Maine Monitor's Kate Cough and MDI Islander's Faith DeAmbrose Bring Home Press Awards
MDI Journalists Make News
BAR HARBOR—Last month, Mount Desert Island’s Kate Cough brought home six Maine Press Awards from the organization’s annual fall conference in South Portland. Cough writes for the online newspaper, The Maine Monitor. The awards are for work published between April 2022 and March 2023. The monitor received 39 awards this year.
The Mount Desert Islander, headed by Managing Editor Faith DeAmbrose received the first place for General Excellence in the Weekly 2 category. Advertising representatives Julie Clark and Fred Berry received a first place award for General Excellence in advertising. Malachy Flynn received third place for a religion/spirituality story. The Islander collected 15 awards this year.
Both Cough and DeAmbrose have made journalism their occupation and their calling. We asked them both a little bit about how this came to be.
ABOUT KATE COUGH
According to the Monitor,
“Enterprise Editor & Environmental Reporter Kate Cough covers energy and the environment as a 2021 Report for America corps member, while also serving as the Monitor's enterprise editor.
”She was previously a reporter for The Ellsworth American before becoming a digital media strategist for The Ellsworth American and Mount Desert Islander.
”Kate graduated with honors from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Magna Cum Laude from Bryn Mawr College.”
AWARDS KATE COUGH WON THIS YEAR.
Best Environmental Story, first place: The sea is rising, and so is the angst for homeowners by Kate Cough
Best Investigative Report, first place: The Unstoppable Ocean by Kate Cough and Alex MacLean
Business/Economics Story, second place: Small town faces huge decision: Take on oversight of proposed $1 billion park or not by Kate Cough
Continuing Story, second place: The Unstoppable Ocean by Kate Cough and Alex MacLean
Environmental Story, third place: Maine’s decades-old flood maps don’t always factor in sea rise and climate change by Kate Cough
Continuing Story, third place: Columbia Falls proposed development by Kate Cough and David Dahl
INTERVIEW WITH KATE COUGH
First off, congratulations again on your awards. Would you mind telling me what it’s like to receive them? And what it’s like working at the Monitor?
It always feels good to be recognized for hard work, and we work very hard at The Maine Monitor. (A journalist is only as good as her sources, her editors and her production team, after all!)
The Monitor is a wonderful place to work - I have the freedom to write about just about anything, and the time and space to explore subjects in great detail. I’m able to spend weeks or even months on a story, which is a luxury very few journalists have these days.
The Monitor is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization, and our work has prompted systematic reforms and changes - like my colleague Samantha Hogan’s reporting on Maine’s dubious distinction as the only state in the nation without a public defender system, which resulted in the funding of five public defender positions, the first in the state’s history, or Rose Lundy’s series on hundreds of violations at Maine’s long-term care facilities and their impact on residents and families. The story about the world’s richest lithium deposit in western Maine - which we were the first news organization to report on in 2021 - prompted lawmakers to reform Maine’s mining laws. We’re not lawmakers - we don’t set out to change laws or set policy - but it is rewarding to see that people are using our work to help inform the decisions they make.
What is it about news and that you love? Did you imagine it would be your calling? What made you transition into journalism?
I have always been a voracious reader and an avid writer, but my route into journalism was circuitous. My undergraduate degree is in Anthropology, with a pre-medical focus, and my college training was geared toward setting myself up for a career in medicine (I wanted to be an obstetrician). I enrolled in medical school and attended for six months, at which point I took time off for a family emergency. While I was off I had a lot of time to think about what I really wanted my life to look like, and the more I thought about it, the more I felt like medicine would not allow for the kind of balance I wanted. I took a longer leave of absence, time I spent shadowing physicians and cold-calling people who had jobs I thought looked interesting.
The one journalist I interviewed tried to dissuade me from it - he said it was hard to make a living (which it can be) and that the industry was volatile. But it seemed to be at the intersection of so many of my skills and interests, and I thought I would give it a shot. I’m so glad I did. I love my job and can’t imagine doing anything else. I feel so lucky to have a career where I am constantly learning, talking to people about their lives and what interests them, and translating that to readers so they can use it to make informed decisions. Democracy dies without a free press (and a good educational system), and I’m honored to play a small part in that.
Before you were at the Monitor, you were working at local papers. Does being an issues reporter call to a certain skill set or calling for you? Is there anything you miss from that local news world?
My beat right now - energy and the environment - is so broad that it basically means I can write about anything, which keeps it interesting. I have some background in the basic sciences, and enough facility with them to parse a paper or a dataset, but I am not a scientist by training. Sometimes that means the learning curve on certain issues (geology!) is steep, but part of what I love about my work is that I am constantly learning and reevaluating what I thought I knew.
