After five years at the helm of Vermont PBS, president and CEO Holly Groschner is planning to retire at the end of June, the station announced Friday. She will be replaced on an interim basis by chief operating officer Steve Ferreira until the nonprofit's board of directors completes a search for her successor.

"I have to say it's been very rewarding to bring so many people into the station, but as rewarding has been reconnecting Vermont PBS with Vermonters," Groschner said Friday afternoon. "We're really here to serve the state, and I think that connection has been reestablished."

A 63-year-old attorney from Corinth, Groschner previously served as general counsel for the Vermont Telecommunications Authority and was a partner with Downs Rachlin Martin. She took over Vermont PBS in a time of turmoil, following the ouster of longtime president and CEO John King.

Groschner has overseen a number of major changes at the station, including the sale of a broadcast license that netted $56 million at auction and the organization's relocation from Colchester's Fort Ethan Allen to downtown Winooski.

Three weeks after reporters at VTDigger.org went public with a union drive, the nonprofit behind the online news site has agreed to recognize the newly formed VTDigger Guild.

In a statement posted to VTDigger.org late Tuesday, founder and editor Anne Galloway announced that the Vermont Journalism Trust had recognized the guild and was "prepared to engage in negotiations that will strengthen the mission of VTDigger."

Education reporter Lola Duffort, a member of the union's organizing committee, hailed the decision by management. "This is great news, and I'm really proud to work at Digger," she said in an interview. "We are trying to create a model for sustainable nonprofit news, and our employers showed they believe that's absolutely compatible with creating a good workplace for employees."

According to Duffort, lawyers for the nonprofit and the union reached an agreement this week over the bargaining unit's membership. Two non-supervisory editors were deemed eligible and one fellow was deemed ineligible. In total, eighteen newsroom employees will now be represented by the Guild, which is affiliated with the NewsGuild and its parent organization, the Communications Workers of America. The group includes reporters, photographers, interns and staff columnists.

When the Vermont Journalism Trust agreed to voluntarily recognize the union through the card check process, the Guild withdrew its petition for an election with the National Labor Relations Board, according to both sides.

"It was not contentious," Duffort said of the negotiations. "It was very respectful the entire time."

Reached by phone Wednesday, Galloway said her written statement "pretty well speaks for itself." She added, "We're eager to get to work on further cementing VTDigger's position as Vermont's leading news site and as a place where employees can thrive and do their best work."

When Seven Days attempted to ask follow-up questions, Galloway called it "a personnel matter" and hung up the phone.

The union has yet to begin negotiating a contract with management, but Duffort said Guild members were "eager" to do so. They had previously expressed a desire for better and more consistent pay, benefits and time off. According to Duffort, she and her colleagues recognize that the news outlet faces financial stress brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. In March, VTDigger laid off three full- and part-time employees.

"A lot of what we asked for will be conditioned on what the financial picture of Digger looks like and what we can or can't count on," Duffort said. "There's a lot of uncertainty in this context."

Journalists at VTDigger.org, the statewide nonprofit news outlet, have agreed to establish a newsroom labor union. They informed editor Anne Galloway and members of the organization's board of directors Monday morning of their decision and asked for voluntary recognition.

According to education reporter Lola Duffort, a member of the union's organizing committee, 15 of VTDigger's 17 editorial staffers have signed a petition seeking recognition. The bargaining unit, called the VTDigger Guild, represents full- and part-time reporters, photographers, interns and fellows, as well as staff columnists.

Galloway, who founded VTDigger in 2009 and also serves as executive director of its parent organization, the Vermont Journalism Trust, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Duffort said her colleagues have been organizing since last fall and had intended to announce their decision last month but held off so that they could focus on covering the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on Vermont.

"We're doing this because we think it will strengthen VTDigger," she said. "This organization will be better positioned to weather this crisis and and to begin growing once again afterward if the newsroom has a seat at the table."

Conservative Vermont website True North Reports published a video with some shocking claims Monday night under the headline “Citizen journalists visit coronavirus hospitals, find no ill patients or crowds awaiting testing.”

True North bills itself as “The other side of Vermont’s News,” and this was certainly another side. The 13-minute video features a voiceover by a YouTube conspiracy theorist who calls herself Dana Ashlie. She cheerfully announces at the top of the video, while strolling outdoors and smacking a ball into a baseball mitt, that citizens have scurried around to investigate the mainstream media's hoopla about people lining up for coronavirus tests and treatment.

Well, game on. Cue the scenes that question media accounts.

“People, look at the testing centers,” an unidentified woman says as her camera spans a makeshift building somewhere with no people and little more than a few empty chairs. “This is where they’re telling you the testing is going on in. Where’s the testing?” Her voice becomes urgent. “They’re empty. They’re abandoned, people. There is no testing going on.”

As Seven Days grapples with a steep drop in advertising revenue caused by the coronavirus outbreak, readers are stepping up to support the Burlington-based newspaper.

According to publisher and cofounder Paula Routly, more than 1,100 people have signed up as one-time or recurring donors. "We've been floored by the response," she said. "The donations that have poured in over the past few weeks have helped us to keep going — figuratively and literally."

In March 2018, Seven Days soft-launched its Super Readers program, which allows supporters to donate to the locally owned newspaper. In the program's first two years, roughly 250 people signed up to contribute. That number doubled in the early weeks of the outbreak. And in the week since Seven Days announced that it had laid off seven employees, another 600 enlisted as Super Readers.

Contributors have included Vermont journalists, such as Jane Lindholm, host of Vermont Public Radio's "Vermont Edition"; Jeff Potter, editor of Windham County's The Commons; and Lola Duffort, education reporter for VTDigger.org. A number of Seven Days alumni have also signed up, including former political columnist Shay Totten, former staff writer Katie Flagg and former digital media manager Tyler Machado.

Two more Vermont news outlets are facing budget cuts as the coronavirus outbreak continues to decimate the local journalism industry.

VTDigger.org — a statewide nonprofit news organization — laid off three employees on Monday, according to founder and editor Anne Galloway. Meanwhile, Gannett, the Virginia-based owner of the Burlington Free Press, announced that most reporters and editors at the chain's newspapers would be furloughed for one week per month through June.

The layoffs at VTDigger are the first in its 10-year history. They include one part-time newsroom employee, as well as one full-time and one part-time member of the organization's business staff. VTDigger has also frozen three new business positions that have yet to be filled. Prior to the layoffs, the nonprofit had 29 employees.

"Like all businesses in Vermont, we were caught by surprise — and the very necessary social distancing and stay-home initiatives that the government has taken have had an immediate impact on our business," Galloway told Seven Days. "It's painful, but we have to recognize reality, and we think that we can move through this stronger than we were before."