Al Diamon
Let's Play House
(page 1 of 2)
Moving in: The Bangor Daily News has reached an agreement with the Blethen Maine Newspapers to share office space at the State House. According to BDN editor Mark Woodward, the rival companies will split the cost of the Bangor paper’s space in order to save money.
The BDN no longer has a full-time reporter covering state government. Blethen’s Kennebec Journal in Augusta and Morning Sentinel in Waterville went without a reporter on that beat for much of the summer, while State House veteran Susan Cover filled in as an editor. Now, Cover is back to reporting, but in a new location.
“We don’t fully utilize [our office],” Woodward said. “We have specialty reporters who go down there from time to time. It made sense to share the space.”
The new arrangement means that reporters from Blethen’s Portland Press Herald will also use the BDN space when they visit Augusta. The Press Herald closed its State House bureau earlier this summer.
If Woodward has his way, his paper might be sharing more than an office in the future. He’d like to see the state’s dailies swap stories, as well.
“We gain more collaborating,” he said. “We don’t really compete anymore. We have to work together to succeed.”
Woodward admitted that any kind of agreement to have a single reporter covering the State House for several publications has a downside. It reduces the number of eyes and ears keeping watch on legislators, the governor and the bureaucracy.
“Absolutely,” he said. “But if we can’t do it individually, the public is better served with some eyes and ears than none.”
Right move: Press Herald environmental reporter John Richardson did some nice work in his Aug. 26 piece on new federal rules to protect right whales.
While most of the state’s papers ran wire service copy on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s decision to slap speed limits on large vessels, Richardson went beyond that breaking news to provide important context as to how the political machinations behind the regulations might affect Maine’s lobster industry. Lobstermen are facing expensive new restrictions to prevent whales from becoming entangled in their lines, and this story helped explain what’s at stake, both for the fishery and the whales.
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008 in Permalink
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Reader Comments:
The Justice Department has denied WGME owner Sinclair Broadcasting Group's proposed $85M purchase of Richmond, VA CBS affiliate WTVR. The denial could be a net positive for Channel 13 viewers, as Sinclair will have less debt service and thus less pressure to reduce newsgathering resources in the face of a period of declining TV ad revenues which has resulted in longtime ratings leader WCSH cutting two weekly newscasts.
Wow, read the PPH and see the Cohen group deal has fallen through. So what is next for Blethen's Maine newspapers? Bankruptcy would bring down both Maine and Seattle, I think, so he's going to want to avoid doing that. But I don't see what other future is in the cards. Anyone else have a bright idea?