How can we make our newspapers stronger?

That is a question constantly spoken in and out of our newsroom –
whether it is during our Friday morning editorial staff meetings or
during our typical Wednesday lunch at our favorite restaurant. And, as
reporters and editors, we rarely leave our job at the office when we
leave for home. So, we continue to tackle that same question during
dinner – and often times when we wake in the middle of the night
thinking of that story, that headline, those photos that appeared in
the week’s edition.

However, in recent weeks, we finally formulated a plan that we hope will answer that question.

We have rearranged our newsroom in the hopes of making your community
newspaper stronger and more efficient while continuing to provide you
with all the stories and happenings in your town.

We have divided our newsroom into two bureaus – York and
Cumberland County. I will serve as managing editor for the Cumberland
County bureau of Mainely Media LLC, our parent company, which owns our
six free community weekly newspapers. This includes your South
Portland-Cape Elizabeth Sentry, the Gazette and the Scarborough Leader.


Ward Peck, who has served as your editor at the Sentry for the past
several years will continue in that position. However, his job duties
now will include the revamping our Web sites, which is a suggestion
readers have made to us often. We listened – and hope you not only
visit the site often, but share your thoughts with fellow readers on
our blog.

Amanda Estes will turn over her part-time Scarborough Leader reporting
duties to our newest reporter, and will now work full-time at the
Sentry.

Readers should notice little change as our Cumberland County bureau
continues on its dedicated path to providing you accurate and
interesting stories within our pages. The only change we hope you will
see when reading the Sentry is seeing a stronger, more cohesive product
– and an answer to the question we hope you will soon pose to yourself
– does this paper seem stronger?

As always, we welcome suggestions, feedback and story ideas. Please do
not hesitate to contact me at 282-4337, ext. 229, or Ward Peck at ext.
221.

–Colleen Marshall