Tampa Bay Times Managing Editor Carolyn Fox has been named executive editor of the Maine Trust for Local News. Boyzell Hosey
The Maine Trust for Local News has hired an executive editor to lead all of its news operations, including the Press Herald and more than a dozen other daily and weekly newspapers across the state.
Carolyn Fox will be stepping down as the managing editor of the Tampa Bay Times to take on the newly created position. She starts on Oct. 7.
Maine Trust publisher and CEO Lisa DeSisto announced the hire Tuesday in a memo to employees.
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“After a rigorous recruitment process that attracted candidates from all over the country, we’ve found an exceptional newsroom leader who brings hands-on experience leading transformational work with the end goal of producing impactful journalism that makes a difference in the lives of our readers,” DeSisto wrote.
Fox, 42, is the first newsroom leadership hire since former owner Reade Brower sold the Press Herald and his other papers last year to the National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit journalism organization. The Maine Trust was created to manage operations here, while the National Trust has created similar state trusts to oversee news organizations in Colorado and Georgia, and is looking to expand into other states.
In an interview Tuesday, Fox said she has dreamed of being an executive editor for years and called this “an incredible opportunity to do great journalism.”
Fox said the model set up by the Maine Trust – which accepts donations and grant support in addition to generating advertising and circulation revenue – is one of the reasons she was interested in the job, and she hopes to have resources and access to analytics that will help serve readers.
“The nonprofit model is so exciting in part because you can make that pitch to people that the journalism matters – what we do matters – and then sell that,” she said.
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The position was created after the departure of Portland Press Herald Executive Editor Steve Greenlee, who stepped down this summer for a faculty position at Boston University. Fox will oversee the Press Herald’s news department, but also be in charge of the newsrooms of the Lewiston Sun Journal, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, the Morning Sentinel in Waterville, the Times Record in Brunswick and several weekly papers in southern and western Maine.
With a background in digital newspaper and magazine platforms, Fox is expected to continue leading the Maine Trust’s transition as fewer readers rely on traditional print papers. Although circulation numbers have declined at the trust’s newspapers – as with every newspaper across the country – more and more people read coverage online.
Dan Kennedy, a professor of journalism at Northeastern University who closely follows media trends, said he doesn’t know Fox, but said the Tampa Bay Times has long been “a terrific paper,” even amid financial challenges.
“The Tampa Bay Times – and maybe this is why she was so attractive to the Maine Trust – is a for-profit newspaper owned by a nonprofit (The Poynter Institute). So, it’s exactly the same setup,” he said.
He also said Fox’s background in digital operations makes sense.
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“It’s all digital now, so I suppose if you brought someone in who is a print nostalgist, that would be disturbing,” Kennedy said. “I think it probably makes sense to have someone with overall editorial authority over all the papers but at the same time I hope there are people on the ground who are in charge of individual papers as well.”
Fox’s role as executive editor for all the trust’s papers and websites is “designed to support our ‘one company’ vision by accelerating our collaboration, digital transformation, and focus on staff training and development across all Maine Trust newsrooms,” DeSisto said.
“I think that was one of the top criteria for us, not only digital expertise but experience leading that transformation,” she said. “At the core of all of it – regardless of platform – is important, ambitious, relevant journalism.”
Fox hinted that changes could be coming, but not at the expense of quality journalism.
“I think when it comes to change, it’s important to understand that within this business, you try things, see how they go and adjust accordingly,” she said. “The number-one person you serve is your reader, and they will tell you quickly if they like something or not.”
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One of Fox’s first tasks will be to rebuild the leadership structure of the Press Herald newsroom. In addition to Greenlee, managing editor Nita Lelyveld stepped down this month.
Fox is a native of San Diego and has held positions at USA Today, National Geographic, Advance Local – a New York-based news organization – and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. She has spent the last five years as an editor at the Tampa Bay Times, which is widely regarded as one of the top regional newspapers in the country. The paper has won 14 Pulitzer Prizes since 1964.
“I have never worked somewhere with such good journalism and good people,” she said. “The journalism is of the highest quality for regional newspaper, but the people here are as good as colleagues get.”
The Tampa Bay Times announced Fox’s departure on Tuesday as part of a broader leadership reorganization at that paper. Editor Mark Katches praised Fox in the Times article.
“I couldn’t be more proud of what she has accomplished at the Times. And I’m grateful for every day I’ve gotten to spend with her in this special newsroom of ours,” Katches said.
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DeSisto said readers should expect improvements in the Maine’s Trust digital products and presentation but said the goal of serving communities remains unchanged.
