he was relaxing.

"Fridays are Ixjokkeeping days," said the stocky Braithwaite, dressed in flannel shirt, corduroys and work lxots. "It's the time to pay the bills, and catch up on the subscription list," he said. "This time of year marks the return of both the geese and the summer residents." Braithwaite founded the Chronicle three years ago with some financial and spiritual assistance from New York Times economics writer Edward Cowan. From an original 260 subscribers, the paper has grown to with 9X) street sales. Its original eight pages, with their sometimes higgledy-piggledy type-setting, have similarly grown from tabloid pages to between 16 and 20 tabloid pages, depending upon the advertising.

Cowan has since withdrawn his investment amicably, Braithwaite, 33, savs leaving Chris and his wife sole owners. The paper is printed offset bv the Newport Daily Express, and Braithwaite's last deadline is Thursday morning when he With his son on his knee, editor Chris Braithwaite sits at his overburdened old desk when you are not right on top of the market." And for a year, he worked on the Albany road crew. "All the while our interest in and affection for this community was growing," he said. At the same time, he and Cowan began discussing the options of buying or starting their own weekly paper. They traveled throughout New England looking at existing papers and searching for areas which lacked must have the camera-ready pages in Newport by 7:30 a.m.

On the front page of the May 12 issue were stories on the Barton Zoning Bvlaw, two new teachers at Lake Region Union High School, the theft of some antique guns, and a photo of horse-pulling in Albany. Inside there were several sports stories, an editorial opposing strip-development between Barton and Orleans, some articles on area school-lxwrd meetings, a profile of a new judge, and a weekly round-up of coming events. Conspicuous bv their absence were the staples of many traditional small weeklies, the local socials. Braithwaite admits that omitting such information was a calculated risk that succeeded. "I must sav that some of the first comments we got complimented us on 'that nice little Perhaps the socials were a fixed part of most people's conception of the traditional newspaper." Braithwaite is a Canadian who began his journalism career with a weekly paper in suburban Toronto, Ontario.

He took a degree in economics from Pomona College in California, where he met his wife, Ellen. A year with Newsweek in Los Angeles was followed by another vear and a half back in Toronto with the Globe and Mail as a business and financial reporter. In 1970 he and Ellen joined the landward movement and followed the lead of friends to southern Orleans County. Between raising organic carrots and hauling wood and hay, he tried free-lance writing, "perhaps the most difficult kind of writing their own papers. Finally, they decided they were living in an area that begged for a paper.

So, in March 1974, "on a wing and a prayer," they launched the Chronicle. The first months were chaotic. Continued on Pagt 20 Vermont has seen newspapers come and go 'n Tuesday, Mav 22, 1977, a Rutland Herald or Vermont Mercury, which was founded in Rutland in 1794 by Judge Samuel Williams and was the precursor of the present Rutland Herald, the state's second largest newspaper. The early papers in Vermont, similar to those in other parts of the country, were rather short on news, and, surprisingly, relatively barren nf local ifpin Thp niws Although the paper existed only two years, the year of its origin was especially significant that being the period when the Colonial Army was wrapping up its hostilities with the British redcoats. The Gazette, however, was able to carry accounts of Washington's final battles, albeit somewhat delayed, to the new citizens of Vermont.

An example: "PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 9 By a gentleman from New Y'ork, we learn that the 17th light dragoons and a detachment of infantry had marched from New York, and the environs, toward the east end of Long Island." Before this paper went out of business, a second publication appeared. The Vermont Gazette or Freeman's Depository, founded bv Anthony Haswell at Bennington on June 5. 1783. Publication ceased in 1853 but not lx'fore the paper changed names and ownership on several occasions. By most accounts, 15 newspapers were founded in Vermont between 1781 and 18(H), a period during which the state's population is believed to have increased from alxnit 81,000 to roughly 157,000.

Among those earliest publications was the fledgling newspaper, the Waterbury Times, published its last edition. The paper, owned by James Carter of Waterbury, was unable to turn a healthy profit during its three-month existence. From the very beginning, the weekly faced financial problems: The first edition had Ixtvn destroyed by fire in Carter's home in February. The Waterbury Times had the distinction of being Vermont's newest publication. It perhaps also ranked as one of the shorter-lived papers in the state's history.

Despite such distinctions, however, the fact it disappeared is not especially remarkable. Over the past two centuries literally hundreds of weeklies and dailies have come and gone in Vermont as a result of economics and the changing habits of the reading public. By most historical accounts, the state's first newspaper was the Vermont Gazette or Pag 14 8'cntnmal Friday, July 8, 1 977 was obtained by word-of-mouth, a mode that led to inaccuracies and sometimes month-long delays between the timing of world events and the dates of publication. The early papers often contained poetry and fiction, and little distinction was made letween the news and editorial opinions. If the quality and quantity of the news left something to be desired, so, too, were the papers lacking in terms of typography: The printing was poor, the sheets were small, and the paper was course.

That should not be too surprising, since the papers of that era were pressed by hand, in cumbersome fashion, at a slow rate of about 40 an hour. While many of the papers prior to Continued on Page 18 Green Mountain Post Boy, a quarter sheet, measuring 17 by 12 inches, that had its origins in 1781. The Gazette was published by two printers, Judah Paddock Spooner and Timothy Green. The plant was a brick courthouse in Westminster, a community on the Connecticut River, south of Windsor, where the seeds of statehood were sown during the state constitutional convention of July 2, 1777..