Herald and News Archive

In 1873, newspaper entrepreneur Lewis P. Thayer purchased the plant and the very small subscription list of the Green Mountain Herald, a new weekly paper published in the village of West Randolph in east-central Vermont. With the assistance of Edward D. Upham as editor, Thayer expanded circulation to the White River Valley region, adding editions for the towns of Chelsea and Bethel. In April 1877, a fire destroyed everything except the paper's account books, but Thayer recovered quickly. By the end of the month, Thayer had consolidated the Chelsea Post, the Vermont News (Bethel, Vermont), and the Herald under a new title, the Herald and News. In 1879, he sold an interest in the paper to Upham, who ran the Herald and News until 1881, when Thayer repurchased his partner's share. Luther B. Johnson bought the Herald and News and its associated weeklies from Thayer in 1894. He continued its regional focus, and added two more editions, one for Rochester and another for South Royalton.

Under Thayer's direction, the Herald and News was especially strong in local coverage. Correspondents provided news about people, events, and activities in communities large and small throughout the region. An 1889 issue, for example, included reports from over thirty communities. Local editor Georgia White contributed lengthy reports about Randolph events and residents under both Thayer and Johnson. For a time, Thayer offered the Herald and News in two editions, at two prices. The less expensive four-page edition contained only local news, while the eight-page edition was "the regular paper," with full coverage. Johnson continued the paper's focus on community news, increasing the number of local correspondents. Johnson also provided Herald and News readers with extensive state and national news for five decades.

Under pressure from postal regulations, in 1943 Johnson consolidated all of his papers, including the Herald and News, the Bethel Courier, the Rochester Herald, the White River Herald, and the Chelsea Herald, into a single publication: the White River Valley Herald. From 1945 until 2015, the Herald was published by John Drysdale and then his son, M. Dickey Drysdale. As the Herald of Randolph, the weekly paper continues to connect communities in Vermont's White River Valley.