Nonprofit Buys 22 Newspapers in Maine

A nonprofit that goals to take care of native possession for newspapers will purchase 22 papers in Maine, together with The Portland Press Herald and The Sun Journal of Lewiston.

The National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit that was began in 2021, will purchase the papers from Masthead Maine, a personal firm that owns many of the unbiased media shops within the state, together with 5 of its six day by day papers. Masthead Maine’s proprietor, Reade Brower, had signaled this yr that he was exploring a sale.

The deal contains the 5 day by day papers and 17 weekly papers, Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, the chief govt of the National Trust for Local News, stated on Tuesday.

Ms. Hansen Shapiro stated Maine residents had informed her group that there was a possibility for nonprofit possession after Bill Nemitz, a longtime Portland Press Herald columnist, requested readers in April to donate to assist a nonprofit group protect native journalism within the state.

“We firmly believe in the power of independent, nonpartisan local journalism to strengthen communities and forge meaningful connections,” Ms. Hansen Shapiro stated. “We understand the pivotal role that Masthead Maine and its esteemed publications play in serving the communities of Maine with reliable, high-quality news.”

The deal is anticipated to be accomplished by the tip of July, she stated. She declined to specify the sale value.

In addition to the Portland and Lewiston papers, the sale contains The Kennebec Journal in Augusta, The Morning Sentinel in Waterville and The Times Record in Brunswick. The state’s sixth day by day paper, The Bangor Daily News, stays owned by the Bangor Publishing Company.

“This could be the most important moment in the history of Maine journalism,” Steve Greenlee, the chief editor of The Portland Press Herald and The Maine Sunday Telegram, stated in an e mail. “Our news report has always strived to serve the public good, and now our business model will align with that mission.”

Many native newspapers have shut down up to now 20 years, as declining print circulation and slowing promoting income hollowed them out. Private fairness companies and hedge funds lately have snapped up the distressed property, usually reducing the shrinking newsrooms even additional. The hedge fund Alden Global Capital has grow to be the nation’s second-biggest newspaper operator.

A variety of nonprofit news organizations have cropped up across the United States lately to attempt to handle the disaster in native news and fill a void left by closed newspapers. These embrace shops like The Baltimore Banner and Honolulu Civil Beat.

The National Trust for Local News, based mostly in Lexington, Mass., was began with a aim of preserving native news shops by serving to them discover methods to grow to be sustainable. The group owns 24 native newspapers in Colorado via a collaboration with The Colorado Sun. It has philanthropic funders that embrace the Gates Family Foundation, the Google News Initiative and the Knight Foundation.

The govt board of the News Guild of Maine, the union representing almost 200 staff on the papers, stated in a press release that it was grateful Mr. Brower had chosen to “pursue a nonprofit business model rather than sell his companies to the bad actors that have decimated news organizations across the country.”

“We see the nonprofit model as one that can better sustain journalism’s dual nature as both a consumer product and a public good,” the board stated.