Behind the Scenes of Seven Days’ Most Memorable 2025 Stories

While reporting my first story as an intern at a small Vermont newspaper, I was kidnapped. Well, not really — I was 19, so technically no longer a kid, and my so-called ’napper was a very kind community member who’d driven me to interview her friend about a deep-rooted Vermonter who had just died. That chat, however, dragged on for seven exhausting hours and involved three locations. Also, lunch. (As any kidnappee knows, you should avoid going to a second location, much less a third.) By the time I was returned to my car with a very full notebook, it sure felt as though I’d been snatched and, mercifully, set free.

That early assignment taught me essential journalism lessons. First and foremost: Always have an exit plan. Close second: Reporters never know quite where the day will take them. Even those with the best-laid plans should be prepared to get swept up by their story, lose all control, follow new threads, scrap everything, start again and still meet their deadline.

If you think today’s news cycle is full of dramatic twists and turns, you should hear the behind-the-scenes sagas of getting the news, as I do every week as a Seven Days editor. These are the Backstories we share with readers at the end of each year — reporters’ personal accounts of what went into their most memorable bylines.

The tough stuff tends to leave a lasting memory. Kevin McCallum sweat bullets as a vote in Congress upended his cover story about U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. Alison Novak tried every trick in the book to get a reluctant source — Vermont Education Secretary Zoie Saunders — to open up. And Chris Farnsworth is still scarred from writing about Seven Days’ house band. (Sometimes it’s the stories you least expect.)

Other assignments brought more welcome surprises. After narrowly avoiding arrest near the U.S.-Canadian border, Lucy Tompkins found quirky respite at a hobbit house. Colin Flanders got a thrilling view of history as he reported on the release of Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi. Pamela Polston offended a bishop but then found a path toward redemption.

From complicated interviews to chance encounters, these stories shed light on the dogged and sometimes scrappy reporting that takes place daily at Seven Days. It’s the kind of work on which a strong community and democracy depend — and which AI could never replicate.

A reporter’s job involves more grunt work than glory, but there’s consolation when things go sideways: We’ll always have good Backstories to tell.