only two reporters left and the editor post was shared with the Bennington Banner. New England Newspapers was sold to local owners in 2016. In May of 2021 the New England Newspapers sold Brattleboro Reformer, Bennington Banner and Manchester Journal to Vermont News and Media LLC. The Reformer was possibly the first newspaper in the United States to run same-sex union announcements in parallel to the usual wedding notices, beginning the practice in 1989, well before the state of Vermont legalized civil unions. In the past the paper has been controversial for running letters to the editor that many have found offensive; in 2003 it ran an anti-semitic letter whose publication the then–managing editor Kathryn Casa defended, saying that "only by bringing [bigoted opinions] into the open can we expose and eliminate them." Casa was replaced by Kevin Moran, who was recruited from the North Adams Transcript in Massachusetts, which is also owned by MediaNews Group. Moran moved to work as managing editor at the Berkshire Eagle. In November 2005, the Reformer hired Sabina Haskell as the new editor. She had previously been assistant editor at the Rutland Herald and had also run the Bennington Banner. Haskell quit to take a PR job for Republican Vermont governor Jim Douglas in 2007. Then managing news editor Tom D'Errico was promoted to fill the editor position. The publisher of the Reformer, Martin Langeveld, resigned after two years on the job in April 2008. Ed Woods, publisher of the Bennington Banner, replaced him in the same month. The Brattleboro Reformer is owned by Vermont News and Media LLC, which is owned by Paul Belogour. Staff and union controversies The paper was involved in a number of controversies in the years 2003–2004. Union leaders and members of the public protested in 2003, when the management fired a reporter during a campaign to form a union at the Reformer. More than 1,000 people signed a petition that called on Media News to re-hire the union supporter.see Boston Globe article published May 22, 2003Valley Advocate Readers complained when the parent company fired managing editor Kathryn Casa without giving a reason in 2004. Critics asserted that the firing was in part connected to her liberal politics; on the other hand, Casa was accused of intimidating staff into voting against a union drive. Judith Gorman, a columnist for the paper, resigned in protest following Casa's dismissal; about 150