Assessing Community Info Ecosystem and Needs in Southern Vermont

A group led by the town’s only local radio station will hold a meeting in Bennington, Vermont on Thursday, January 28, to assess the community’s information ecosystem and discuss its news and information needs. Representatives of Shires Media Partnership, a 501(c)3 nonprofit that owns and operates WBTN-AM from its base at Southern Vermont College, and members of its board will lead the community information assessment at the Bennington, Vermont town library on Thursday, January 28, from 5:00-7:00 p.m.

Bill Densmore, a member of the Shires Media board and a former newspaper publisher in the region, cited the organization’s need to broaden its thinking beyond what it is doing in AM radio and move beyond thinking of itself as only a radio station. Densmore noted that part of the challenge in the working class community of 15,000 will be “to see what can be done in this environment.”

In addition to its AM radio operation, WBTN has a website and a relationship with the local PEG access television station. The local newspaper, Bennington Banner, is owned by Denver-based Media News Group.

Organizers have requested copies of the Knight Commission report, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, to distribute locally and to help guide the discussions.