Current:Home > FinanceMaine’s biggest newspaper group is now a nonprofit under the National Trust for Local News -Aspire Financial Strategies
Maine’s biggest newspaper group is now a nonprofit under the National Trust for Local News
View
Date:2025-04-14 23:11:27
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The largest newspaper group in Maine is becoming a nonprofit with Tuesday’s 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.
Terms of the transaction, which closed Tuesday, were not disclosed.
The newspapers will now fall under the umbrella of the Maine Trust for Local News.
The deal, which covers all of the state’s daily newspapers except the Bangor Daily News, represents a trend toward a nonprofit 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 organizations are struggling from loss of advertising revenue,” said Tim Franklin, senior associate dean and leader of the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Local news is in crisis with the nation losing a quarter of its newspapers since 2005 and advertising revenue declining by as much as 80% over a decade, Franklin said.
The transformation from a commercial model to a nonprofit model was a positive outcome compared to other alternatives including corporate ownership that could’ve been more focused on making making cuts to maximize profits, executives told Portland Press Herald employees at a meeting and celebration in South Portland.
“We’ve been reading about some of the really unpleasant outcomes for newspaper organizations across the country and I can’t imagine one that is more opposite,” said former Masthead Maine CEO Lisa DeSisto, who’ll continue her leadership role as CEO and publisher of the Maine Trust for Local News.
Reade Brower, the former owner, purchased MaineToday Media, the parent company of the Press Herald, the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, in 2015 and added newspaper groups and newspapers over the next several years.
He announced in March he was considering selling his media holdings and said he was open to different ideas including operating the newspapers as a nonprofit.
There is plentiful foundation and philanthropic money spent on digital startups and niche publications, so it’s nice to see them purchasing a traditional entity with credibility instead of chasing something that’s “shiny” and new, Franklin said.
___
Follow David Sharp on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @David_Sharp_AP
veryGood! (7197)
Related
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Shohei Ohtani hits HR No. 48, but Los Angeles Dodgers fall to Miami Marlins
- False reports of explosives found in a car near a Trump rally spread online
- Did You Know Earth Is Set to Have Another Moon in Its Orbit? Here's What That Means
- Paula Abdul settles lawsuit with former 'So You Think You Can Dance' co
- Loungefly’s Hauntingly Cute Halloween Collection 2024: Disney, Sanrio, Coraline & More — All on Sale Now
- Longshoremen at key US ports threatening to strike over automation and pay
- Inside the Brooklyn federal jail where Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is locked up: violence, squalor and death
- Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
- Taco Bell gets National Taco Day moved so it always falls on a Taco Tuesday
Ranking
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- Bowl projections: Tennessee joins College Football Playoff field, Kansas State moves up
- Harvey Weinstein set to be arraigned on additional sex crimes charges in New York
- Hayden Panettiere Says Horrific Paparazzi Photos Led to Agoraphobia Struggle After Her Brother's Death
- Federal Spending Freeze Could Have Widespread Impact on Environment, Emergency Management
- Despite confusion, mail voting has not yet started in Pennsylvania
- Eva Mendes Reveals Whether She'd Ever Return to Acting
- Texas pipeline fire continues to burn in Houston suburb after Monday's explosion
Recommendation
The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
Wilmer Valderrama reflects on Fez character, immigration, fatherhood in new memoir
Alumni of once-segregated Texas school mark its national park status
Amazon announces dates for its October Prime Day sales
Arkansas State Police probe death of woman found after officer
Fed rate cuts are coming. But will they be big or small? It's a gamble
Now a Roe advocate, woman raped by stepfather as a child tells her story in Harris campaign ad
Scoring inquiry errors might have cost Simone Biles another Olympic gold medal