Back to business

Three and a half years ago, I left self-employment to attend graduate school. The one thing I wanted at the end was a job — a regular paycheck.

Now, I’m giving up a regular paycheck to return to my business, Niles Media. And it feels great.

At the close of Friday, Dec. 12, I will be a full-time independent journalist: a data consultant for newsrooms, freelance reporter and researcher.

There’s a lot I will miss about daily state government reporting, and especially a lot I will miss about the scrappy, wonky nonprofit news website VTDigger.org, where I had the honor of working for 18 months. “Digger,” as it’s known in Vermont, is among the most respected news sources in the state for serious reporting on state policy and politics.

At the same time, I’m excited about contributing to journalism and my community in a new capacity.

I’ll be working with newsrooms that want to explore data to find and tell the stories it holds. As a freelancer, I’ll continue to focus on public policy and civic engagement. I’ll push beyond state boundaries to examine policy issues on a regional scale in the Northeast, blending mediums along the way to tell the story of how policies shape our daily lives. And I’ll pick back up my research on freedom of information laws and press freedom around the world.

Here’s to enterprise.