When it was announced that the Sun Journal and her sister papers would be sold to the National Trust for Local News in July, I cried tears of joy.

In a time when local newspapers are declining due to reduced revenues and irresponsible corporate ownership, it felt like we had won the lottery.

After news of a similar sale in northeastern Pennsylvania broke a couple of weeks ago, I cried again, this time, devastated. The owners of the Scranton Times-Tribune and three other daily newspapers in the region I grew up had been sold to MediaNews Group, a subsidiary of Alden Global Capital. This corporation is the grim reaper of newspapers, widely known for slashing staff and maximizing profits to the detriment of communities across the country.

Not a single staff member at the Sun Journal or her sister papers lost their job after the sale was finalized in August. The paper has remained nearly unchanged, and I have hope that the new owners may even seek to invest in our coverage of central and western Maine.

In contrast, it took less than a week for the new owners of the Scranton Times-Tribune to offer staff buyouts, some who have worked for these papers for decades. One employee of the paper told me that many planned to take them, including himself.

Scranton, a post-industrial city not unlike Lewiston, will soon have a paper which has become a shell of its former self. It will neither be able to meaningfully report on Scranton’s government nor the new wave of South Asian immigrants moving into the area. Future high school athletes won’t know the joy of being recognized in its sports section as I once did.

I imagine the Times-Tribune will soon look a lot like the Sun Journal would without Russ Dillingham, Mark LaFlamme, Donna Perry or the many other longtime staff members who’ve made our paper what it is.

That’s the reality that people in northeastern Pennsylvania now face — a reality I’m immensely grateful that western and central Maine has been spared.

Vanessa Paolella is a Bates College graduate and former Sun Journal reporter. She is now in Madagascar as a member of the Peace Corps.

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