Dan Cotter
WOODSTOCK—The 165-year-old Vermont Standard, based in Woodstock and serving a 10-town area, has its first new publisher in 38 years, according to Phil Camp, Sr., owner and president, May 3.
Newspaper industry veteran Dan Cotter began his duties as the 11th publisher in the history of the paper on Monday, April 30.
Cotter has broad newspaper experience in New England and across the country. He spent nearly twenty years serving in a variety of leadership roles with the Pulitzer Publishing Company, including many years at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and a successful stint as publisher of Pulitzer’s Santa Maria Times. For a decade after that, he was chief operating officer of the highly-regarded newspaper research and consulting firm, Urban & Associates. There, he helped dozens of newspaper companies from throughout North America increase their audience reach and advertising market share with strategic improvements and innovation.
Later, he was executive director of the New England Newspaper & Press Association for five years, and most recently, director of sales development and training for GateHouse Media New England, which publishes more than 100 daily and weekly newspapers in the Boston area.
Mr. Camp, who will remain fully active in the leadership of the Standard, commented on Cotter’s arrival: “This appointment assures that the Standard will remain strong and committed to the needs of the communities we serve for years to come. We will continue to be locally-owned and focused exclusively on what the people and business community here want, need and deserve.”
“At the same time,” he continued, “we are adding the high level of expertise required to meet the challenges of the changing media landscape. With the benefit of Dan’s leadership, we are excited to grow our media company and expand the news and marketing services we offer.”
Camp credits long-time General Manager Jon Estey and the members of the Standard’s staff with the fact that the paper has been judged to be the top weekly in New England in four of the last six years. Estey will remain in his important role at the paper.
For more information on Cotter’s background, please see details on thevermontstandard.com.
