History
Gannett and Blethen
Masthead Maine's newspaper properties were, for most of the 20th century, the core of Guy Gannett Communications, a local family-owned business not related to the larger Gannett chain. The company was founded by its namesake, Guy P. Gannett in 1921, and managed by a family trust from 1954 until 1998, when the trust left the media business. It sold its television stations to Sinclair Broadcasting, and the newspapers to The Seattle Times Company, [11] for a price later reported at around 213 million dollars. [12]
Guy Gannett managers said they sold to the Times Company because of shared values—both companies were fourth-generation family-owned news organizations: "Of all the companies in the newspaper business, The Seattle Times is one most like our company in the sense of independence, of family ownership, and commitment to the community," said Guy Gannett spokesman Tim O'Meara. [13]
The Times Company, then headed by CEO Frank Blethen, set up a subsidiary named "Blethen Maine Newspapers" to run its Maine operations. Frank Blethen is a descendant of Alden J. Blethen, who was born in Maine in 1845, [14] and later bought The Seattle Times and founded the Times Company in 1896. [15] [16]
Blethen Maine Newspapers operated a subsidiary, Maine Community Publications, which operated The Community Leader/Maine Switch, [7] and The Coastal Journal, [17] a paper which was later merged into the Forecaster network. In the summer of 2006, The Bollard criticized Maine Community Publications for starting a new publication, the Old Port Times, which was apparently "selling editorial coverage to advertisers", and which TheBollard marked as a move that "trade[d] credibility for cash". [18]
Formation of MaineToday Media
On 17 March 2008, the Times Company announced that it was looking to sell Blethen Maine Newspapers. [19] On 15 June 2009, MaineToday Media was formed with the sale finalization of the Blethen papers; the new company was headed by Maine native Richard L. Connor, publisher of the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. [20] As part of the sale, members of the Portland Newspaper Guild took a 10 percent pay cut in exchange for 15 percent ownership in the company. [21] Their buildings at 385 and 390 Congress Street (part of the Press Herald Building complex) were sold in 2009, [22] [23] and the company established a headquarters at One City Center in downtown Portland in 2010. [24] The former building at 390 became a hotel. [25]
Financial details of the sale were not released, though a Seattle Times report estimated them at less than half the $213 million paid in 1998. At the time of the sale, a spokesman for The Seattle Times Company said the Maine newspapers "provided a very good return during our 10-year tenure. We were very reluctant to sell and are very sad about it. If it were not for the severe recession, we would not have done so." [12]
MaineToday promised that it could put its newspapers on a sound financial footing, but over the next two and a half years there were more than 160 job cuts at the PortlandPress Herald, the company was sued for failing to pay a paper bill, and the local guild president said his members "feel their investment in Rich Connor was squandered and they're angry about it." [26]
Connor stepped down as publisher of the newspapers for undisclosed reasons in October 2011. In April 2013, Connor was accused of misappropriation of about $530,000 of the newspapers' funds for personal expenses and unauthorized salary increases for himself. In a memo to company employees, MaineToday publisher Lisa DeSisto wrote the newspapers were paid $537,988.68 under the company’s employee theft insurance policy, to recoup money that she wrote "Connor took for unauthorized personal use." [27]
Kusher and Sussman
In January 2012, Massachusetts businessman Aaron Kusher, who had previously made an unsuccessful 200 million dollar bid to buy The Boston Globe , led a group that bought a controlling interest in MaineToday Media for an undisclosed price. [28] In March of the same year, S. Donald Sussman paid 3.3 million dollars for a controlling stake of 75%. [29] Concerns were raised as to a conflict of interest, as Sussman was married to U.S. representative from Maine, Chellie Pingree. [30] Following his stake purchase, he invested another $13 million into the group. [31]
Brower
In 2015, Sussman sold MaineToday Media to Reade Brower, a Maine printer and newspaper owner. [32] He already owned newspapers in Rockland and Belfast, Maine. [33] Brower purchased the company through an acquisition company under his control, MTM Acquisition. [34] [35] Sussman had operated the MaineToday via his own controlled company, Maine Values. [36]
Brower also purchased the Sun Media Group, parent of the Sun Journal in Lewiston, in 2017. [37] In Spring 2018, [2] [38] MaineToday purchased the Biddeford Journal Tribune and the Brunswick's The Times Record , [39] which became parts of the Alliance Press media group. [40] Included in the purchase were the weeklies of Mainely Media. [41] In late 2018, Alliance's operations were merged into MaineToday's. [42]
Masthead Maine
In January 2019, [43] Brower consolidated the MaineToday, Sun, and Alliance media groups into Masthead Maine, a single network aimed to unify advertising across Maine newspapers. [44] In 2020, Masthead announced it would stop printing Monday editions for four out of five of its daily newspapers, opting instead for digital-only Monday editions, a change affecting the Portland Press Herald, Morning Sentinel, Kennebec Journal, and Sun Journal newspapers. [45] The Times Record was excluded. [46]
Maine Trust for Local News
In March 2023, Brower, then 66, announced he was looking to sell Masthead, [47] though "without urgency or desperation." [48] Finalized in July 2023, [49] Masthead Maine was sold to the National Trust for Local News, in a deal involving 17 weekly newspapers and five dailies, [50] the majority of Maine's daily newspapers. [51] The Trust acquired every daily paper in Maine except for the Bangor Daily News . [52] [53] The National Trust operates these papers through its subsidiary, the Maine Trust for Local News. [54] [55] This trust received criticism for its backing by Democratic politicians, raising concerns of bias. [56] [57] Despite the criticism, the News Guild of Maine greeted the changes with relief, [58] stating that they were grateful Brower chose to sell to a nonprofit. [59]
The Maine Journalism Foundation originally tried to purchase Masthead, [60] [61] but dissolved after the completion of sale to another nonprofit. Their president, Bill Neimitz stated: "Our goal going into this was for the Press Herald and all the other Masthead Maine properties to convert to nonprofit ownership," and as the deal was completed with a not-for-profit entity, Neimitz was satisfied, stating on behalf of the foundation that they were "absolutely thrilled" with the outcome. [62] [63] The remaining 171 thousand dollars of the foundation were transferred to the Maine Trust. [64]
The National Trust, headquartered in Denver, [65] already owned about two dozen newspapers in Colorado. [66]
Following the takeover, Masthead Maine continues some services under the former name, notably Masthead Maine Press, a company in the Masthead network which offers commercial printing, and continues to operate under the Masthead name as of October 2023 [update] . [67]
Leadership
Lisa DeSisto was CEO of Masthead Maine and continued her role, becoming CEO of the Maine Trust after the transition. [68] DeSisto said that Masthead Maine's sale to the National Trust was "the best possible outcome". [69]
