Next up: Portland, ME...the whole f*cking operation?

Some background on the Blethen family's financial problem, and how it affects Portland.


http://www.crosscut.com/seattle-newspapers/16060/

 

Oh, crosscut. How I loathe thee...but that's another post on another thread...

 

I was 10 months into my career when the Ottawa Journal and Winnipeg paper (the Tribune, perhaps?) folded on the same night in 1980. We had gone to a morning relaunch and I was hired as part of it 10 months before.
That night about 8 p.m., we were called to a meeting by the executive editor and he said something to the effect.
"There are a lot of rumours...Conrad Black is going to buy us...somebody else is going to buy us...I don't know. Keep working and by the spring, it will be good business to do the Ottawa Journal."
At midnight, he called us around again, read a statement from the publisher, and it was pounded in as the last front page story in Ottawa Journal history.
I'll never forget it.

 

Terrible news...it's been a good paper for its size (not to mention Portland's a beautiful town).