Maine's largest network of newspapers has been sold to the National Trust for Local News. Five daily newspapers, including the Portland Press Herald, Sun Journal and Morning Sentinel, as well as 17 weeklies, are now known as the Maine Trust for Local News.
Plans for the sale were announced in July, just a few months after owner Reade Brower announced that he wanted to sell most of the newspapers under his organization Masthead Maine.
In a written statement, Brower declined to disclose the sale price of the 22 papers. But he said selling to the National Trust for Local News caused the least disruption to staff and also positioned the papers to be run under a sustainable business model, which includes a nonprofit component to allow donations and grant funding.
The executive board of the News Guild of Maine, which represents roughly 200 workers at the Press Herald and Morning Sentinel, says it is optimistic about the sale and grateful Brower sold to a nonprofit.
