Maine media mogul Reade Brower said Monday that he has sold his five daily newspapers, including the Portland Press Herald, and 17 weeklies to a national newspaper nonprofit.
Missing from the sale were six weeklies stretching along Maine’s northern coast.
Those not included are The Ellsworth American, The Mount Desert Islander in Bar Harbor, The Courier-Gazette in Rockland, The Republican Journal in Belfast, The Camden Herald and The Free Press in Camden, said Chris Crockett, publisher of those newspapers.
Crockett said he was not given an explanation about why his group of papers was not included in the sale. He said the kind of large sale that was announced earlier Monday has a lot of moving parts, and it isn’t clear if Brower will keep the six weeklies or sell them in the future.
Brower did not respond to a request for comment about the newspapers.
“I think it’s just a matter of when he feels the sale or changing ownership is right for these papers,” Crockett said.
Brower bought The Ellsworth American, which was founded in 1851, in July 2018 along with its sister weekly paper, The Mount Desert Islander. Brower founded The Free Press in 1985 and bought The Courier-Gazette in 2012.
Crockett said his group of papers has been self-sufficient with its own printing operation in Ellsworth. Over the past year it has seen higher-than-anticipated growth in digital subscriptions and it is maintaining its print circulation. He said the outlook for the papers is positive.
Asked if he was disappointed to not be included in the sale, Crockett said, “I adore Reade, so I’m happy to continue moving forward with him as the owner. I also think this was a great opportunity for the Portland group.”
The other newspapers in the Masthead group were sold to the nonprofit National Trust for Local News in collaboration with the Maine Journalism Foundation. The trust brings money and contacts to create deals to keep local newspapers under local ownership. The foundation was formed to help raise money to buy the Masthead group. Financial terms of the sale were not revealed.