The Brattleboro Reformer is the third-largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Vermont. With a weekday circulation of just over 10,000, it is behind the Burlington Free Press and the Rutland Herald, respectively. It publishes six days a week, Monday through Saturday, with its Weekend Reformer having the largest readership; the offices of the paper are in Brattleboro, Vermont and it has a market penetration (weekday sales per 100 households) of 62.8 in its home zip code.
The Reformer covers all of Windham County, Vermont, as well as some towns in neighboring Cheshire County, New Hampshire. It is owned by Vermont News and Media LLC.
It is the only newspaper in the United States called "Reformer."
History from 19th to mid-20th century
The Reformer published its first issue, under the name Windham County Reformer, in 1876. Publisher Charles N. Davenport was a prominent lawyer and supporter of the Democratic Party. Davenport founded the paper in part due to dissatisfaction with what he saw as a Republican bias in the coverage by the Vermont Phoenix, the main political paper in the state. The presidential campaign at the time, between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden prompted the Vermont Record and Farmer, the third paper in the state, to describe the new paper as dedicated to "Tilden and reform."
Some local historians believe that the original conception of the paper was for it to last only for the duration of the 1876 campaign. Davenport's son, Charles H. inherited the paper on his father's death, running the paper for twenty-five years until 1901. T. P. James, (whose fame rests on his publication of the ending to "Mystery of Edwin Drood, Complete" which James claimed Dicken's ghost had dictated to him) was the co-editor and co-publisher of the Reformer, along with Charles H. Davenport.(James left the paper within about a year, after a disagreement with Davenport, and founded the Independent in Brattleboro, in which he attacked Davenport's reputation.) The Reformer went from a weekly to twice-weekly publication schedule in 1897. While the paper had financial troubles for many years, it managed to maintain a continuous publication schedule.
Charles H sold the paper to G. Ullery, who then sold the paper to the Vermont Printing company in 1903. The new editors turned the paper away from its partisan Democrat emphasis. The Phoenix and Reformer were merged in March 1913 under the management of the newly formed Brattleboro Publishing Company, one half owned by Walter Hubbard and the other half by Ephraim Crane and Howard Crosby Rice. Rice became the publisher and editor in 1918. The Phoenix served as the Reformer'''s weekly companion. Moreover, the Reformer went to a daily publication schedule. The Phoenix weekly was discontinued in 1955.
Howard Rice was publisher and editor of the Reformer until he handed over the editor post to his son-in-law, John Simpson Hooper, in 1950, and the publisher post in 1964. John Hooper was editor and publisher of the Reformer until he retired in 1971. He was instrumental in turning the paper from a Republican to an independent paper, described on its masthead as: "An independent newspaper, dedicated to conservation and progress in public and humane affairs". In 1971, Norman Runnion became managing editor until 1989.
The 1913 merger was considered by some to be the "true" founding date of the paper; according to an article in the March 4, 1925 issue, "Daily Reformer Now 15 Years Old":
The Brattleboro Daily Reformer celebrated yesterday its 15th anniversary as a daily. As a weekly publication The Reformer dates back to the dim and distant date of 1876, but its debut as a daily – with that word ‘Daily’ in emphatic black-face letter-spaced Gothic type on its first page – came on Monday, March 3, 1913.
Records at the Brooks Memorial Library, the main library of Brattleboro, list the publication history of the paper in 2006 asWindham County Reformer, 1876-1897Semi-weekly Windham County Reformer, 1897-1901Windham County Reformer, 1901-1912,Brattleboro Daily Reformer (after merger with Vermont Phoenix), 1913-1955Brattleboro Daily Reformer and Vermont Phoenix, 1955-1973Brattleboro Reformer, 1973-present
Much of the historical information in this section comes from a special 1981 section of the Reformer, published on the occasion of the paper's moving from downtown Brattleboro to its headquarters on Black Mountain Road.