The Portland Press Herald is really taking on the role of Maine’s Newspaper. There are many newspapers across the state that take articles and pictures off the Associated Press Pole for National and State coverage but The Portland Press really covers the state well. They frequently send writers and photographers all across the Nation as well. Not for National stories, but for stories that involve Maine or Mainer’s in different parts of the nation.
The Herald is owned by the Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

The Pages:
Front Section:

Like all papers it has a Front Page (obviously). On this front page you will usually find about 3 or 4 color pictures, and about 5-7 articles. There is always a National article, usually 2, there is always 2-3 Maine articles and sometimes there are sports articles, legislation articles, New England articles, and sometimes World articles. I have found that about 80% of the articles on the front page are written by staff writers and only 20% are taken from the Associated Press. Not to knock the Associated Press, but when I read a newspaper I like it to concern my area and even concentrate on it as well.

At the top of the front page are Sky-boxes or Promo-Boxes. These are pictures, drawings, short one liners that draws readers into the paper. On the newsstand when the paper is folded, this is usually the first thing people see when they see the paper. These boxes are under the words, “Inside Today”. They are usually dealing with the topics of sports, weather, feature articles and the various sections of the paper. These too are in color which makes the paper a better read.

The “Flag”, is the Name of the Paper. In this case it is Portland Press Herald. This appears directly under the promo-boxes. On the left of the flag is the day and date, and on the right of it is the price, $.60, the number of pages, 38, and the web-site, www.portland.com.

I have found that the front section is a good section on this paper. I like the color, the Headlines, the use of Drop Caps, the use of White space in design, and the pulled quotes and nugget boxes. These things all together work to make the front page exciting and informative.

On the inside of the front page is the days focus. There is usually a large picture and long story about something that the paper focuses on in the world. This page is very informative. There is a Lottery section where the Maine, Tri-State and Massachusetts numbers are reported. There is a corrections section that usually is used, but not too often. A today on television box is also printed on this page. And of course there is the papers Directory on this page as well. Phone numbers to the editors, for advertisements, other news bureaus, and any other information about the paper is printed on the inside of the front page.

The third page of the paper, 3A, covers The Nation. Two large articles appear along with advertising. On the side of this page from top to bottom is short articles that are weird or unbelievable news. I like this section. The next three pages also cover The World and Nation.

These pages are followed by the Editorials. There is always a funny political drawing on this page and some good editorials. The forum is a place for people to write about what’s on their mind or about the paper and the articles it prints. The back page of this section is where the ends of stories from the front page are printed. This section also has color pictures.

Local and State:

This section is probably the best section of the paper. Maine writers are excellent if you ask me. Bill Nemitz, Roberta Scruggs, David Hench and John Richardson are just some of the writers that work for the Portland Press that do an excellent job reporting the news. There are always articles from the State House or about agricultural issues.
In this section you can expect to find, Obituaries, Hearings, Community News, Births, plenty of Advertising, and the Weather page.

Food and Health:
This page always seems to have a large picture of food or drink on it. It is almost like artwork how this page is put together, you can tell that the designers of the paper are most at liberty with this page. Inside of this section are the usual’s for newspapers. Horoscopes, Television guides, Ann Landers, Crosswords, Comics, The Almanac, and Recipes. Inside of this section is the business section. Informative articles and the Stock Market are the staples to this section.

The Sports Section:

This section is also a good section for a Maine paper. The front page of this section tends to be more local than national because Mainer’s take their sports seriously, even if they are limited to Skiing, Fishing, Hunting, and the regulars. The inside of the front page is the scorecard section which is highly informative of standings, scores, box scores and schedules. This covers the national and local scorecard. At the end of this section are the classifieds. 4-5 pages of classifieds are not uncommon.

The Paper Overall:

I realize this paper has not gotten too many good reviews on this site but I am going to change that. I like this paper, it’s local coverage is excellent. The design of the paper is as well. Color photos and extras add to it’s appearance nicely. It’s not too big of a paper and not too small either, it’s just the way Mainer’s like it.

Recommended: Yes

Describe the newspaper's political views: No political views are evident