BURLINGTON, Vt. — Vermonters may be quick to boast about their locally sourced foods, their ability to tolerate bitter winters and their celebrated entrepreneurs like Ben & Jerry’s and Burton Snowboards. But lately, they have not extended that praise to their newspaper.

That is because the 185-year-old Burlington Free Press, the state’s largest daily, went through some radical changes in June. Management shrunk the newspaper from a broadsheet to a tabloid (a format from its distant past) and added color to all of its pages. It raised delivery prices, started charging for online access and rebuilt its 45-year-old presses.

As Lynne Hefferon and Candice Swenson, both teachers, split a brownie at the August First cafe here, they complained about The Free Press’s reduced content in print, sporadic delivery and long customer-service waiting times. Ms. Swenson said she was considering canceling the subscription she has had since 1974. Ms. Hefferon said she had canceled after 22 years and dropped it a second time after The Free Press offered her a Walmart gift card to come back. Both women have been reading Seven Days, a free alternative weekly, instead.

“I don’t like the new layout,” Ms. Swenson said. “Most of the comments I’ve heard have not been particularly positive. Nobody has said, ‘I love The Free Press.’ ”