Vermont Woman Publisher Sue Gillis
Inducted into the New England
Newspaper Hall of Fame

It is with great pleasure and quite a bit of pride that I announce to readers that Vermont Woman publisher Suzanne Gillis was inducted into the New England Newspaper Hall of Fame on October 21. This honor was bestowed on Sue at the Fall Awards Luncheon of the New England Newspaper and Press Association (NENPA) amidst a gathering of her industry peers from the region.

It is a noteworthy accomplishment in itself. But what’s more, Sue is, in fact, the only woman from Vermont to have been inducted through the organization’s history, and only the twelfth woman out of 80 inductees thus far.

Sue has been the founding publisher of four newspapers throughout her career: Vermont Woman Newspaper 1985; Vermont Times 1990; Provincetown (MA) Banner 1995; and the second incarnation of Vermont Woman Newspaper 2003.

At the induction ceremony, the NENPA representative noted that “Gillis is committed to championing independently-owned print media. Her award-winning newspaper Vermont Woman makes a valuable contribution to public discourse by providing a forum for the voices and perspectives of women.”

Both the Provincetown Banner and Vermont Woman are recipients of the Newspaper of the Year awards from New England’s press association – the highest honor bestowed by the organization; the Banner for the year 1996 and Vermont Woman for 2007 and 2008. Vermont Woman was also top winner for General Excellence for 2009 and was voted “Distinguished Newspaper of the Year” for 2010. In addition, Vermont Woman placed third for General Excellence in 2009 by the Vermont Press Association, competing with 38 weekly newspapers in Vermont.

The NENPA Annual Awards Luncheon was held in Natick, Massachusetts and was attended by publishers of many of New England’s daily, weekly, and monthly newspapers. The annual awards are highly competitive as the judges, who are from the industry and live and work outside of New England, choose the best from approximately 3,000 entries.

On receiving her award, Gillis said “The Hall of Fame induction recognizes achievement for a body of work – not just for myself, but for all the women who have been a part of producing these papers: editors, designers, writers and photographers, advertisers and sales staff and our eleven founders, who through their generosity helped bring the papers to life. I am personally honored and humbled by this peer recognition for my life’s work and I am particularly proud of the awards for excellence for Vermont Woman.”

On a personal note… I have the honor of having worked for Sue on all four of the publications she has so bravely and passionately given life to. I came to work for Sue as her publishing assistant back in 1988 and, well, here I am now, collaborating with her in this great endeavor as Vermont Woman provides a voice for the women of Vermont through a newspaper they can call their own. Independently-owned media has become rare enough in this age; a publication owned and created by women for women is rarer still. I am so grateful to Sue for the integrity she brings to this paper, and for her commitment that it be one of advocacy over frivolity, that we state opinions and delve into serious and sometimes challenging issues, rather than merely fluff pieces on diets and hairstyles. She has been a fearless champion of women’s rights and has made this publication her life’s commitment.

On behalf of the entire Vermont Woman staff and our writers – heartiest congratulations, Sue Gillis, on this most deserving honor!

And to all our faithful readers, advertisers, and contributing writers – very best wishes for a safe and happy holiday season. We’ll be back with our next dynamic issue February 2011 – Happy New Year!