About Us

The Maine Monitor is the nonpartisan, independent publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN: 27-2623867), dedicated to delivering high-quality, nonpartisan investigative and explanatory journalism to inform Mainers about issues impacting our state and empower them to be engaged citizens. 

Why it Matters

Between 2000 and 2018, Maine lost 60 percent of its newspaper publishing jobs. The two dailies once staffed bureaus in towns across Maine; now less than a handful remain. At the same time, small town newspapers closed, leaving many communities without any reporters to hold officials accountable or prepare citizens to participate in decision making.  

Without local journalism to bring issues to light and to hold lawmakers and others accountable, research shows citizens are less engaged, voter participation declines, and corruption increases. 

Our Mission

The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting was founded in 2009 to address Maine’s need for investigative reporting on issues impacting our communities and to staunch the decline in investigative reporting happening as Maine’s legacy news organizations cut staff and reporting.

Since 2020, we’ve published The Maine Monitor to deliver our original reporting directly to our readers. We have no paywall and share our work for free, so there is no barrier to accessing our website or newsletters. That means Mainers of all income strata can learn from our reports and become more engaged citizens as a result.

We also provide all our articles for free to all media organizations in Maine and across New England, supporting their publications with in-depth content. Our original stories are published every week by outlets throughout Maine, giving The Maine Monitor impressive reach and influence.   

We are committed to delivering fearless, independent, citizen-supported, nonpartisan journalism that informs Mainers about the issues impacting our state and inspires them to take action. Through investigative and in-depth stories, we engage readers to participate and connect to create a better Maine.

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