PORTLAND (AP) – With advertising shrinking and newspapers vanishing, Maine’s largest newspaper group became the latest to try a non-profit model with the completion of the sale of more than 20 daily and weekly newspapers, including the Portland Press Herald.
The National Trust for Local News, which already owns two dozen newspapers in Colorado, is expanding its portfolio through the purchase of five daily newspapers and 17 weekly newspapers that were part of Masthead Maine. Former Masthead owner Reade Brower retained ownership of several weeklies that weren’t part of the deal.
The newspapers will now fall under the umbrella of the Maine Trust for Local News with the closing of the deal on Tuesday. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The deal, which covers all of the state’s daily newspapers except the Bangor Daily News, represents a trend toward a non-profit business model as newspapers continue to struggle.
“I wouldn’t say it’s sweeping the country but we’re seeing this trend. And it’s a healthy one. Commercial news organisations are struggling from loss of advertising revenue,” said Senior Associate Dean and Leader of the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism Tim Franklin.
The transformation from a commercial business to a non-profit was a positive outcome compared to other alternatives including corporate ownership that could have been more focused on making making cuts to maximise profits, executives told Portland Press Herald employees at a meeting and celebration in South Portland.
“Too many corporate news owners across the country have abandoned their missions in the name of short-term profits.
“That will not happen here,” Portland Press Herald editor Steve Greenlee, told The Associated Press in a statement.
Former Masthead Maine CEO Lisa DeSisto, who will continue her leadership role as CEO and publisher of the Maine Trust for Local News, called the deal “an incredible outcome for our employees, our readers and the state of Maine”.
