Bill Nemitz: Drifting Without Local News, Coastal Maine Town Finds Its “Anchor”

Imagine the town of Harpswell, which has a population of around 5,000. Essentially, it is three fingers of land that extend into Casco Bay south of Brunswick, with dead end secondary roads that run alongside two national highways that run north to Highway 1. There is no There is no city center to speak of, no concentrated business district, no real nucleus where people can meet every few days and take the pulse of the community.

So imagine the angst people felt just over a year ago when Harpswell Anchor, the city’s monthly newspaper, closed its doors after 22 years under the leadership of editor Bob Anderson. Already isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic, many soon found themselves wanting the printed lifeline that they didn’t realize was so important until it was gone, just like that.

“It must have been November, December and people started to say, ‘What happened to the anchor? “Recalls Doug Warren, a retired Boston Globe editor who grew up in Brunswick and moved to Harpswell in 2013. Various things like the land trust and the fire department suddenly realized he There was no place to spread your information, tell your stories, or try to fundraise, that sort of thing.

So Warren and a handful of others did something. At a time when newspapers, large and small, are disappearing en masse, they have resuscitated theirs. Or, as some of them like to say, they have “weighed anchor”.

“What a treasure is this publication! Great Island’s Sheila Menair wrote in a letter to the editor this month. “Local news and stories delivered in a way that informs us and engages us in becoming a more interactive community. I like to read the newspaper and find the website a wealth of information and resources.

The November issue of the new Harpswell Anchor will be its sixth. And by all indications, the 24-page tabloid isn’t just surviving. It is flourishing.

“I’ve raised funds for a lot of places like Harvard, MIT and the Boston Athenaeum and you know it’s never been so rewarding,” Janice Thompson, director of development and operations for the newspaper, said last week. . back porch along Harpswell Neck Road.

The effort started in earnest late last winter, when Thompson, Warren, and a handful of other community members began to think about how not only to bring the paper back, but to make it sustainable. They immediately adopted a strategy that is now taking root in small towns (and some big cities) across the country: to make it a nonprofit, not a commercial enterprise.

Drawing on the resources and expertise of the Institute for Non-Profit News, which supports some 300 independent news agencies nationwide, they have developed a business plan, taken steps to achieve nonprofit status and, critically important, reduced their ” founders’ group into a 10-member board of directors – all year round or seasonal Harpswell residents.

It’s an impressive group: Connie Sage Connor, a retired editor of the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia; Erin O’Mara, currently president of The Nation magazine in Washington, DC; Chairman of the Board, Greg Bestick, who made a career as a Hollywood executive before retiring last year as chairman of the Paradigm Talent Agency. Other board members include telecommunications lawyer, accountant, environmentalist, PhD from Harvard University. in public health …

Led by Thompson, a longtime professional fundraiser, the Volunteer Board of Directors first raised funds through grants, donations and ‘sponsorships’ from local businesses which in many ways, mimic advertisements with one notable exception: they are tax deductible.

In June, they published their first edition under the direction of retired journalist Warren, who is now vice chairman of the board. At the same time, they went in search of a publisher.

Enter JW Oliver, then editor of Lincoln County News and 2018 Maine Press Association Journalist of the Year.

37-year-old from South Bristol and a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington, Oliver was looking for something different after his 11 years at Lincoln County News – the last five as an editor overseeing an eight-person team. .

Growing frustrated that the administrative aspect of his job had taken him away from the writing and reporting he loved so much, Oliver came across an ad on the Association of Associations of Maine job site. looking for a “talented, hardworking and innovative” editor for a small town newspaper that at the time was barely standing.

“I was intrigued by the nonprofit model and the chance to make it sort of a demonstration project, a pilot project for Maine because nobody is doing exactly what we do,” said Oliver. between sips of fresh lemonade on Thompson’s back porch – closest, at least for now, to Anchor in a newsroom.

Supported by administrative assistant Sam Allen, a fifth-generation local who recently graduated from the University of Southern Maine, Oliver works from his home in Bristol, Thompson’s or, more often, from his car.

Unlike his old-fashioned predecessor Anchor, he covers elected officials, whom he finds “very open, transparent and welcoming,” as well as Topsham School Administrative District 75, which includes Harpswell. He is currently clashing with school administrators over his request for a copy of a recent survey on student sexual activity and substance use. “I don’t have it yet,” he said. “But I will keep trying.”

In addition to her reporting on local government, Oliver’s clip file so far includes an in-depth recollection of a woman who died as a result of a shark attack off Bailey Island in 2020, and an analysis of the unrest in Haiti through the eyes of a former American ambassador there who now lives on the Isle of Orr.

He has edited articles from a phalanx of volunteer contributors on everything from the “umbrella lady” at the local transfer station, to the closure of the popular Morse’s Cribstone Grill on Bailey’s Island – the most read story so far. online – to the buying frenzy that is energizing the Harpswell housing market.

Oh yes, and once a month Oliver goes to the Masthead Maine Press printing plant in South Portland, where he loads Anchor’s bundles fresh from the press into his car and brings them back to Harpswell for distribution to the mail boxes. and small businesses throughout the sprawling city. During the summer, the number of copies peaked at around 7,000.

“I keep telling people that I don’t have a boss anymore,” Oliver said. “On the other hand, I have 10 bosses.

Sounded at Thompson, “I think this is one of the most reviewed papers in America.”

Flanked by Warren and Thompson, Oliver met these bosses via Zoom on Thursday afternoon for a regular monthly board meeting. For over an hour, besides hearing Oliver talk about what’s next for the next month, they talked about their finances in the dark – no easy task with a $ 200,000 annual budget, and their board-wide efforts to reach out to local businesses and other nonprofits. . They agreed to hold a planning retreat next month to look towards 2022. They beamed with their new membership in the Maine Press Association. They even took a look at their new marketing loot, which includes bumper stickers, backing cards, and a range of t-shirts.

In short, the experiment works. News, articles, calendar listings, the “nonprofit corner” for other organizations to strut about now roam the community every month as a much needed antidote to last winter’s desolation.

In a phone interview after the board meeting, President Bestick said this was good news not only for Harpswell, but for the many other communities in Maine, especially along the coast. , who have the time, the talent and the treasure to fill the void. now largely populated by social media.

“At the meta level, what we seem to finally understand is that Facebook causes emotional indigestion. That’s really not a good thing in many iterations, ”Bestick said.

Having a small town newspaper, he added, underpins “the idea that local journalism and community journalism are not only fun, but essential to the health of a community.”

Not to mention his sense of pride.

“Harpswell,” proclaims one of these new T-shirts. “Where the anchor falls.”

FOOTNOTE: Continued from my Friday column on objections to an email sent to town hall by Robyn Bailey, acting principal of Lincoln Middle School in Portland: Charter Commission, which Bailey deemed inappropriate. I did not contact Stewart-Bouley about these concerns until the column was published. I should have and wish I did.