Veteran journalist Dave Gram to pen Fair Game column for Seven Days

Vermont Business Magazine Burlington-based newsweekly Seven Days is restarting its Fair Game column. Longtime Vermont journalist Dave Gram will author the weekly take on Vermont politics, sharing his observations about the maneuvering in Montpelier and life in the Green Mountain State. His inaugural column will appear on January 13, 2021.

Gram was an award-winning reporter for the Associated Press for more than three decades. More recently, he hosted “The Dave Gram Show” on WDEV radio, examining a variety of topics on the air for 10 hours each week.

To write Fair Game, Gram will turn his experienced eye to the state’s political scene but will also hunt for material beyond the State House, tackling both local and statewide issues. His work will supplement reporting by the paper’s existing news team.

“Here’s hoping I’ll be able to pull back a few layers of the proverbial onion as we grapple with the politics and economics of emerging from the pandemic and the Trump era,” Gram said. “I’m excited, grateful and humbled at the opportunity to join the team.”

When Seven Days started in 1995, its news coverage was contained in Peter Freyne’s weekly Inside Track column. A must-read for more than a decade, Freyne’s take on Vermont politics was colorful, irreverent and unique. When Freyne retired in 2008, the column was renamed Fair Game, and Shay Totten, Paul Heintz and John Walters each took it for a spin. It was temporarily discontinued in October 2019.

“The truth is, readers miss Fair Game, and so do we,” said publisher and coeditor Paula Routly. “A journalist with institutional memory can do and say things in a column that aren’t possible in a traditional news story. Nobody is providing that kind of insight right now in Vermont.”

“We’re thrilled to add Dave’s commentary to our coverage in 2021,” said news editor Matthew Roy. “He’s a thoughtful journalist whose voice will be an asset to Seven Days, particularly during this challenging and unusual time.”

About Seven Days
Seven Days, Vermont’s free, independent newsweekly, was founded by Pamela Polston and Paula Routly in 1995, and is now owned by Routly and 16 other employees. The Burlington-based company also produces the Stuck in Vermont video series. Seven Days has been named Business of the Year by both the Lake Champlain Chamber and the Burlington Business Association. In 2020, Seven Days was named a New England Newspaper of the Year by the New England Newspaper & Press Association.