Hearst Connecticut Media, owner of the Connecticut Post and a number of other southern Connecticut newspapers, has successfully poached key Hartford Courant staffers in recent months. The Courant has returned fire, hiring away Neil Vigdor, one of the top political reporters in the state, as media outlets ramp up political coverage of the 2018 gubernatorial cycle.
Vigdor was the scribe in the vehicle shadowing Mayor Joe Ganim’s January announcement for governor when a city police detective was stopped in Southington by a state trooper for doing 87.
More on this from Duby McDowell’s The Laurel:
The crosscurrent of talent between the Hartford Courant and the expanding Hearst CT newspaper company continues. In a memo to Hearst CT staff, Executive Editor Bobbie Roessner (a Courant alumna herself) announced that Hearst CT Political reporter Neil Vigdor is packing his bags for Broad Street. Neil started out as a summer intern at the Stamford Advocate in 1997 (a guy named Malloy was mayor at the time) and eventually went on to cover statewide politics for Hearst CT. The Vigdor acquisition is another sign that the two competing newspaper operations are getting ready for the 2018 election which is expected to be extraordinarily active. In a memo to Courant staffers, Publisher Andrew Julien writes that Neil will hit the ground at the Courant this week.
Free Agent Signing Period!
Off topic but …
“Ganim and City Attorney R. Christopher Meyer have repeatedly pointed to a 24-year-old state ethics ruling that allowed then-Lt. Gov. Eunice Groark to campaign for governor while being driven by a state trooper as long as she reimbursed the state mileage.”
Ganim never did understand the difference between legal and illegal vs right and wrong.
He is mayor of the state’s largest city that has budgetary problems and he relies on a 24 year old opinion that from the state ethics commission.
Raise more money. Don’t go looking for the poor people of Bridgeport to try to help you get out of Dodge.
i WOULD LIKE TO SEE ALL OF THE POST REPORTERS GET POACHED AND OUT OF HERE. THEY SUCK
I would agree with you 100% Mr. Fardy- with some exceptions. We all would like “the press” to report on issues that we have an interest in. Every so often some reporters do a really good job of it. Monday, February 5th front page article by Brian Lockhart entitled “battle over booze regulations” is a great piece that blended the Liquor issue with the VOTING SCAM issue; both associated with Michael Defilippo, et al. I think that what we really want..and need..is old fashioned investigative reporting. Today what we see is reporting on what someone says or submits. Years ago, reporters dug deep and worked as detectives to uncover what sometimes turned into great news and even greater scandals. I remember back in the late 80’s and early 90’s there was a Stamford Advocate reporter by the name of Frank Fedeli. Frank was on the crime beat when I was a detective and then Union President. City Hall had some scandals going on but without digging into the issues and getting info from “confidential informants” he would not have been as successful in uncovering things that normally wouldn’t have been known about. The sitting mayor did not run again, (pressure), and even left the state after what “we” uncovered. Knowing that most people only read headlines and maybe a few lines into any given article, it would be great to see some scandals appear relating to issues here in Bridgeport.. I think we would all agree that we have a few!!!!!! Oh by the way, I think Fedeli won some news awards for his tireless work. If you look up his name you will see some mob stories, etc. That’s what we would want: a local reporter digging into our politicians, and “potential” politicians!
The problem with Hearst CT Media is, management has no guts, no editorial vision. Except for the different mastheads the Connecticut Post, the Stamford Advocate, the Norwalk Hour, the New Haven Register all look the same.