The state’s largest news organization will cut 49 jobs and reduce printing operations in an effort to save money.
The Maine Trust for Local News will eliminate 36 full-time and 13 part-time positions, none of which are reporters or photographers, it announced Tuesday. Leadership plans to increase news staffing later this year.
The laid off employees represent 13 percent of the organization’s overall workforce and come from the print production, distribution and advertising departments.
Starting next month, the Lewiston Sun Journal, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel in Waterville will also print only five days instead of six and The Times Record will only publish on Fridays rather than its current twice weekly schedule.
The U.S. Postal Service will also deliver those newspapers to subscribers rather than mail carriers on Tuesday through Friday, but carriers will continue to deliver on Sundays.
The company’s weekly newspapers in southern Maine, including the Forecaster, American Journal and Lakes Region Weekly, will become digital only this month.
The weekly newspapers that publish under the Lewiston Sun Journal, such as the Franklin Journal and Bethel Citizen, will issue a print newspaper every other week.
No production or delivery changes are coming to the Portland Press Herald.
In addition to cost savings, the Maine Trust for Local News said the cuts reflect a renewed focus on increasing and improving the organization’s online presence. This is especially needed when digital subscriptions at the organization increased by 11 percent last year and digital advertising jumped 23 percent while print subscriptions shrank.
The news follows multiple high-level departures from the Maine Trust for Local News’ papers over recent months, as well as the January exit of Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, the co-founder and CEO of the National Trust for Local News, just four years after the nonprofit was created and less than two years after its purchase of the Maine newspapers.
The National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit founded in 2021, bought most of the newspapers in Maine, including the Portland Press Herald, from previous owner Reade Brower in August 2023.
The newspapers involved in the purchase included the Portland Press Herald, Lewiston Sun Journal, Kennebec Journal in Augusta, Times Record in Brunswick, Waterville-based Morning Sentinel and more than a dozen weekly papers across southern Maine. Together, they became part of the Maine Trust for Local News, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Local News.
The Maine newspapers were previously part of Masthead Maine, a network of independent news outlets, but are now among the 65 outlets the National Trust owns across Maine, Colorado and Georgia.
The nonprofit has faced financial challenges and numerous leadership changes in the months following the transition. Those changes included the resignations of several longtime executives.
In July 2024, Steve Greenlee left his position as executive editor of the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram to become a professor at Boston University, the Portland Press Herald reported. Greenlee had returned to the Press Herald in 2012 to be a managing editor before ascending to the top editor role in 2021.
A month later, Nita Lelyveld stepped down as the Press Herald’s managing editor after holding the title for two years. She initially joined the newspaper in 2021 and served as its city editor.
Greenlee’s and Lelyveld’s departures preceded Lisa DeSisto’s announcement that she would step down from her position as CEO and publisher of the Maine Trust for Local News. She previously served as Masthead Maine’s CEO, and joined the company in 2012 when it was MaineToday Media and stayed with the organization through two leadership changes.
In a letter to readers published by the Press Herald announcing her departure, DeSisto wrote the Maine Trust has been “working with urgency these past 18 months to find a path to sustainability,” but the organization is “not immune to the challenges of our industry.”
In February 2025, Jody Jalbert, publisher of the Sun Journal and other papers, announced in February 2025 that she would resign after 36 years with the newspaper.
That same month, Judy Meyer, executive editor of the Sun Journal, announced on Feb. 24, 2025, that she was stepping down from her role. Meyer started as a journalist for the daily newspaper in 1990 and had held the top role for nearly a decade.