Fox said said she looks forward to meeting with staff at all the Maine Trust newspapers and learning more about the communities they serve. She fondly remembers visiting Maine as a child, but she also went to Emerson College in Boston and has family and friends in New England.
Her top goal is to put staff in a position to do their best work and to have fun.
“When people have fun and enjoy it, they are going to give you their best,” she said.
Prior to Fox, Greenlee served as the Press Herald’s top editor beginning in 2021. Greenlee was the paper’s managing editor for nine years prior to that under former Executive Editor Cliff Schechtman.
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In announcing his decision to step down, Greenlee cited both the heavy burden of leading a newsroom and an exciting new opportunity to work with student journalists at BU.
“We have terrific leadership across the room, and the work we’re doing to accelerate our digital transformation will set us up well to face the future and sustain our operation,” he said in a memo to Maine Trust staff in June. “With the backing of the National Trust for Local News and a publisher who cares about good journalism, this newsroom has a bright future. You’re well-positioned to continue doing exceptional work.”
Amber Lambke, cofounded Maine Grains in Skowhegan, Maine, more than a dozen years ago and inspired farmers to grow grains and breathe new life into the region’s agricultural scene. She converted an old jailhouse into a gristmill. Here, organic grains like wheat, rye, oats, corn, and spelt, plus heritage varieties including einkorn, kamut, red fife, and more are stone-milled into premium flours. Now, the company is making breakfast, or dinner, easier with a new line of pancake mixes that are free from additives and preservatives and give pancakes a nutritious lift in minutes.
Maine Grains Sea Biscuits for dogs. Maine Grains
They come in three varieties, and you add eggs and milk: Spelt Pancake Mix, which delivers a sweet, nutty flavor; Multigrain Malted, a blend of all-purpose flour, whole spelt, cornmeal, rye, and malted barley that makes pancakes with a rich nutty flavor; and grain-free Buckwheat Pancake Mix, a low-gluten option made from buckwheat, which, despite its name, is actually a seed.
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There’s also another addition, and this one is for the canine members of your family, Sea Biscuits For Dogs. The company handcrafts the biscuits from upcycled ingredients — wheat bran from the milling process, whey from a local dairy, and seaweed powder sourced from Maine’s kelp producers. These treats are a healthy reward you can feel good about giving your beloved. (Each pancake mix is $9.95; sea biscuits, $8.95.) Buy at mainegrains.com.
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Ann Trieger Kurland can be reached at anntrieger@gmail.com.
The Connecticut River, 410 miles long, courses from the top of New Hampshire, along the Vermont border, and then through Massachusetts and Connecticut to the Long Island Sound. Along the way, it flows past countless scenes of human drama.
This summer, reporter Ben James rode his bike the length of the Connecticut – camera and microphone in tow.
In the first in a series, Ben brings us interviews with people working, grieving and getting by along the Upper Connecticut.
“Life on the Connecticut” was made possible through a partnership between NEPM, NHPR, Vermont Public and the New England News Collaborative.
At least six people have been killed and 13 more have been injured in a suicide bombing in the Afghan capital of Kabul.
Khalid Zadran, the spokesman for the Kabul police chief, told the Associated Press that the dead included a woman, and that all of the injured were civilians.
The explosion took place in the Qala Bakhtiar neighborhood of Kabul, and quoting Zadran, Afghanistan’s Tolo News reported that the bomber “concealed explosives on their body.”
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing yet, although ISIS-K, a faction of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, sporadically carries out attacks around the country. They frequently target Afghanistan’s minority Shia population, although schools and maternity hospitals have also been struck by deadly attacks.
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Until August 2021, the Taliban were responsible for much of the violence in Afghanistan as they fought with U.S. and NATO forces.
But once the group took over the country three years ago and U.S. and NATO troops fully withdrew, they promised Afghans a greater measure of security.
That promise was immediately tested when ISIS-K launched twin attacks on Kabul’s international airport and the nearby Baron Hotel on Aug. 26, 2021.
Nearly 200 people were killed, including 13 members of the U.S. military. Most of those killed were Afghan civilians.
Although ISIS-K and the Taliban are both Sunni groups, their ideologies differ.
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As the Taliban re-stablished the control they lost over Afghanistan in 2001, ISIS-K has stepped up its recruiting tactics and attacks, often going after the very groups the Taliban promised to keep safe: Women, children, minorities, and even foreign dignitaries.
In September of 2022, an ISIS attack outside the Russian embassy in Kabul killed 2 embassy staff. Three months later, another attack targeted the Pakistani embassy in Kabul, wounding a guard inside the embassy compound.