Maine’s newest newsroom will add to rising ideological media panorama
AUGUSTA, Maine — The information panorama in Maine is altering, and that’s not solely because of the current sale of the Portland Press Herald and sister papers to a nationwide nonprofit.
States Newsroom, a left-leaning nonprofit that launched in 2019 and has practically 200 reporters and editors in 35 states, is attempting to rent three reporters based mostly in Portland, Augusta or “one other metropolis that may permit them to meaningfully report on how state authorities impacts Mainers.”
It’s the most recent addition to Maine’s information area, which already options on-line platforms connected to advocacy teams along with legacy newspapers, radio and TV. One conservative information arm is increasing, whereas the States Newsroom launch comes on the expense of the Maine Beacon, an outlet run by the liberal Maine Folks’s Alliance that after was funded by the group.
These retailers have key variations in how they disclose donors. However they’re all supported by philanthropy, moderately than the subscription and promoting mannequin that has faltered badly for newspapers over the previous twenty years. Income in these classes fell from a excessive of $49.4 billion in 2005 to $9.6 billion in 2020, in accordance with Information Media Alliance estimates.
Legacy retailers are transferring towards comparable fashions. The Press Herald’s sale to the Nationwide Belief for Native Information will permit it to get massive philanthropic contributions. The for-profit Bangor Every day Information, which is now the one independently owned every day paper in Maine, takes donations and discloses most donors whereas nonetheless counting on conventional income streams.
“You don’t need to cope with advertisers,” Lauren McAuley, who edited the Beacon and can now edit the brand new States Newsroom website targeted on Maine, mentioned of her group’s mannequin. “I believe all of that could be a web optimistic for Maine readers.”
Whereas it was sponsored at launch by the liberal Hopewell Fund, States Newsroom didn’t obtain funding from that group and publicly lists all donors who’ve given greater than $1,000. In 2020, the Nieman Basis at Harvard included the group’s retailers amongst a listing of “hyperpartisan” media websites however later eliminated it, citing disclosure provisions.
Conservative critics have solid it as related to “darkish cash” left-wing teams. It gave $225,000 to a gaggle affiliated with the Maine Folks’s Alliance in 2021, in accordance with an IRS submitting. Because it has expanded, States Newsroom is transferring away from sponsoring exterior websites affiliated with partisan organizations, just like the alliance’s Maine Beacon.
A Maine Folks’s Alliance spokesperson mentioned the group had no touch upon the information website other than confirming the Beacon is not affiliated with States Newsroom.
States Newsroom retailers characteristic many reporters and editors who beforehand labored at native information retailers in the identical states they now cowl for States Newsroom. McCauley famous the websites don’t have any paywalls and provide tales to different native retailers in the event that they want to publish them.
The Maine newsroom will likely be “a present to Mainers and other people occupied with good journalism” with unbiased protection, McCauley added.
States Newsroom’s enlargement in Maine comes because the Maine Wire, which is the information arm of the conservative Maine Coverage Institute, has beefed up its workers. It’s led by Steve Robinson, a Dexter native and Bowdoin School graduate who previously labored as a producer for conservative Massachusetts radio host Howie Carr and Barstool Sports activities podcaster Kirk Minihane.
The location has gotten extra aggressive since Robinson took it over in 2022, breaking tales together with a authorized dispute between Gov. Janet Mills and the state worker union and Home Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, saying political allies ought to “storm the capitol” in protest of the state’s implementation of a Black historical past regulation.
The Maine Coverage Institute, which doesn’t disclose donors, decided final 12 months to speculate extra in its information aspect, spokesperson Jacob Posik mentioned. The location now can produce in in the future what it beforehand did in per week. Robinson mentioned he has 4 full-time writers and is “actively trying” to rent extra workers.
“There’s an apparent urge for food for aggressive reporting that’s skeptical of presidency,” Robinson mentioned. “That urge for food isn’t being glad by the legacy media, no matter who owns a given outlet.”
