Post by bob quarteroni on Mar 14, 2012 14:37:39 GMT -5
One Plus, One Minus for MaineToday Media
Submitted by Al Diamon on Fri, 03/09/2012 - 11:11am.
Maine Media
The plus: On March 8, the Portland Press Herald, which is owned by MaineToday Media, carried a story produced by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting on legislative efforts to close an ethics loophole dealing with lawmakers whose companies or non-profit organizations did business with the state.
To the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time the Portland paper has published one of the center’s excellent investigative reports (although it hasn’t been shy about citing them in editorials). If this marks a turning point in relations between the center – run by John Christie, former publisher of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, and Naomi Schalit, ex-editorial page editor for those papers –and MTM, which bought both publications in 2009 and ousted the two of them, it’s a welcome development for both sides. The MaineToday papers will get quality in-depth stories, while the center will receive wider distribution of its important reports.
The past refusal of the MTM papers to carry the center’s work has always seemed to have more to do with personalities than journalism or finances. With the departure of MaineToday CEO Richard Connor and his executive editor, Scott Wasser, the personal side of the dispute would appear to be eliminated. And since the center’s work has been of consistently high quality and offered to news outlets at no cost, there’s no reason Press Herald readers, as well as those at the Sentinel and KJ, shouldn’t have ready access to this material
Submitted by Al Diamon on Fri, 03/09/2012 - 11:11am.
Maine Media
The plus: On March 8, the Portland Press Herald, which is owned by MaineToday Media, carried a story produced by the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting on legislative efforts to close an ethics loophole dealing with lawmakers whose companies or non-profit organizations did business with the state.
To the best of my knowledge, this marks the first time the Portland paper has published one of the center’s excellent investigative reports (although it hasn’t been shy about citing them in editorials). If this marks a turning point in relations between the center – run by John Christie, former publisher of the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, and Naomi Schalit, ex-editorial page editor for those papers –and MTM, which bought both publications in 2009 and ousted the two of them, it’s a welcome development for both sides. The MaineToday papers will get quality in-depth stories, while the center will receive wider distribution of its important reports.
The past refusal of the MTM papers to carry the center’s work has always seemed to have more to do with personalities than journalism or finances. With the departure of MaineToday CEO Richard Connor and his executive editor, Scott Wasser, the personal side of the dispute would appear to be eliminated. And since the center’s work has been of consistently high quality and offered to news outlets at no cost, there’s no reason Press Herald readers, as well as those at the Sentinel and KJ, shouldn’t have ready access to this material