Local news is the foundation of a healthy society, particularly in this firehose era of information. It’s essential that we have people who can clearly and thoughtfully document what’s going on in our communities so we can continue to improve them, and I loved being a part of that mission. (I’m still a part of it, I think, just at a larger scale!) Plus I loved the direct face-to-face feedback I got from readers. I think being a local reporter made me a more conscientious citizen.
ABOUT FAITH DEAMBROSE
DeAmbrose started at the Penobscot Bay Press back in 2003 as a reporter. She became managing editor in 2010.
According to a piece in 2019 by the Islander staff,
”A Massachusetts native, she holds a bachelor’s degree from Rhode Island College in English and media studies and a master’s degree from the University of Maine in mass communication and media education. She lives in Orland with her partner of 17 years, Sean, and enjoys hiking, reading and good conversation.”
Interview with Faith DeAmbrose
Congratulations again on the Islander’s award. It’s a big one and it’s not the first time the paper has garnered it. Can you let me know how it feels to lead an organization like the Islander and what an award like this does for the spirit of you and the staff?
The Islander has won this award a number of times over the years, so there is definitely some pressure to continue that streak. Every week we strive to create the best newspaper possible, and it is always affirming to have someone say that our work is excellent.
It honestly doesn’t always feel excellent during the third hour of a town council meeting or when we write about a tragic accident, but it is important that we are there covering those things. And from our ridiculously thorough copy editors to the reporters who are in the trenches—and at those three-hour meetings—everyone is committed to excellence. It is easy to lead a team like that.
What is it about news and specifically small, local newspapers that you love? Did you imagine it would be your calling?
I knew my life would revolve around words, but initially I wasn’t quite sure what that would look like. However, from my first assignment I was hooked. And, over the years I have had so many unique and rewarding experiences because of my work as journalist, that it is difficult to imagine a better job.
Community newspapers are the heart and soul of a community and from its inception, the Islander has aimed to be the paper for the entire island and beyond. That can be a tall order sometimes, especially with a small staff, but we certainly try our best and believe that our work has meaning and purpose.
Before you were at the Islander, you were the managing editor at the Penobscot Bay Press. How was that transition? Is there anything different or special about news coverage on MDI?
I went from one outer island (Stonington) to another, Bar Harbor—and you surely can’t beat the stunning commute to either place. There are a lot of similar issues and struggles, especially surrounding affordable and workforce housing, fishing, and commerce so it was easy to navigate that. Starting right before the pandemic hindered my ability to integrate into the community as much as I would have liked, so it was difficult to transition into the job in that way, but it is slowly all coming together.
You and Chris Crockett are both on the board of the Maine Press Association, one of the oldest news organizations in the country, which is also a great accomplishment. Could you tell us a bit about the importance of that organization is, too?
Yes, for 159 years the Maine Press Association has been helping to support journalists and newspapers across the state and I am very proud of my work on that board.
My former boss at PBP was very involved with the Maine Press Association so as long as I have been a journalist it is something that I have been a part of.
I came on the board in 2014, and for a few years served with the Islander’s founding Editor, Earl Brechlin, who was also a long-time MPA board member.
And finally, are there any other awards that you wanted to mention? Or staff that you wanted to highlight? Feel free!
The Islander won 16 awards from MPA and the following week was named a “distinguished newspaper” by the New England Newspaper and Press Association, so we are pretty happy about that.
Between the Islander and its sister paper, The Ellsworth American, we have about 50 employees and honestly each one of them plays a part in getting the paper to our readers each week. There are the rockstar front-line staff that you see in the paper each week like Dick Broom and Malachy Flynn, but there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work by others that isn’t always easy to see.
And there are also some folks in the community like Ruth Grierson, Jill Goldthwait, Joe Marshall, Kimberly Haller and Bill Morrison who contribute a unique and interesting voice to the paper.
It really takes a village and the contributions from community members only help to make the paper better.
Local papers reporting on local government protects residents from government corruption and official abuse. Except when it doesn't. For all its fine work, The Islander has at times abandoned journalistic ethics to amplify the erroneous assertions of government officials - unchallenged and uncorrected. With the adamant intransigence of the publisher, editor, and reporter. Because they can. The Maine Press Association has no mechanism for investigating ethics complaints and enforcing ethical standards
When powerful people wear two hats - as local government officials and as local journalists - truthfulness and trust are at risk. Especially when those individuals have strong personal opinions which they use their positions to promote. Often at the expense of accuracy and honesty. The Islander has no published protocols for corrections and thus no transparency to their decisions making process.