Published in The Day
By Karen Florin
Managing Editor
k.florin@theday.com
We’re excited to introduce Theresa Sullivan Barger, a former Hartford Courant reporter and editor and longtime freelance writer for major publications like the New York Times, Connecticut Magazine and Discover Magazine.
Barger has signed on to report on critical environmental and energy topics for our Imminent Horizons project.
On Sunday, you’ll see her first story, on local efforts to support life-giving pollinators by eradicating invasive plants and replacing them with natives. She and photographer Sarah Gordon went into the field with East Lyme’s Pollinator Pathway group to report the story.
Barger lives in Canton, but said she is excited to spend time in southeastern Connecticut and meet local residents while reporting on the evolving climate and energy issues along the shoreline.
“I grew up in a coastal area of Massachusetts, and your love of the water never leaves you,” she said. “That’s why I’m excited to be covering the environment for The Day.”
She’s a master gardener in addition to being a highly accomplished journalist, so this first story was a labor of love.
The Imminent Horizons project is part of our second philanthropic and reader-funded initiative to delve deeper into important topics to supplement the daily and weekend stories produced by our hard-working staff.
Our first project, the Housing Solutions Lab, explored a wide range of topics, from homelessness and evictions to housing policy and mold and lead-riddled housing. We won a coveted Publick Occurrences Award for the series from the New England Newspaper & Press Association in November 2023.
This past week, we learned that the Solutions Journalism Network, a group we spoke with as we started our reporting, featured the story on its journalism impact page.
We’re happy to announce we have received a $30,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut to fund the project.
News Desert Fund
In the coming weeks, we will be stepping up our fundraising for the second part of our new project, called the News Desert Fund.
A news desert is a term that has evolved as local news outlets cut back their coverage of local communities due to financial constraints. Communities become news deserts when local reporters aren’t there to hold government officials accountable, bring the community together over common interests and provide access to timely and accurate information.
For several years, we’ve been unable to cover Ledyard and North Stonington as thoroughly as those communities deserve. This became particularly noticeable to our audience during the local election cycle in 2023.
We’re in another crucial election season ― all of our state representatives and senate seats are up for grabs ― and we need the communities we serve to help fund additional staffing that enables us to provide the kind of coverage our readers expect in every town in the region.
We’re grateful to our subscribers for recognizing the value of local news and supporting our work.
We need additional help, and if you can support us, please make a donation of any size at https://givebutter.com/theday.
This is the opinion of Karen Florin, managing editor. Reach her at k.florin@theday.com or (860) 701-4217.
