The national nonprofit that owns most of Maine’s newspapers on Tuesday announced that it sold 21 of its newspapers in Colorado to a company that media observers say is known for cuts to local newsrooms.

The National Trust for Local News described the move to sell the Denver-area publications to Tempe, Arizona-based Times Media Group as a restructuring that will “allow the organization to maximize its long-term impact and sustainability in the state.”

Will Nelligan, chief growth officer at the National Trust for Local News, described the sale as a way to “reduce our footprint in greater Denver without reducing local journalism there, all while positioning ourselves to grow in the parts of Colorado where the need for our unique model is greatest.”

Neiman Journalism Lab reporting on the sale described Times Media Group as “a company with a history of gutting local outlets.”

The National Trust has owned most of the newspapers in Maine since 2023 when it bought five dailies and 17 weeklies from Reade Brower, who still owns several newspapers in the midcoast and Hancock County.

The purchase, which included the Portland Press Herald, Lewiston Sun Journal, Kennebec Journal in Augusta, Times Record in Brunswick, Waterville-based Morning Sentinel and more than a dozen weekly papers across southern Maine, was heralded a way to safeguard local journalism at a time when small newspapers are regularly sold to private equity funds that then strip them of their assets.

In recent months, the Maine Trust saw a wave of high-level departures, and in March announced lay-offs of 36 full-time and 13 part-time positions, along with plans to reduce its print operations to save money.

The sale of the 21 Colorado papers was announced one day after the National Trust appointed its new CEO Tom Wiley. He replaced co-founder Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro who resigned in January.