Vermont Public has hired two local media leaders, April McCullum and Michael Dougherty, to expand service on digital platforms and reach a broader and more diverse audience. McCullum will join the newsroom as digital editor, and Dougherty will take on the role of director of digital strategy.
“To reach new audiences, we need to speak to them on the platforms where they are,” said Scott Finn, president and CEO of Vermont Public. “These new positions will allow Vermont Public to provide more fact-based journalism and in-depth stories on digital platforms in addition to radio and TV.”
McCullum brings extensive reporting and editing knowledge to the team from nine years at the Burlington Free Press, where she served as digital innovation editor. During her tenure at the paper, she covered city and state government and politics, including Senator Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns.
Dougherty was most recently a senior editor at VTDigger, leading the politics team. Previously, he spent two years as a program coordinator for the Vermont Humanities Council. Before moving to Vermont in 2015, he managed recording operations for the oral history nonprofit StoryCorps for seven years, assisted Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas and contributed to the Brooklyn-based alt-weekly L Magazine.