For the past 12 years, Diane Norton has kept the Maine Press Association running. During her last week as executive director, we want to take a moment to thank her for all her hard work.
Diane came to the MPA in 2014 already knowing the industry from the inside, having spent two decades at Courier Publications and The Camden Herald and a term as MPA president. During her tenure, she was instrumental in helping us track legislation in Augusta that affects our newsrooms; organizing the extraordinarily complex Better Newspaper Contest and our annual conference; building scholarship programs that supported the next generation of Maine journalists; and handling the day-to-day work of dues, budgets, and board meetings that keeps a 160-year-old association on solid footing. She represented this organization to lawmakers, the public and member newsrooms across the state with steady competence throughout her time here.
As she noted this last week to several of us, the MPA is one of the oldest professional organizations in the nation. It’s no small thing to keep an association such as ours alive.
We are all here because we believe in the central mission of local journalism. We have chosen to work with our counterparts and competitors to sustain it, even as the industry and broader culture constantly shift beneath our feet. Diane has been a crucial advocate for us during that time, and has helped position the MPA to be stronger and more resilient.
Thank you, Diane, for 12 years of service to Maine’s newspapers. We’ll do our best to carry it forward.
— Dan MacLeod