Value proposition

Part of the Maine Trust for Local News

Sun Media Group’s origins date back to the May 20, 1847 publication of a weekly newspaper called the Lewiston Falls Journal.Dr. Alonzo Garcelon, later a governor of Maine, was one of the founders, along with William Waldron, a printer by trade. Francis Lane edited what started out as a literary journal, and subscriptions in that first year sold at $1.50.

The offices moved that year from Lisbon Street to 104 Park St. where Sun Media Group newspapers are still located.

Sun Media Group — was announced in 2007 to serve as an umbrella to unify the Sun Journal with all of the individual companies owned by the Costellos, including Sun Press, The Bethel Citizen, The Forecaster publications, Rumford Falls Times, Advertiser Democrat, The Franklin Journal, Livermore Falls Advertiser, The Rangley Highlander, The Penobscot Times, American Journal, Lakes Region Weekly, Maine Women Magazine, 95 North and My Gen.

On Aug. 1, 2017, Sun Media Group was sold to Reade Brower, a mid-coast media executive and entrepreneur who also owns MaineToday Media, which includes the Portland Press Herald, Waterville Sentinel and the Kennebec Journal. He is also the owner of Alliance Press, a commercial printing company in Brunswick, and publishes four weeklies in midcoast Maine: The Free Press in Rockland, The Courier-Gazette in Rockland, The Camden Herald and The Republican Journal in Belfast.

In 2016, Brower and Chris Harris, former president of Upper Valley Press in New Hampshire, purchased The Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus in Vermont.

When the Sun Media Group sale was announced, Brower said “these are landmark Maine institution newspapers. We’re really all excited about creating a family of newspapers in Maine that the community can rely on for news they can trust.”