Maine's Largest Paper Loses Top Awards To Competition

By Ted Cohen/ Patch.com

The Bangor Daily News has captured the top prize in annual Maine newspaper competition, beating the Portland Press Herald.

Not only that - Bangor also beat the Portland crowd in the key online category.

Bangor 2, Portland 0.

But despite singing its own self-serving praises following the Maine Press Association’s yearly matchup, the Press Herald refused to so much as even acknowledge Bangor’s stunning accomplishments.

Not so much as even a mention in its contest coverage.

Judges for the journalism association cited Bangor Daily’s “first-rate coverage” in praising the paper as No. 1 in the print category and for its “easy-to-read website” in the online format.

Yet nowhere in the weekend contest coverage by the Maine Trust for Local News AKA the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram is there any mention that they got pushed aside - not just once, but twice - by the Bangor paper.

Rather, the trust in an Orwellian twist headlined its own second- and third-place finishes in categories with only four newspapers to begin with, most of which the trust owns. (Putting lipstick on the pig.)

“Congratulations to all of our winners for a worthy year of coverage,” Executive Editor Carolyn Fox said in a vacuous, canned statement published by her own staff. “I feel lucky to work with all the journalists at the Maine Trust for Local News.”

Notable by its absence is any recognition by Fox for her readers that in the daily-news category - the most important - her paper face-planted, losing to the paper to the north.

Fox also downplayed losing in the online competition in which her staff played second fiddle to Bangor, giving no concessions in her misleading coverage in Sunday’s, uh, online version of the paper she's “lucky to work with.”

Contest judges criticized her and the parent company for "using a web template for all their papers with essentially little to no differentiation between each site. …that's a problem. The Press Herald site had almost identical news content and story placement as the Sun Journal.”

The Portland papers also were embarrassed by their smaller cousin to the north, the Lewiston Sun Journal, which beat the bigger Portland paper in general excellence.

In fact, Lewiston beat Portland for the second year in a row in the weekend category.

Portland also got beat by its smaller sister, Central Maine Sunday, in weekend coverage, the latter placing second to Lewiston - with Maine Sunday Telegram bringing up the rear.

Fox as the trust’s top Maine editor works out of the state's biggest city, Portland, but the largest paper she oversees fell flat in the association's 2024 competition except for a new category: Trying To Save Face.

Well, there's always next year. Or not.