The Maine Press Association will be inducting three new members into its hall of fame this fall, including Naomi Schalit and John Christie, the two co-founders of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, which publishes The Maine Monitor.
The MPA Hall of Fame, established in 1998, honors those from the newspaper industry with Maine connections who have made outstanding contributions to the profession. Schalit and Christie will be inducted during a luncheon on Oct. 19 in Bar Harbor at the association’s annual journalism conference.
After decades working in Maine journalism, Schalit and Christie founded the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting in 2009 to focus on producing hard-hitting and non-partisan investigative journalism.
“Their contributions to journalism in Maine are exceptional,” said the center’s executive director Micaela Schweitzer-Bluhm. “John and Naomi launched the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting with a clear vision: deliver fearless, in-depth journalism that serves Mainers with information they need and that holds institutions and decision makers accountable.”
The first story they produced looked at the role of money, influence and personal relationships in Gov. John Baldacci’s handling of tax reform legislation.
From there, Schalit and Christie went on to investigate the state’s dams, prescription drugs, special interests, employee discrimination settlements and more. Many of their stories spurred important conversations across the state.
In a statement, the Maine Press Association called Christie and Schalit “pioneers of Maine’s non-profit media landscape.” The pair relied on donations rather than paywalls and advertisements, believing the non-profit model would sustain the organization.
From the beginning, all of the stories have been eligible for republication by Maine’s other media outlets. The newsroom’s first story, in January 2010, was republished by the Bangor Daily News, the Sun Journal, the Ellsworth American and the Mount Desert Islander.
“Importantly, they wanted that news to be free to read and free to republish. They were at the cusp of a news revolution — nonprofit, nonpartisan, transparent,” Schweitzer-Bluhm said.
Fifteen years later, the newsroom has grown from two to 11 employees and delivers its content to more than 10,200 people signed up for Maine Monitor newsletters. Maine Monitor stories are republished by newsrooms in all corners of the state, as well as by newsrooms with regional and national reach.
“We are incredibly excited that the Maine Press Association is honoring John and Naomi in this way, and we are proud to carry on their work and to publish The Maine Monitor as a public service to Maine,” said Schweitzer-Bluhm. “Congratulations, John and Naomi!”
BDN’s ‘face of sports’ also honored
Bangor Daily News sports reporter Larry Mahoney — the face of sports at the BDN for more than 50 years — will also be inducted into the MPA’s hall of fame.
Mahoney has covered sports at all levels and is a staple on the sidelines and in press boxes of high schools and colleges throughout the state.
He has been the beat writer for the University of Maine’s men’s hockey team since its inception and covered the program’s NCAA national championship in 1993 and 1999. He also covered the state championship high school field hockey games in 1976 — the first year those occurred. In 2023, Mahoney wrote 598 bylined stories, a typical year in the newspaper’s estimation. That would put Mahoney at about 30,000 stories over the course of his career — so far.
