Nationwide nonprofit completes deal to purchase Maine newspaper empire
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A nationwide nonprofit closed on its deal to purchase Maine’s largest newspaper firm on Monday, 4 months after proprietor Reade Brower mentioned he wished to promote the Portland Press Herald and most of his different newspapers.
The Nationwide Belief for Native Information bought 5 dailies, 17 weeklies, specialty publications and the print operations of Masthead Maine, leaving Brower with six weeklies, largely alongside Maine’s northern coast. The newspapers will function with their present names underneath the brand new umbrella “Maine Belief for Native Information,” which is able to exchange the Masthead Media model, in accordance with a memo despatched to staff on Tuesday and obtained by the Bangor Every day Information.
The insertion of a nonprofit proprietor into Maine’s media panorama follows different hybrid fashions within the U.S. aimed toward preserving ailing newspapers viable. The Bangor Every day Information is the one independently owned day by day newspaper left in Maine.
The sale worth was not revealed. The memo mentioned philanthropic assist by the nationwide belief and Maine funders made the acquisition doable, nevertheless it didn’t title the funders. Basic supporters of the nationwide belief are listed on its web site and embody donors that assist unbiased native journalism such because the Knight Basis, MacArthur Basis and Google Information Initiative.
The Maine Belief for Native Information is registered as a Maine-based L3C firm that could be a wholly owned subsidiary of the nationwide belief. The L3C designation implies that the Maine Belief for Native Information was organized as a “low revenue legal responsibility” firm. It has a mission to assist academic or charitable functions just like a public profit company.
The newspapers will function as a self-sustaining enterprise with income targets for circulation, promoting, industrial printing, and different earned income, nationwide belief CEO Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro advised the Bangor Every day Information beforehand. The newspapers may even be eligible for philanthropic assist as a result of they’re owned by the nonprofit.
The nationwide belief additionally purchased 24 suburban newspapers in 2021 that it’s working with The Colorado Solar underneath the title of the Colorado Information Conservancy. The newspaper and conservancy are for-profit public profit firms. The next 12 months the belief purchased the Denton File-Chronicle in Texas, which turned a non-profit entity and is now a part of KERA, a North Texas public media station.
Particulars of the brand new administration construction on the Masthead Maine newspapers have been sparse. There will likely be a board of administrators together with members from the nationwide belief, Masthead Media and a few group members, just like the board composition at The Colorado Solar. Present Masthead administration will stay, together with CEO and Writer Lisa DeSisto. The memo mentioned editorial choices round information and content material will stay on the native degree.
Brower purchased MaineToday Media, the guardian firm of The Press Herald, The Kennebec Journal and The Morning Sentinel, in 2015. He purchased extra newspapers over the following a number of years. He advised the Bangor Every day Information beforehand that one in all his new focuses will likely be his nonprofit that helps folks assist one another.
