Maine news publisher quits

By Ted Cohen/The Maine Wire

The Maine Trust for Local News, already reeling from a string of executive resignations, is now losing the publisher of one of its largest papers.

Jody Jalbert, publisher of the Lewiston Sun Journal and the Maine Trust for Local News Community News Division, said she is stepping down.

Jalbert is a 36-year-veteran of the newspaper, including the last three years as publisher.

Jalbert’s unexpected resignation comes on the heels of Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro vacating her position as CEO of the parent National Trust for Local News.

The trust bought the Portland Press Herald, which is the state's largest paper, along with the Lewiston publication and a string of weeklies in 2023.

Not long thereafter, Shapiro began making budget cuts - including laying off freelance culture reporters for the Press Herald - even as she accepted a huge salary raise.

Jalbert, 56, started working at the Sun journal in 1988.

“My whole life has been working here at the Sun Journal,” Jalbert said. “I kind of grew up at the paper, so everybody here feels like family.”

In a related development the only big Maine paper not owned by the trust - Bangor Daily News - has laid off its Portland reporter.

Troy Bennett said he'd worked for the paper for 13 years. “I can't lie, it's weird,” he said. This is the only day job I've had since I was 18.”

Avery Yale Kamila, one of the veteran culture writers recently ousted by the Press Herald, decried Bennett's dismissal.

“He's a really hard worker so it's a real loss,” Yale Kamila said.