After a long absence, the Advertiser-Democrat and Rumford Falls Times have rejoined the Maine Press Association. The two weeklies are owned by Sun Media where Ed Snook serves as publisher.
The Advertiser Democrat is one of the oldest publications in Maine, if not the oldest. Its roots are traced to the Oxford Observer which was first published in Paris Hill in 1824.
The weekly paper derives its name from the merger of the Norway Advertiser and the Oxford Democrat in 1933. It covers approximately 18 towns in Western Maine.
The birth of the Rumford Falls Times is traced back to 1883 when Boston newspaper publisher Edgar N. Carver started a weekly in nearby Canton known as the Canton Telephone.
For a short time in the 1950s, the Rumford Falls Times was published as a daily. But in 1954, a massive fire that started as a lumber company one block away wiped out the Times office, printing plant and radio station WRUM. It eventually went back to a weekly publication.
Sun Media Group bought the Rumford Falls Times and Advertiser-Democrat from Howard James in 2005.