For the past 14 years, few in Portland haven’t picked up the Casco Bay Weekly for movie listings, a favorite column, a political cartoon, or a giggle at obscene personals. It has been a staple of Portland culture, a source of information on the sometimes seedy underbelly of Portland politics, a voice for the non-mainstream.
On Thursday, Nov. 21 the CBW closed its doors. In a press release, publisher Lael Morgan explained, “The reason is simple. We have been able to deliver a newspaper of significance to our 77,000 readers but have not been successful in achieving financial independence.”
Theresa Flaherty, a former editor of The Free Press, and now former staffer of the CBW, said the paper “really filled a void, and it will leave a void.”
Flaherty began writing for the CBW earlier this year during a staff overhaul. Going from reader to writer for the publication was “a little weird” for her.
“The first week I was there they asked ‘Would you mind doing News-O-Rama’ and I was writing for my favorite part of the paper. Suddenly I was there. It was kind of strange and kind of fun.”
Flaherty enjoyed the freedom writing at the CBW gave her. She pursued her own stories, which was sometimes a challenge. However, this challenge often became a story with an important angle never covered by The Portland Press Herald or other mainstream media.
The void that the CBW filled 14 years ago exists again. But will the people of Portland notice?
“It’s hard to say,” said Flaherty. “I’m not sure if everyone will know it’s missing. People take things for granted until they’re gone. Maybe it will just fade away.”
What happens now? Will the CBW just fade away? Will someone else step up to the plate?
The Portland Phoenix is too much The Boston Phoenix-which-happens-to-be-circulated-in-Maine. It is interesting for entertainment reviews, but the gritty truth about Portland will never be covered there.
The West End News covers the West End and is published every two weeks. Would they have the capital to step up? Is it even an interest to extend from the West End across town for further coverage? Probably not – they would have to change the name of the paper.
The Portland Press Herald, masthead of all things mainstream. That’s all I have to say about that.
Perhaps someone new will come in, with deep pockets, entrepreneurial pluck and never faltering confidence and business savvy.
When I was 12 my best friend Rob and I started a magazine called The Highly Esteemed Howl. It was typed and drawn and cut and pasted. The first issue of “The Howl” was six eight and a half by eleven pages stapled. Circulation: 12. We had it copied at my dad’s office. And we kept doing it. We crammed more stuff into each page every issue. People started to subscribe. At its height, “The Howl” had twenty subscribers and regular advertisers. At one point we had six staff members. It lasted six years.
Looking back, I am flabbergasted at how long it lasted, how many people became a part of it, how many people always read it.
It is funny, too, to look back at the things I wrote as “The Goddess of the Howl and all it Encompasses.” For instance, in the December 1996 issue I wrote, “I, Elise declare that I will acquire a camera, take pictures of people’s scars, and make a book called The Scar Book. For each picture of a scar, I will write a blurb about how each was obtained, what farm animal or former president the scar looks like, and then I will write a short poem about each. This book will make me rich.”
I think now about how much moxie we had as seventh graders, and I think now that there must be someone else who can do it. Someone else who can know the feeling of accomplishment, importance, intestinal fortitude that we did as mere pups.
It will cost more money, and it will be a feat to wrangle the advertisers in with competition such as the Phoenix, but I know someone will want to step up.
Now, I was not necessarily at all times a fan of the CBW. In fact, when they stopped running “Ernie Pook’s Comeek” for “Tom Tomorrow,” I boycotted them altogether, considering the publication a liberal rag of trash. However, as Flaherty as put it, “Love it or hate it, everyone was talking about the Casco Bay Weekly.”
Agree or disagree, there was definitely a place for the CBW and now that place is naked.