The Maine Trust for Local News is eliminating or reducing print publications of weekly newspapers and shifting to mail delivery of daily newspapers in some markets as part of a series of steps to cut costs and focus resources on digital platforms, the company announced Tuesday.

As a result, 49 jobs (36 full-time and 13 part-time) will be eliminated across the company, representing 13% of the overall workforce. The affected departments include print production, distribution and advertising. No reporters or photographers are included in the cuts, and top managers at the company said they plan to increase news staffing in 2025.

The changes at Maine's largest media company are similar to what has happened across the industry over the last several years as news consumption habits and advertising strategies have shifted.

"We are deeply grateful to our colleagues for their work to print and deliver the news, and we are doing everything possible to support them through this difficult transition," said Stefanie Manning, managing director for the Maine Trust.

Although Manning declined to put a number on the savings that will be achieved, she said the reduction in production costs, including newsprint, and the change in delivery methods will help put the company on the path toward sustainability.

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Maine Trust Executive Editor Carolyn Fox, who was hired last fall from the Tampa Bay Times, said the transformation "will set us up to produce better and more accessible journalism.

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"To sustain and grow impactful journalism in Maine, we have to meet our readers where they are," Fox said. "Our digital expansion creates a stronger foundation for the Maine Trust, and we're excited to build on that in partnership with the communities we serve."

The shift reflects both the continued shift to digital readership and the economic realities facing legacy print newspapers here and across the country. A 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center found just 9% of adults said they rely on print publications to get their news, compared to 56% who said they get their news digitally.

While print subscriptions and advertising continue to decline at Maine Trust for Local News, digital subscriptions increased by 11% last year and digital advertising grew 23%.

"We all live, work and learn online, but Maine's newspapers haven't kept pace with Maine's people," Manning said. "Today we're taking a giant leap forward by investing in digital journalism while maintaining the printed news products that we know Mainers still value."

The Maine Trust operates the Portland Press Herald, the Lewiston Sun Journal, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, the Morning Sentinel in Waterville and more than a dozen weekly papers.

Here is a closer look at the changes:

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* Beginning this month, the company's southern Maine weekly newspapers - which include the Forecaster papers, the American Journal, Lakes Region Weekly, Scarborough Leader, South Portland Sentry, Courier in Biddeford and the Kennebunk Post - will become digital only.

* The weekly newspapers that have long been under the Lewiston Sun Journal's umbrella - including the Advertiser Democrat, Bethel Citizen, Franklin Journal, Livermore Falls Advertiser, Rangeley Highlander, and Rumford Falls Times - will be published every other week, with breaking news posted online.

* The Times Record in Brunswick will switch from a twice-a-week publication to a weekly paper published on Friday, with news posted throughout the week on its website.

* Beginning in April, the Lewiston Sun Journal, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta and the Morning Sentinel in Waterville will be printed on five days instead of six, with web-only publications on Saturdays and Mondays. Print newspapers on Tuesdays through Fridays will be delivered to homes via U.S. Postal Service same-day mail rather than by newspaper carriers, while home deliveries will continue on Sundays.

* The Portland Press Herald, the largest of the Maine Trust's papers, will not see any changes in production and delivery.

* The Maine Sunday Telegram, meanwhile, will effectively become the Sunday paper for all of the Maine Trust's dailies and will be expanded to include added local coverage from sister papers in Lewiston, Augusta and Waterville.

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Although leaders say the changes are necessary, they nevertheless represent a big shift for the papers of the Maine Trust for Local News, which was created in August 2023 after former owner Reade Brower sold nearly all of his media holdings to the nonprofit National Trust for Local News.

Since that ownership change, a number of managers have left the company, including longtime CEO and Press Herald publisher Lisa DeSisto, Press Herald executive editor Steve Greenlee, and more recently Sun Journal executive editor Judy Meyer and Maine Trust advertising director Courtney Spencer.

Additionally, the co-founder of the National Trust for Local News - Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro - stepped down in late January after four years. The National Trust has said that it will seek a candidate with more operational experience to replace Shapiro, whose career was mostly in academia.

In addition to its holdings in Maine, the National Trust owns chains of newspapers in Colorado and Georgia and has raised tens of millions of dollars from donors and foundations with the goal of acquiring local newspapers that are at risk.

But along with recent changes here in Maine, the Colorado Trust announced last month that its closing two of its papers in the Denver suburbs "because of market challenges and changes in readership."

Some media watchers have raised questions about whether the National Trust's nonprofit model will be successful, although the print media landscape has been bleak for some time.

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Will Nelligan, chief growth office for the National Trust, said the company remains committed to protecting institutions "that are as essential to Maine communities as quality schools and clean water." "By investing in better journalism and more digital products while maintaining the printed news products that Mainers still value, we're positioning ourselves to realize our vision for robust and resilient local news across Maine," he said.

For decades, newspapers relied on advertising revenue to subsidize their operations, but as advertisers have pulled back, so too have readers. Many researchers have linked the decline in local news gathering to the increase in political division across the country as more and more people get their news from partisan sources.

According to the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University, more than 3,200 newspapers have closed since 2005, including 127 in 2023 alone.

By contrast, 81 new digital news sites launched, including more than two dozen that were former newspapers that became digital-only publications.

Just in the last year, other Maine print media companies have consolidated some of their publications.

Brower merged the four weekly papers in Waldo and Knox counties he retained when he sold the rest of his assets in 2023 into one publication and website known as the Midcoast Villager.

Another Maine newspaper, the Bangor Daily News, recently consolidated its four weekly newspapers in Aroostook County into one publication.

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