Last Newspaper Printing Press in Eastern Maine Is Closing Down
Ellsworth American, Mount Desert Islander, and sister paper will print in South Portland instead
by Bill Trotter/BDN
ELLSWORTH—The last remaining newspaper printing press in eastern Maine will close down as Reade Brower — the owner of the Ellsworth American and other weekly papers — shifts their printing operations to a facility in South Portland.
As part of the shift, the Ellsworth American will shut down its printing operations. The American has been printed in Ellsworth for 174 years, the weekly paper reported Monday. It also prints two other papers owned by Brower, the Mount Desert Islander and the Midcoast Villager, along with other weekly newspapers with different owners.
The shutdown is part of an ongoing shakeup in Maine’s newspaper industry that will also see Brower take over management of the southern Maine printing facility, which he until recently owned along with additional newspapers.
Brower sold four dailies and several weekly papers to the nonprofit National Trust for Local News in 2023, but kept ownership of the Ellsworth printing press and six weeklies spread out along the coast between Rockland and Bar Harbor. Last year, four of the midcoast papers were merged into the one publication that was given a new name, the Midcoast Villager.
Brower has reached an agreement with the Maine Trust for Local News — an entity created by the national nonprofit when it bought his other newspapers — in which he will manage its southern Maine printing facility through his company RFB Advertising, the American reported.
Brower previously owned the South Portland printing facility before selling it along with the other newspapers. The closure of his printing operations in Ellsworth will result in the elimination of 10 full- and part-time jobs, according to the American.
For the past four years, the Bangor Daily news has been printed at the same facility in South Portland. The Bangor Daily News closed its printing press in Hampden in 2013, when it outsourced that function to the Sun Journal in Lewiston. The Sun Journal transferred its printing operations — including the printing of the BDN — to the South Portland plant in 2021.
The Maine Trust for Local News owns and operates the dailies Portland Press Herald, the Lewiston Sun Journal, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, and the Waterville Morning Sentinel.
The new shift in printing comes a month after the trust laid off 49 employees and reduced its printing operations. That has included less frequent print schedules for several of its publications and the conversion of some weekly papers to digital-only.
The Bangor Daily News is the only daily print newspaper in Maine that hasn’t been owned by Brower or the Maine Trust for Local News.
Note from us:
In other Maine newspaper news, the Portland Press Herald reports that The Buffalo News’ President and Publisher Tom Wiley will be the CEO of The National Trust for Local News.
The Maine Trust for Local News was created in 2024 after acquiring many of Reade Brower’s papers.
Another note from us:
We changed the last line of the BDN’s story to include the word ‘print.’ We think digital newspapers like ours count as daily news not previously or currently owned by the Maine Trust for Local News or Reade Brower.
This story appears through a media partnership with the Bangor Daily News. This allows the BDN to use a certain amount of our stories a week and we can also choose to share that paper’s. There have been a few modifications to this article to include additional information.
Disclosure: Carrie Jones once worked for the Ellsworth American. She is the founder of the Bar Harbor Story, a daily digital newspaper, which is putting out this piece.
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Devastating