Gina Hamilton, long time editor and primary writer, analyst, and opinion scribe at the Coastal Journal, has changed careers.
An article in the Portland Press Herald describes it thusly:
Gina Hamilton, former editor of the Coastal Journal, a weekly newspaper based in Bath, is owner and editor of the New Maine Times, which will also be published weekly.
The business model is non-profit:
The publication has filed paperwork to be registered as a nonprofit….seeking funding through foundation grants, corporate underwriting and reader contributions -- readers may be asked to subscribe online for an annual subscription fee of $35.
Most foundations in this day and age have political/social agendas, and seeking grants from them suggests alignment with those agendas. As to corporate underwriting, who knows what baggage that will carry with it. Regardless, it’s safe to say that the new offering will not be free as a bird when it comes to editorial leanings. And anyone familiar with Hamilton’s work would expect nothing less than a significant leftward slant.
Who knows, maybe that’s why she’s doing this. It could be those in charge at the CJ would not grant her even greater latitude to head that way, so she took her golden kleenex and headed out to find ‘creative freedom.’
Now as for that $35 online subscription fee, we must admit it has some appeal. We’ve been operating as a certifiable non-profit since inception. If we can bring in the shekels and still carry the cachet of non-profit altruism, what’s not to like?
The Ostrich has been going the route of a ‘non-profit’ for some time now, including the tax status that affords, and the New Maine Times is following in their footsteps.
So what are we, chopped lobster tomalley?
Mr. Poppycock,
ReplyDeleteI have searched all over the bits and bytes on "Other Side" for the button that would enable me to sign up for a subscription using my credit card. Alas I cannot find that button even with my most advanced tunneling utilities. Please tell me that it's not true that "Other Side" remains free.
frenostat
This is too delicious, the"New Maine Times"? And I thought it had disappeared in the dustbin of bad history. It was obvious the direction of the CJ under Gina, and the CJ was business oriented, but she regularly trashed business. Obviously someone at the CJ heard the complaints.
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