Speaking on the importance of community journalism, Belfast, Maine, Oct. 30

The Island Institute is hosting a conference on Trust and Community Journalism October 30th in Belfast, Maine and has kindly asked me to deliver a keynote address. It’s also a send off party of sorts for Tom Groening, the former Bangor Daily News reporter who has edited the Institute’s monthly, Working Waterfront, for the better part of the past two decades. Free and open to the public.  Information here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/trust-in-community-journalism-tickets-1636535855799

Here’s the event description:

Join us for an evening’s conversation about the role of community journalism on the Maine coast and islands, considered through the lens of Island Institute’s 32-year-old newspaper, The Working Waterfront.

Local journalism is waning while nationally-focused media becomes increasingly partisan and conflict-driven. The fate of our coastal and island communities depends, in part, on trusted sources of news that offer fact-based reporting, context, analysis, and responsible opinion.

After more than 12 years as editor of The Working Waterfront and Island Institute’s annual publication, Island Journal, and 25 years at weekly and daily newspapers, Tom Groening is retiring early next year. Groening and Robin Alden, founder of Commercial Fisheries News, co-founder of the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, and commissioner of Marine Resources in the Angus King administration, will have a conversation about the state of community journalism, what is working and what is not, and what its future might be.

An audience question and answer session will follow the conversation.

Colin Woodard, author of The Lobster Coast, American Nations, American Character, The Republic of Pirates, Union, and Nations Apart, will deliver keynote remarks.