And on the seventh day, they created a newspaper
They missed deadline by hours.
A front-page feature story that became scrambled during production gave readers this gem of a sentence: “We’re the only thing that’s holding dump is open.”
Processors and printers jammed.
Contracted delivery vans were half the size ordered; some were forced to the roadside by police concerned about overloading.
Yet despite it all, the first edition of the Sunday Sun Journal, with its bold blue “Sunday” type and first-in-the-state color photographs, made it to 50,000 subscribers on Oct. 2, 1983 and sold out on the newsstands. It heralded the second Sunday newspaper in the state and a leap of faith by the family that has owned the Sun Journal since 1898.
“It’s amazing, sometimes I wonder how we ever did it,” said Publisher James Costello Sr. as he reflected on the chaotic days leading up to Sunday’s debut edition 20 years ago. “And we still produce a fresh and engaging newspaper every single week. It always amazes me.”
The impetus to launch a Sunday paper was sheer economics, according to Costello. The Portland Press Herald’s Sunday edition was beginning to get a toehold in the Sun Journal’s circulation area. Resting on a solid advertising base, the Lewiston papers – the morning Sun and the evening Journal – were also poised to grow, said Costello. Extensive marketing studies showed readers and advertisers wanted a Sunday paper.
The decision was made early on to have an entirely separate editorial staff and an entirely different look for the new publication. Tom Kelsch, an experienced editor formerly working in Kentucky and New Hampshire, was hired as editor, and his wife, Mary-Lynn, the editorial writer. Most of the news staff for the paper was hired from within. Five of the original Sunday staff still work at the Sun Journal – Lisa Giguere, Heather McCarthy, Tim McCloskey, Mark Mogensen and Russ Dillingham – forming a veteran core of journalists in the newsroom.
“I think that’s one of the most wonderful things – that we still see so many of the staff that started Sunday here,” said Costello.
But the newsroom changes weren’t the only ones necessary to get the new edition off the ground. A new shift of compositors – the people who at that time physically put the paper together and got the proofs ready for the press – had to be scheduled. A Saturday night press crew was added, and major modifications had to be made to the press to accommodate the use of color photos in the Sunday paper – the first in the state and a cornerstone of the Sunday edition’s design.
Advertising promotions were created that took advantage of the press’ color capabilities allowing for the first ads in the state featuring color photos. And to get the new edition to readers, stores and 200 new dealers, the company hired two more distributors and created a new trucking system.
The Sunday launch came at a steep price – about two or three times the projected cost, said Costello.
A decision to require daily subscribers to receive the Sunday paper also added to the cost. One disgruntled reader sued the paper in federal court. The suit was eventually dismissed, but not before the Sun Journal incurred some serious legal expenses.
“Still, I think everything worked out well,” said Costello.
The first Sunday paper weighed more than a pound and a quarter – still regarded as a hefty Sunday paper by industry standards today. In addition to the news, sports, Perspective, Living and Business sections, the first Sunday edition had a 16-page Spotlight section with entertainment and arts news. The cover of that section featured an interview with Tabitha King.
The top story on Page One was a Democratic straw poll that had presidential candidate Walter Mondale edging past Alan Cranston. Then-President Ronald Reagan was featured in the lower right corner, congratulating the Sun Journal on its new endeavor.
Also on Page One were two stories on the arrival of dial-up phones in Bryant Pond, which was still using crank phones and a local operator for phone service.
It was in one of those stories that the unfortunate scrambled sentence appeared. In fact, there were several scrambled sentences in the story, which had been cut into several pieces and mistakenly rearranged several times on the page in the pre-computerized production era.
When the writer of the story, Mogensen, the Sun Journal’s current enterprise editor, asked his neighbor what she thought of the new Sunday paper, she said she found that edition particularly enjoyable.
“I just love doing puzzles and it took me all day to figure out your story,” she quipped.
Mistakes aside, that package on Bryant Pond’s new phone system remains one of Costello’s favorites.
“For them it was the end of an era and the beginning of the next,” said Costello. “For us, too.”
Since its birth 20 years ago, the Sunday paper has grown. The separate daily and Sunday staffs are now merged and all the design and production work is done on computers, allowing for a sophistication in its presentation that was unimaginable in 1983. Reporters can access data with the click of a mouse rather than run across the street to the Lewiston Public Library as was the custom 20 years ago.
More than 100,000 readers check out the Sun Journal’s Sunday edition each week. With a paid circulation of nearly 36,000, it is the second-largest Sunday paper in the state.
Its reputation grows as well. Over the 20 years, it has won dozens of journalism awards. Several months ago, for the second year in a row, it was named the best Sunday newspaper in New England in its circulation category, while two weeks ago it captured the best Sunday newspaper in Maine title from the Maine Press Association. It has been named the best newspaper in Maine or New England nine of its 20 years in existence.
“In my career, launching the Sunday paper was probably the biggest highlight,” said Costello. “It’s very satisfying to create something and watch it grow.”
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