PARIS – The new publisher of the Advertiser-Democrat explained the company’s vision for the weekly to a group of local people interested in area business and growth Thursday morning.
“The goal is to continue and improve upon the strong tradition of the Advertiser-Democrat,” Publisher Ed Snook said several hours after addressing a group at the Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce breakfast. This is a regular series held in the early morning at the Paris Fire Station.
Snook said he has already made improvements on the production side of the newspaper since the Costello family purchased the newspaper and the Rumford Falls Times in May.
The Costellos own the Sun Journal, the Forecaster newspapers and the Bethel Citizen, as well as some other non-newspaper enterprises.
Snook said the company bought the two weeklies because the family has a commitment to local news, “and newspapers are something we know.”
Plus, adding businesses to the company allows it to expand its product line and diversify.
Snook said he was asked about the future of newspapers at the breakfast. He responded that although newspapers have some challenges ahead, they have a franchise on local news.
“I have not seen anything on the Internet that will challenge that dramatically,” he said in his office at the Advertiser-Democrat. “People want to read about things locally.”
The Costellos also have plans to redevelop the block of buildings they purchased from Howard James, the previous owner of the Advertiser-Democrat.
They will tear down the crumbling Gingerbread House in 2006, but leave the carriage house behind it, Snook said. And then they will hire consultants to advise them about the other possibilities for their property, which extends from the Advertiser-Democrat building to Water Street, excluding the art center.
“Anything and everything is possible,” he said, adding that all decisions would be based on what’s happening downtown with other developments.
Comments are no longer available on this story