Maine newspaper's liberal secrets

Ted Cohen/Patch.com

When the National Trust for Local News acquired Maine's largest newspaper group last year, it was heralded as a victory for preserving local journalism.

But 18 months later, mounting evidence suggests the nonprofit may be creating its own form of centralized control while the trust’s executive compensation soared, and local jobs are disappearing.

The acquisition through the Maine Trust for Local News included the Portland Press Herald, four other daily papers, and 17 weekly publications across Maine.

At the time, national trust CEO Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro promised transparency about funding sources and claimed the deal would preserve local journalism.

The promise remains largely unfulfilled.

Hansen Shapiro's compensation has skyrocketed since founding the trust in 2021. Her salary jumped from $116,667 in 2021 to $370,540 in 2023 - a 217% increase in just two years, according to recent IRS filings

The executive pay spike came as the trust moved to reduce the Brunswick Times Record from a daily to twice-weekly publication and completely shuttered both the Southern Forecaster and Coastal Journal.

The contrast between executive enrichment and local cutbacks is stark.

While Hansen Shapiro's compensation now exceeds $370,000 annually, the average reporter's salary in Maine remains around $50,000.

Further layoffs and print reductions are reportedly under consideration, according to internal company meetings.

The exodus of experienced local leadership has been equally concerning.

Within months of the acquisition, at least seven top executives departed the Portland Press Herald, The state's largest paper, including CEO Lisa DeSisto and Executive Editor Steve Greenlee.

The trust has installed new leadership, including Carolyn Fox, who previously worked at the Tampa Bay Times, as executive editor.

Questions persist about who is actually funding this transformation of Maine's media landscape.

While the trust promised transparency about its funding sources at the time of purchase, it has yet to disclose its complete list of donors.

Reports from digital media outlet Semafor suggest liberal "mega donors" George Soros and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss played key roles in financing the acquisition.

The trust's nonprofit structure obscures much of its financial workings, but available records show deep ties to "progressive" foundations.

Major donors include the MacArthur Foundation, Tides Foundation, and Open Society Foundations - all significant funders of left-wing causes.

Former Press Herald publisher DeSisto recently acknowledged that previous owner Reade Brower "made a decision with his heart not to sell to the highest bidder" in choosing the trust.

The highest bidder was reportedly a conservative media executive.

The trust's rapid expansion goes well beyond Maine as it now controls over 65 newspapers across multiple states through similar acquisitions in Colorado and Georgia.

Hansen Shapiro, who lacks prior experience in news-media operations, has positioned herself as a savior of local journalism while building what amounts to a progressive media empire funded by liberal donors.

"We're not immune to the challenges of our industry," DeSisto wrote in her farewell column.

But those challenges appear to be falling disproportionately to local employees rather than on well-compensated executives.

The trust's nonprofit model was supposed to offer an alternative to corporate chains that have reduced the profits of local papers.

Instead, it may be creating its own form of centralized control, replacing local ownership with oversight from a board of directors aligned with progressive political interests.

Recent appeals for donations highlight growing financial pressures.

The new editor, Fox, recently circulated an email citing a "desperate need" to raise cash - this despite the trust's access to massive foundation funding.

What began as a promising effort to save local journalism increasingly resembles a consolidation of media control under the guise of nonprofit ownership.

While corporate chain ownership threatened local papers through profit-seeking, the trust's model may pose different but equally concerning risks to truly independent local journalism in Maine.

The question remains whether trading corporate ownership for control by progressive donors and their executives truly serves Maine's communities and their need for independent local news coverage.

As the trust continues expanding nationally while cutting locally, that question becomes increasingly urgent.

Through it all, Hansen Shapiro and her team maintain they are creating a sustainable model for local news.

But with soaring executive pay, shrinking local coverage, and opaque funding sources, their experiment in nonprofit ownership is raising as many concerns as it purports to address.

Editor's note: Ted Cohen is a former Portland Press Herald staffer.