Four weekly newspapers in coastal and central Maine closed March 9 when the owner of Village NetMedia announced that he had shut down the papers and their related websites.

The Village Soup Gazette in Rockland, the Village Soup Journal in Belfast, The Bar Harbor Times and the Capital Weekly in Augusta, all former Maine Press Association members and award winners, published their final editions shortly before their owner, Richard Anderson, announced the shutdown.

Village NetMedia bought the newspapers from Courier Publications in 2008. At the time, the group comprised The Courier-Gazette in Rockland, The Camden Herald, The Republican Journal in Belfast, The Bar Harbor Times and the Capital Weekly.

The Bangor Daily News reported in a story about the closure that The Republican Journal was founded in 1829, The Courier-Gazette started in 1846, the Camden Herald opened in 1870 and The Bar Harbor Times was nearly 100 years old.

Read Richard Anderson’s announcement. Read the story in the Bangor Daily News.