Newspaper Guild Retains Advisor and Announces Exploration of Bid for Blethen Newspapers

The Portland Newspaper Guild announced today that it has launched an exploratory effort to make a bid for local employee ownership of the Blethen Maine Newspapers and Web sites following the Seattle Times Co. announcement last month that it was offering all its Maine properties for sale.

An ad will run in this week’s Maine Sunday Telegram touting employee and local ownership and a Web site www.yourhometownpaper.org has been launched to help in this effort.

The Newspaper Guild welcomes any ownership alternative for the Blethen Maine Newspapers that continues to recognize the importance of union representation of its workforce. The Guild also believes that an employee-ownership model backed by community-minded investors would likely serve as the best structure for preserving local control and journalistic integrity.

The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Kennebec Journal of Augusta, Morning Sentinel of Waterville and MaineToday.com, which combined have over 600 employees are being sold by the Seattle Times Co.

The Guild has retained the consulting firm Ownership Associates, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, to advise the employees in this deal. The President of Ownership Associates, Christopher Mackin, has 30 years of professional experience in the area of employee ownership.

Press conferences will be held Monday and Tuesday with Mackin and other participants in the bid. Monday’s conference will be held at 3 p.m. outside of Portland City Hall on the Congress Street side. Tuesday’s conference will be held at 10 a.m. in the Welcome Center at the State House in Augusta.

For more information, contact C.J. Betit at cbetit@local128.org or 207-772-1202.