You could become the owner of a Vermont newspaper by winning an essay contest
Interested in owning a “cornerstone of the fourth estate?”
The Hardwick Gazette, a Vermont weekly newspaper, could be yours— if your essay explaining why you deserve to run the paper is declared winner of the publication’s contest.
Ross Connelly, 70, has been the editor of the 127-year-old Gazette since he and his wife, Susan Jarzyna, bought the paper in 1986.
Now Connelly, ready for retirement, wants to assure the paper will have a new owner who cares for it as much as he does.
“We want to hear from people who can hold up a mirror in which local citizens can see themselves and gain insights into the lives within their communities,” Connelly wrote on the newspaper’s site. “We want to hear from people with a passion for local stories that are important, even in the absence of scandal and sensationalism. We want to hear from people who recognize social media is not the same as a local newspaper.”
Those interested in a chance to own the newspaper will need to craft and submit a 400-word essay from June 11 through August 11. Contestants will also need to shell out $175 for the contest’s entry fee.
The essay should detail their “vision for owning a paid weekly newspaper in the new millennium,” according to the contest’s rules. A panel of seven to nine judges will then sift through 700-1,889 essays (the minimum number of required entries to the cut off, which is also the year the newspaper was first published) to determine the Gazette’s new owner.
This isn’t the first time local businesses have been offered to the public in exchange for creativity, plus an entry fee.
Two Maine bed and breakfasts, the The Almost Home Inn and the Freedom House Bed and Breakfast, are also holding essay contests, with the winners gaining ownership of their businesses.
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