The Times Record (also known as the Bath-Brunswick Times Record) is an

award An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An awar ...

winning independently owned

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...

published five days a week that covers the

Mid Coast The Midcoast is a region of Maine that includes the coastal counties of Lincoln, Knox, Waldo, Sagadahoc, and the northern coastal portion of Cumberland counties. Some of the towns are: *Alna * Arrowsic * Bath *Belfast *Boothbay * Boothbay ...

region of

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

. Operating out of Brunswick, the paper was founded in 1967 as a result of a merger between two

historic History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

newspapers, the ''Brunswick Record'' and the ''Bath Daily Times''. Today, it is part of

MaineToday Media MaineToday Media is a privately owned publisher of daily and weekly newspapers in the U.S. state of Maine, based in the state's largest city, Portland. It includes the ''Portland Press Herald'' and ''Maine Sunday Telegram'', the state's larges ...

publications, and is an affiliate of the state's largest news-gathering organization, RFB Enterprises, which includes newspapers such as the

Portland Press Herald The ''Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram'' is a morning daily newspaper with a website that serves southern Maine and is focused on the greater metropolitan area around Portland, Maine, in the United States. Founded in 1862, its roots e ...

History

The first publication of The Times Record was

published Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, news ...

in 1967. The

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

was a merger of the Brunswick Record with a

print circulation Print circulation is the average number of copies of a publication. The number of copies of a non-periodical publication (such as a book) are usually called print run. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulat ...

of 7,500 daily papers and the Bath Daily Times with a daily circulation of 3,500, for a total of 11,000 daily customers. The Brunswick Record was first published in November, 1902 and the Bath Daily Times begun in 1869. The ''Bath Daily Times'' can be traced back to the year . Up until the 1890s, they had many name changes and mergers dating back to that time. In ''Frank B. Nichols'' bought the paper, and kept its name, and it stayed in the family until the merger in . Nichols began publishing a page of Brunswick news in the ''Bath Independent'', a weekly companion to the ''Bath Daily Times''. In 1902, due to the success of his entries in the Bath publication, Nichols started a new paper, the ''Brunswick Record''. In the following 60 years, Nichols oversaw the operations of the ''Bath Daily Times'' and his son-in-law, ''Paul Niven'', managed the ''Brunswick Record''. After Nichols passed away, Niven's brother, ''Cam Niven'', took over the Bath Daily Times. On February 6, 1967, the two papers merged and became The Times Record. The Times Record started out as an afternoon daily newspaper, delivering Monday through Fridays, and was first called the ''Bath-Brunswick Times Record''. There

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indiv ...

, The

(later to become a sister organization), delivered in the mornings and they didn't want to compete with there large circulation numbers.

Sample News Group

2008 was the middle of the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

that was a result of the

housing bubble A housing bubble (or a housing price bubble) is one of several types of asset price bubbles which periodically occur in the market. The basic concept of a housing bubble is the same as for other asset bubbles, consisting of two main phases. Firs ...

. During this time many newspapers went out of business or were bought out by bigger

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

s. In The Times Record was bought by ''Sample News Group'', an organization that owned the Journal Tribune in

Biddeford, Maine Biddeford is a city in York County, Maine, United States. It is the principal commercial center of York County. Its population was 22,552 at the 2020 census. The twin cities of Saco and Biddeford include the resort communities of Biddeford Po ...

, as well as a string of papers in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Douglas Niven, of the original Niven family, remained on the board of directors and Chris Miles, a partner at Sample News Group took over day-to-day operations. In The new company asked the state of

for a finance bond to purchase the publishing company that The Times Record used for printing their papers, ''Alliance Press''.

RFB Enterprises

In 2012, The Times Record sold its printing division, Alliance Press, to ''Reade Brower'' under the name RFB Enterprises. out of

Rockland, Maine Rockland is a city in Knox County, Maine, in the United States. As of the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, the town population was 6,936. It is the county seat of Knox County, Maine, Knox County. The city is a popular tourist destination ...

and moved the presses to a new building at 3 Business Parkway, in Brunswick. As part of the restructuring, past-due

property tax A property tax or millage rate is an ad valorem tax on the value of a property.In the OECD classification scheme, tax on property includes "taxes on immovable property or net wealth, taxes on the change of ownership of property through inhe ...

es were paid off. On April 1, 2018. The Times Record, as a whole, was sold to RFB Enterprises and in 2019 Alliance Press moved out of its Brunswick facility and merged with

s new

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

South Portland, Maine South Portland is a city in Cumberland County, Maine, United States, and is the fourth-largest city in the state, incorporated in 1898. At the 2020 census, the city population was 26,498. Known for its working waterfront, South Portland is sit ...

. Brower has consolidated six of Maine's seven daily newspapers, as well as 21 weekly newspapers, under his ownership.

Online

During the beginning years of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...

newspapers such as The TImes Record, placed their articles online for free. This led in a decline newspaper sales. That, coupled with the

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

of 2008, the paper closed its Bath location. In the preceding years, when RFB Enterprises purchased the company, the papers website would be transferred to the

s online pay service. On March 1, 2021, The Times Record stopped producing physical newspapers on Mondays, having at this time, four daily papers delivered Tuesday through Fridays, with online editions Monday through Friday.

Editorial policy

The MaineToday editorial board announced (via centralmaine.com) in their August 31, 2014, editorial that they would no longer endorse

candidates A candidate, or nominee, is the prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position; for example: * to be elected to an office — in this case a candidate selection procedure occurs. * t ...

for

political Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...

office, citing a desire to avoid appearing partisan and telling readers how to

vote Voting is a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an Constituency, electorate, can engage for the purpose of making a collective decision making, decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election camp ...

. They stated they would continue to take positions on

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

s, people's

veto A veto is a legal power to unilaterally stop an official action. In the most typical case, a president or monarch vetoes a bill to stop it from becoming law. In many countries, veto powers are established in the country's constitution. Veto ...

, and bond questions.

References

External links

* {{MaineToday Mass media in Cumberland County, Maine Newspapers published in Maine Organizations based in Brunswick, Maine