The state budget that lawmakers enacted on June 26 contains two significant changes for Maine’s newspapers.
The MPA lost its fight to maintain newspapers’ longstanding sales-tax exemption. To balance the budget, the Legislature approved a plan to make newspapers and other periodicals taxable. The new tax, 5.5 percent, will take effect Oct. 1. It will apply only to newspaper sales, not advertising.
As the MPA argued before the Legislature, collecting the new tax will create logistical challenges for newspapers. The MPA welcomes members’ questions and will work to offer guidance in the three months before newspapers become taxable.
The budget also contains a significant step forward, by ensuring that the state’s newspapers will continue to deliver public notices at least through 2017. In exchange, the MPA and the state’s newspapers will take on new responsibilities.
The provision says any “legal notice appearing in a newspaper … must be placed on any publicly accessible website that the newspaper maintains” by the day it appears in print. That requirement will take effect Jan. 1.
Starting July 1, 2014, newspapers’ websites will have to offer a search function for notices. And the MPA will be required to establish and maintain an online repository of public notices statewide. The MPA is now preparing to establish that system.
The MPA, with key support from Rep. Peggy Rotundo of Lewiston, the House chair of the Appropriations Committee, backed the proposal to ensure that public agencies continue placing notices in newspapers – in print and online – and to head off an effort by Gov. Paul LePage to shift state, county and local notices away from newspapers and onto a state-owned website.
The MPA plans to hold a workshop at the Fall Conference in October to help member newspapers plan to meet the new requirements for public notices.
Send any questions you have about the sales tax and public notices to mainepressmail@gmail.com.

Two deadlines are approaching for those who want to nominate deserving individuals for honors from the Maine Press Association.
Nominations will be taken until Friday, July 12, for the MPA Hall of Fame. Candidates must be Maine newspaper professionals who have made lasting contributions to their craft, in or out of the state. Typically, some of each year’s Hall of Fame class is inducted posthumously.
A committee will meet in July to select inductees to the 16^th Hall of Fame class. Each nomination should be accompanied by supporting material that will help committee members as they make their decisions.
Nominations can be sent to the committee chair, Bob Caswell, at caswell@usm.maine.edu, or USM Public Affairs, P.O. Box 9300, Portland, ME 04014. If you have questions, please call 780-4200.

Member newspapers have until July 15 to make nominations for Journalist of the Year, Advertising Person of the Year, the Bob Drake Young Writer’s Award and – new this year – the Unsung Hero Award.
Mail all nominations to the Maine Press Association, c/o Jeff Ham, 26 Elmwood Road, Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107.
Criteria for the awards are in the Contest Rules that were sent to newspapers in April, and at http://mainepress.wordpress.com/2013-contest-page/
If you have questions about the awards, contact the MPA at mainepressmail@gmail.com.

Nominations are being sought for 2013 inductees to the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame, with a new deadline of July 12.
Candidates must be Maine newspaper professionals who have made lasting career contributions to their craft, in or out of the state. Typically, some of each year’s Hall of Fame class is inducted posthumously.
The Hall of Fame Committee will meet in July to select this year’s inductees. Each nomination should be accompanied by supporting material that will help committee members as they make their decisions.
The 2013 induction ceremony will be held at the MPA Fall Conference on Oct. 26.
Nominations can be sent to the committee chair, Bob Caswell, at caswell@usm.maine.edu, or USM Public Affairs, P.O. Box 9300, Portland, ME 04014. If you have questions, please call 780-4200.

The MPA reminds member newspapers that the deadline for entries in this year’s Better Newspaper Contest is May 24. Photo entries will be judged in a digital format and must be submitted to http://mainepress.wordpress.com/2013-contest-page/. Illustrations and Graphics may be submitted the same way. Use the same URL for entries in all Online categories including Best Website. For other categories, send tearsheets or printouts to the MPA in packages postmarked by May 24. Complete entry information and instructions are in the packet that was emailed to each newspaper in April. Those forms are also online at http://mainepress.wordpress.com/2013-contest-page/

