Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
I would like to commend the work of the team of reporters covering Aroostook County for the Bangor Daily News and The County — the recent consolidation of the county’s weekly newspapers. Chris Bouchard, Cameron Levasseur, Paula Brewer and Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli do an excellent job of keeping Aroostook in the news both statewide and locally.
Having started the Maine chapter of my career as a BDN reporter when the daily had bureaus in Madawaska, Presque Isle and Houlton, each with a bureau chief and one or two other staff members, I can appreciate the demands on the four individuals now fulfilling the tasks once expected of twice as many people.
Add to that, their roles in providing coverage comparable to that of the former weekly Pioneer Times, Star Herald, Aroostook Republican and St. John Valley Times with offices in Houlton, Presque Isle, Caribou and Madawaska respectively, each with its team of advertising representatives as well as news-gatherers.
Maine is fortunate to have one of a dwindling number of independent news organizations in the nation still producing paper editions five days a week. Every day, rural areas of the U.S. are becoming “news deserts” with no sources of local news.
So, thank you BDN for preserving the fragile lifeline of local news and information we can no longer take for granted.
Kathryn Olmstead
Caribou
