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. Our organization is governed by an independent Maine-based board of directors with fiscal and strategic oversight responsibilities.
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.
More About Us
Mission Statement, Values, Strategic Goals | Staff & Contributors | Board of Directors | Our Community of Supporters | Impact & Awards | News & Editorial Independence Policy | Donor Policy | Ethics & Corrections Policy | Privacy Policy | Partners & Affiliated Organizations | Form 990s | Center News
Senior Leadership
Executive Director: Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm — Contact: micaela@themainemonitor.org
Editor: Kate Cough — Contact: kate@themainemonitor.org
Deputy Editor: Stephanie McFeeters — Contact: stephanie@themainemonitor.org
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.
View our complete mission statement.
How We’re Funded
The Maine Monitor is published by the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. We rely on individual contributions, major gifts, corporate sponsorships, and foundation grants.
In 2023, donations and philanthropic grants from individuals and foundations accounted for 98% of our operating revenue. We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization. Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions. Our news judgments are made independently — not based on or influenced by donors.
Read our complete Donor Policy. View all of our donors and funders. View all of our Form 990s filed with the IRS.
Policies on Ethics, Editorial Best Practices & Independence
We publish news and information about issues of public interest in Maine that is fair, accurate and reflects the standards for editorial independence and journalistic ethics adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News and the Society of Professional Journalists.
Our news and editorial staff has and retains full authority over news and editorial content of our reporting to protect the best journalistic interests of our newsroom and the public. The news and editorial judgments of our newsroom staff are made independently and not on the basis of donor, sponsor, foundation or advertiser support or the involvement of MCPIR’s Board of Directors. We will cede no right of review or influence of news and editorial content. Read our complete news and editorial independence policy.
Below are notable portions of our newsroom’s policies on ethics and editorial best practices. View our complete ethics & best practices policy.
Our newsroom abides by six distinct guiding principles related to our work, including about transparency, trust, and fairness:
We believe in the power of investigative journalism and its ability to help Mainers to better understand their state, and are working every day to earn their trust and bring new facts to light.
We are transparent about our processes, funders, and affiliations.
We seek the truth with compassion and integrity.
We approach stories with a curious and open mind, and interrogate everything with a healthy dose of skepticism.
We aim for our reporting to be fair, honest, and thorough. We do not distort facts, images, or data, and we always strive to provide accurate context.
We understand the impact our work can have on individuals, institutions, and communities, and we take that responsibility seriously.
The Maine Monitor recognizes that not everyone our reporters talk to is familiar with traditional journalistic practices, and our staff will be as transparent as possible about the process. When our reporters approach someone for an interview, they will identify themselves and describe the story they are working on.
Sharing your story or experience is your decision.
“On the record”: Conversations with reporters are “on the record” unless a prior arrangement has been agreed upon by both parties. “On the record” means information can be quoted and attributed to the person by name.
“On background”: If you have sensitive information you want to provide a reporter without your name attached, you can ask that the conversation be “on background” or “not for attribution.” Both parties must agree in advance for a conversation to be “on background” or “not for attribution.”
“Off the record”: If you want to share information for the reporter’s knowledge only and do not want that information used in an article unless otherwise corroborated, you can request that the conversation be “off the record.” Off the record conversations must be agreed upon in advance by both parties.
We do not pay sources for information or interviews, nor do we pay people to let us take their photograph.
The Monitor occasionally obscures identifying information (e.g. via pseudonyms or omitting last names) to protect sources from potential retribution. Those decisions are made at the discretion of the editors, and will be denoted within the story. A source is always known to the reporter and at least one editor and steps are taken to verify their story.
We do not allow approval or edits of quotes, and we do not share drafts or parts of drafts in advance of publication.
If a story includes allegations about or criticism of certain people or organizations, we will give them the opportunity to respond.
We seek out diverse perspectives, and we identify sources’ affiliations or backgrounds when this is useful to understanding their point of view.
We may or may not tell your full story, or share every detail you provide us. Additional reported context around your story may be added to enhance our audiences’ understanding.
We may share your story, your image, or parts of your story in multiple formats, including but not limited to with other outlets, on our website, via email and social media.
Our reporters are responsible for rigorously fact checking their own work. Reporters will confirm facts by doing independent research and consulting with experts. During the editing process, editors will often ask reporters to share their sourcing so they can double check that the facts are correct and being reported in the appropriate context; editors will also take great care not to insert errors when making changes. Ultimately it is up to the reporters, who know the material best, to take responsibility for the accuracy of their work.
Reporters may call sources in order to check facts or make sure technical details are being conveyed correctly, but they will not send or read full stories to sources before publication and should make clear to the sources that they are only correcting errors, not providing an opportunity to change quotes or adjust the framing.
We do not allow sources to approve or edit quotes, and we do not share drafts or parts of drafts in advance of publication.
We do our best to ensure the accuracy of everything we print, but we’re not perfect. If we learn of an error in a story, we’ll correct it promptly and indicate that the story was changed by appending a correction note to the bottom with the time and date that we issued the correction. We will also notify our media partners that have republished the story.
If you believe there’s an error in our reporting, please fill out our contact form and we’ll be in touch. In order to be transparent with our audience, we maintain a log of corrections and clarifications that have been appended to our stories.
