About Michael Donoghue

Michael Donoghue is an award-winning news and sports writer. He worked for more than 40 years at the Burlington Free Press and now is a freelancer. He was selected as the 2013 New England Journalist of the Year by the New England Society of News Editors and in 2015 received the Matthew Lyon First Amendment Award. Donoghue has been an adjunct professor of journalism and mass communications at St. Michael’s College in Colchester, Vt. since 1985. Donoghue has served as an officer, including executive director, with the Vermont Press Association since 1979. He is a former board member for the New England Press Association and has served continuously as state chairman of Project Sunshine in Vermont since it was started by the Society of Professional Journalists in 1990. Donoghue is often credited as being a driving force behind the improvement to Vermont’s open government (public records and meetings) legislation. He has made his own successful legal arguments to judges about keeping courtrooms open and not sealing court documents. Donoghue and the Free Press have been honored for his work on a local, state, regional and national level. Donoghue was selected in 2007 as the winner of the Yankee Quill Award, the top lifetime honor for print and electronic journalism in New England. He has been inducted into five Halls of Fame, including as a charter member for the New England Press Association’s Hall of Fame and as a charter member for the Society of Professional Journalists/National Freedom of Information Coalition Hall of Fame. Donoghue served as a member of NEFAC’s Board of Directors and as the organization’s vice president.