by Ardeana Hamlin
of The Weekly Staff
Twenty-five years ago The Weekly began its days as a free newspaper owned by the Bangor Daily News under Northeast Publishing company. In those days, as it does now, it focused on community, school and other news, provided useful information on a variety of topics and served as a venue for advertisers who wanted to let consumers know about their products and services.
“My congratulations to all on the 25th anniversary of The Weekly. It is still an important part of The Bangor Daily News,” said BDN publisher Rick Warren.
Over the years, The Weekly operated at several locations in Bangor, including in a building on Summer Street.
John Browning, who now works part-time at the BDN after retiring several years ago from a 14-year career in the BDN sales department, joined The Weekly staff as sales manager in 1997.
“When I first came to The Weekly it was one hundred percent mailed to 35,000 households,” he said.
Browning recalled starting advertising campaigns focused on health and home improvement. “The response from both advertisers and readers was excellent,” he said.
Sandy Grimes of Hampden said she has read The Weekly all of those 25 years. “It’s just the right size for me,” she said. “I enjoy it so much. I has what’s going on in the area. And when I need something done around the house, I go to the classifieds and find someone to call to get the job done.”
In 2001, The Weekly became an in-house part of the BDN at its location at 491 Main St., with Roxanne Moore Saucier as its editor. She served in that capacity for 10 years.
“The BDN officially took it over Nov. 1, 2001,” Saucier said. “I think my signature contribution was combining the old-fashioned approach of weeklies that tried to get as many people’s names in the paper as possible, and my interest in local and family history. Just as the BDN is the historical record for hard news, I saw The Weekly as the historical record of community happenings. So we listed all 245 names of Mainers killed in the Korean War that are listed on the Korean War Memorial at Mount Hope Cemetery [in Bangor]. And when Cole Land Transportation Museum took a plane load of veterans, troop greeters, museum volunteers and community members to see the World War II Memorial on a one-day trip to Washington, D.C., in September 2005, we listed the names of all 140 people who went. And I have had occasion to go back and check both of those lists [as research sources] since they were originally printed.”
Saucier also sharpened the focus of The Weekly by giving a voice to area nonprofit organizations, and ramping up community, school and health news. She added a new column, Senior Beat, written by Carol Higgins Taylor, who still writes the column that provides useful information of interest to senior citizens.
Saucier’s love of local history was reflected in The Weekly in the Yesterday column, the Picture of the Past and news of historical society museum exhibits and related stories. She also focused on news of the Maine military, and veterans.
“When The Weekly moved to the Bangor Daily News,” Browning recalled, “it became a standard-size newspaper. We saw large increases in advertising every week.”
A perennial favorite of The Weekly continues to be The Weekly Question, which in its early days was asked, at random, on the streets of Bangor. These days, the Question is still asked at random, but also at businesses in Bangor and surrounding towns.
In 2002, Ardeana Hamlin joined The Weekly staff. Saucier and Hamlin deepened the emphasis on community news, envisioning The Weekly as the “glue” that contributed to bonding the community together.
Saucier’s work at The Weekly also included the addition of a bylined story on the front page of each edition of the publication.
After Saucier’s retirement in October 2011, The Weekly base of operations moved to the BDN special sections department under the leadership of editor Brian Swartz. Swartz, continuing The Weekly’s focus on community events and news, and bylined stories, brought his photography skills, and expertise in Civil War and Maine history to The Weekly. Swartz retired in 2014.
Aimee Thibodeau, managing editor of the special sections department since April 2014, is The Weekly’s current leader.
From the very beginning, Browning said, advertisers saw The Weekly as an opportunity to let consumers know about the products and services their businesses provided.
Today The Weekly, both mailed and as in insert in the Thursday edition of the BDN, has a circulation of approximately 45,000 and reaches 31 communities, Browning said. “It remains a popular publication that people look forward to reading,” he said.