Our reporters and editors will not work on stories about issues they have a unique financial or personal interest in. If a reporter or a reporter’s immediate family member has ties to a particular institution mentioned in an article, we will disclose that in the story.
We do not accept gifts or free trips from sources. Our integrity demands that we neither solicit nor accept any form of preferential treatment based on our professional positions.
Our stories are written and edited without the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Furthermore, our newsroom does not use AI to generate create images or other visualizations.
Our newsroom, however, may use AI under the supervision of newsroom leadership to enhance website features through code or script (such as to ensure our site is accessible to readers of all backgrounds) or during the reporting process (such as to assist in transcribing recorded interviews or in analyzing a large amount of public records). Examples of AI programs used through their models available to the general public to write or modify code for website functionality includes Perplexity, Claude by Anthropic, ChatGPT by OpenAI and Gemini by Google.
When AI is used, our journalists and newsroom will take the aforementioned fact-checking steps to ensure its accuracy. Website code or scripting produced with the use of AI is tested on a private staging website to ensure accuracy and compatibility before being applied to the public-facing version of our website.
As a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization, The Maine Monitor does not endorse political candidates or take stances on political issues.
Our journalists must not run for or hold office, volunteer for political campaigns, serve on local government boards, donate to campaigns or display campaign materials.
Those with questions, comments or concerns about these policies may contact executive director Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm (micaela@themainemonitor.org) or editor Kate Cough (kate@themainemonitor.org).
Reader Engagement & Feedback
As a nonprofit, community-driven news organization, we value hearing from our readers and donors.
Contacting Us: Please complete this form to contact our newsroom, or email contact@themainemonitor.org, with your comments on our work or with your ideas for enterprise stories and investigations. You may also directly email individuals by locating their email address through our staff directory, at the bottom of stories in the reporter’s bio box, or at the top of reporter archive pages. Email addresses for board members can be obtained from our directory of board members. Snail mail can be sent to: P.O. Box 284 Hallowell, ME 04347. Phone calls can be arranged — please contact us via email first.
Surveys: At least once a year we circulate a survey to all newsletter subscribers to gather feedback on our journalism. After the survey’s closure, our senior leadership will analyze the results and work with all members of the newsroom to formulate and implement actionable plans based on the survey’s results.
Public Events: We hold, or otherwise participate in, numerous public events throughout the year across Maine. View a calendar of our upcoming events where you can learn more about our journalism and directly share feedback about our work. Events will also be promoted across our newsletters and social media accounts. Additionally and separately, a Monitor Member perk for those who donate $500 or more annually to our newsroom is an invitation to a quarterly gathering where you can chat directly with members of our newsroom.
Crowdsourcing: We will occasionally circulate questions or calls for reader perspectives through our newsletters or social media pages. View our ethics policy for more on our reporting practices.
Social Media: Connect with our newsroom on social media: Facebook | Instagram | X (formerly Twitter) | Threads | LinkedIn | YouTube
Privacy Policy
We take your privacy very seriously and only track the digital data that is necessary to provide a quality user experience. The data we do track will be collected in aggregate and is not tied to specific individuals.
We track how our visitors use this site so that we can see what people like and don’t like. We analyze and aggregate information about use patterns and share the aggregated data with relevant parties (for example, we keep track of how many users click on particular stories and may provide overall “click rate” information to funders).
We may also collect personal information about you via registration for newsletters, donations, and membership. Where you have an opportunity to supply information about yourself you may choose not to provide requested information. Information collected will only be used in our communications with you such as in salutations for correspondence, or to communicate with you about newsroom stories, events and opportunities to support the nonprofit organization.
Read our complete privacy policy, which also covers the use and disclosure of anonymous information and information regarding third-parties.
Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting and The Maine Monitor serve all of Maine and the diverse communities across Maine. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive board and staff that reflects the society we report on.
As part of our mission to serve all Mainers, our newsroom is committed to ensuring that our stories reflect Maine’s diverse population. In addition to telling specific stories about people from a variety of backgrounds, our newsroom is dedicated to including a wide range of voices and perspectives. We regularly review our style guide to ensure we are using appropriate and inclusive language in our work. We welcome feedback from readers via this form.
The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, age, marital or parental status, disability, citizenship, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are committed to fostering a workplace in which our employees can grow, express themselves, and contribute to the mission and future of our organization. The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting prohibits and will not tolerate any such discrimination or harassment. View our Non-Discrimination Policy and our full Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging.
Diversity of Staffing Report
To fully engage in reducing barriers to participation and inclusion in our journalism, The Maine Monitor must have a staff that reflects the diversity of Maine’s statewide audience.
We are a women-led news organization and enjoy a strong gender representation on our staff and our board of directors.
As we add staff, we advertise our positions widely and attempt to recruit among under-represented groups and look to improve our diversity in internships, hiring, and collaboration, while also creating a workplace that is equitable, inclusive, and provides staff members with the opportunity for professional growth and advancement.
Below is a breakdown of data on diversity of staff, board directors, and contributors at The Maine Monitor. We determined the data by asking our staff, board, and contributors to self-identify. It is based on a total 11 staff, 8 board directors, and 12 regular contributors as of January 2025. Percentages are based on 28 total survey responses. The numbers include full-time and part-time staff, fellows, interns, regular contributors, and board directors.
