Those sinful-looking blueberry pancakes, and that nice, noisy foamy latte – would you believe they are rescuing journalism, in and around Camden, Maine, at least? 

Here in lobster country, at the Villager Cafe, customers can have their breakfast or lunch with a side of news, a weekly newspaper called the Midcoast Villager. “I was just reading about the SNAP benefits and different food pantries in the area,” said one cafe customer.

The cafe subsidizes the paper; the newsroom is one floor up. Throw in the rent from all the other tenants in the building, along with revenue from the Inn at Camden Place next door (same ownership), and it all helps.

“From the business standpoint, it achieves a sustainability,” said Reade Brower. At one time, Brower owned almost all of Maine’s newspapers, before selling most of them off. In September 2024, he merged four weeklies into the Midcoast Villager. The cafe opened this past April, but not just to make money. 

“The accountability issues and local sports and all that stuff is important to a lot of people,” he said. “I don’t think that’s enough to sell and keep newspapers alive right now. I think it has to revolve around community. And what better way to serve community than to invite people here for food and to mix all this stuff together?”

How often do you see the owner of a newspaper, and members of his staff, hanging out with readers over breakfast?

Kathleen Capetta helps Brower run what they both see as an experiment in rebuilding trust in news. “We’re present, we’re visible, we’re real,” she said. “We’re not behind a screen.”

And would that experiment work if the food weren’t good? “Absolutely not, no!” Capetta laughed.

“It’s good, classic diner food, but a little bit elevated, which is I think kind of like our paper,” said deputy editor Alex Seitz-Wald. He is the face of the newspaper when he parks himself in the cafe on Friday mornings, to hear complaints, story tips, whatever. “Having a place where people can vent, or can say something, and have it be heard, I think is really valuable,” he said.

Seitz-Wald was an NBC politics reporter in Washington, D.C., for a decade before taking a chance – and a pay cut – to work for the Midcoast Villager, a start-up in a field where two newspapers die every week.

How’s the Villager doing? Circulation revenue, we’re told, is 40% above what all four papers it replaced took in – so, promising.

“I’m quite glad that I still have a newspaper to work for,” said Glenn Billington. A local news lifer, he’s the optimistic ad salesman and columnist for the Midcoast Villager, just as he was for one of its now-defunct predecessors.

The mascot on the paper’s masthead is Vern, who is the epitome of Midcoast Maine. “He sure is,” said Billington. “Look at his sou’wester. He’s got the hat that you wear when the wind blows from the southwest and it brings rain. And he’s got the telescope. Vern’s looking at the future of newspapers.”

What one sees at the Villager Cafe is old-fashioned – people sitting down at tables, eating and talking and looking at each other eye-to-eye. Or as Brower put it, “You’re picking up what we’re putting down.”

RECIPE: Maine Blueberry Pancakes with Blueberry Compote, from the Villager Cafe

RECIPE: Haddock Hash, from the Villager Cafe

RECIPE: Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup, from The Villager Cafe

For more menu suggestions check out the “Sunday Morning” 2025 “Food Issue” recipe index

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Story produced by Jack Weingart. Editor: Ed Givnish.

     
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