Staff reports/Patch.com
The CEO of the tax-exempt owner of Maine's newspapers, who's now eliminating papers and slashing costs, won a massive raise last year, according to the just-released tax return for the non-profit.
It's been a rocky start for the National Trust for Local News CEO Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro as at least seven top executives have walked out of the Portland Press Herald -- Maine's largest paper -- in the last year, culminating with the recent resignation of Publisher Lisa DeSisto.
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But that hasn't stopped Shapiro, who oversees the parent corporation and its affiliates, from receiving a 217% raise over two years, according the group's just publicly released IRS 990 form.
Mark Stodder, chairman of the board of the Maine Trust for Local News, the affiliate of the national trust, was unavailable for comment, as was Shapiro.
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But critics were quick to pounce.
A media watchdog posting on Reddit called the salary raises "a symptom of the non-profit industrial complex."
Shapiro earned $116,667 in 2021, $231,250 in 2022 and $370,540 in 2023, the document shows.
Under her direction, one daily and two weeklies have already been killed -- and more cost-cutting is underway.
Since the National Trust for Local News has purchased most of Maine's newspapers, the group eliminated the daily Brunswick Times Record, turning it into a twice-weekly, and killed two weeklies -- the Southern Forecaster and Coastal Journal --in broad cost-cutting moves.
Job cuts and further possible elimination of print editions are now reportedly all on the table.
Stefanie Manning, managing director for the Maine Trust for Local News, a subsidiary of the National Trust, told employees at a recent company meeting that layoffs and print cuts are possible.
Ted Cohen, who posted the article for Patch.com, is a former Portland Press Herald staffer.
