Local media follow Vermont Cynic on UVM prez reveal

With UVM set to introduce its new president on Wednesday, the staff of The Vermont Cynic had been chasing every lead it could to discover who was about to be handed the keys to the presidential mansion.

This photo by Alexa Algios of The Vermont Cynic appeared in the coverage of both The Burlington Free Press and local television station WCAX.

A break came when Cynic Editor-in-Chief Brent Summers tracked down E. Thomas Sullivan, former University of Minnesota provost, touring that very mansion late Tuesday afternoon.

The Cynic quickly reported the findings on the newspaper’s website and tweeted details and photos from the scene. Local media, which monitor the Cynic’s Twitter feed, dispatched reporters to the mansion, known as Englesby House, at College and Williams streets, where Summers and Cynic staffers were still gathered.

The result was a wonderful little breaking-news coup for the Cynic. Both Vermont Public Radio and The Burlington Free Press gave credit to The Cynic in their late-Tuesday and early Wednesday reports.

The Free Press, which led its front page with a photo from Cynic photographer Alexa Algios, devoted several paragraphs to the Cynic’s work. The VPR story focused so much on the Cynic angle that College Media Matters, a national college media blog, linked to VPR when discussing the Cynic’s scoop.

Television station WCAX also reported the news, though without directly crediting The Cynic. The station went instead with the more oblique passive voice in its attribution: “Channel 3 news has confirmed . . .

However, the WCAX report included Algios’s photos and an interview with Cynic News Editor Becky Hayes.

Click here to watch the video.

News Editor Becky Hayes speaks to WCAX about the Cynic's story