The Legislature has passed a bill to shield personal information on concealed-handgun permits from Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.
The MPA and other advocates of open government opposed L.D. 345, which was submitted by Rep. Corey Wilson, R-Augusta, arguing that the information is in the public interest and that the current debate over gun rights does not justify another exemption to the right-to-know law.
The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee had endorsed the amended version of the bill that the House and Senate passed in late April. The law, which took effect when Gov. Paul LePage signed it on April 26, makes only aggregate data on gun permits public. Information including each permit holder’s name, address and date of birth is now confidential, for the first time since 1981.
The Judiciary Committee’s House chair, Democrat Charles Priest of Brunswick, proposed an amendment to keep the identifying information public while allowing certain permit holders, such as victims of domestic violence, to seek exemptions.
Priest said, “There is no proven need for this. … “The policy of this bill will soon be extended to hunting licenses, I can tell you that, because they too indicate that you have possession of a gun. Passage of this will do untold harm to the right-to-know law.”
In two committee votes, only Priest, Rep. Kim Monaghan-Derrig, D-Cape Elizabeth, and Rep. Matthew Moonen, D-Portland, voted to keep the records open to the public. All three spoke against concealing the public records during debate in the House. The MPA thanks them for taking a stand for the public’s right to know.
See how each representative and senator voted on the bill.

The MPA is seeking volunteers to judge this year’s New Hampshire Press Association Best Media Contest. Newspaper professionals from Maine are needed to pick winners in categories that cover writing, photography, design, advertising and new media.
New Hampshire’s entry deadline is June 14, so judges can expect to receive entries in early summer. Judging requires a modest time commitment, but it’s a good way to find out what – and how – other newspapers are doing.
The MPA’s Better Newspaper Contest will be judged this year by the press associations in New Hampshire and South Carolina. In return, South Carolina will need judges from Maine in early 2014.
Entry forms for the Better Newspaper Contest were sent to all MPA papers on April 12. The deadline for those entries is May 24.
Contact the MPA at mainepressmail@gmail.com if you’re interested in being a judge for New Hampshire, or if you’re not sure your newspaper has received its entry packet for Maine’s Better Newspaper Contest.

The MPA has chosen the Hilton Garden Inn Auburn Riverwatch as the venue for its Fall Conference in 2014. Next year’s conference will be held on the weekend of Oct. 17-18 at the hotel and conference center along the Androscoggin River in downtown Auburn.
The association’s directors approved the contract this month, confident that the Hilton Garden Inn Auburn Riverwatch will be an affordable and centrally located site with facilities well suited for the conference.
This year’s Fall Conference is scheduled for the weekend of Oct. 25-26 at the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel and Conference Center in Bar Harbor. The MPA is working now to put together the 2013 conference program and welcomes members’ ideas for Saturday morning seminars. You can send your suggestions to mainepressmail@gmail.com.

Nominations are being taken for 2013 inductees to the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame. The deadline for nominations is June 7.

Candidates must be Maine newspaper professionals who have made lasting career contributions to their craft, in or out of the state. Typically, some of each year’s Hall of Fame class is inducted posthumously. A total of 57 journalists have been inducted since the Hall of Fame was established in 1998.

The MPA’s Hall of Fame Committee asks that names be submitted as soon as possible so they can be circulated among the committee members who will select the inductees. Each nomination should be accompanied by supporting material that will help committee members as they make their decisions.

This year’s inductees will be announced in July. The 2013 induction ceremony will be held at the MPA Fall Conference in October.
Nominations can be sent to the committee chair, Bob Caswell, at caswell@usm.maine.edu, or USM Public Affairs, P.O. Box 9300, Portland, ME 04014. If you have questions, please call 780-4200.

The Maine Press Association is opposing a high-profile bill in the Legislature that would take the information in concealed-weapons permits out of the public realm, and a proposal in the governor’s budget to end the longstanding sales-tax exemption for newspapers.
The MPA offered testimony against the concealed-weapons bill before the Judiciary Committee on March 12. It testified against the sales-tax proposal in a hearing of the Taxation and Appropriations committees on March 13.

Concealed weapons
The hearing on L.D. 345 drew a crowd of gun-rights supporters, who expressed concern to the Judiciary Committee that personal information contained in concealed-weapons permits makes permit holders vulnerable when it is accessible to the public, including newspapers.
The MPA, represented at the hearing by Mike Mahoney of Federle Mahoney, argued in oral and written testimony that the information has been public since 1981, without incident, that the information is in the public interest and that the Judiciary Committee should base its consideration of the proposed exception to the Freedom of Access Act on criteria in the law, not the emotion of today’s gun-rights debate.
The Maine Freedom of Access Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine joined the MPA in opposing the bill, noting that public access to the information helps to ensure that law enforcement screens permit applicants adequately.
The Judiciary Committee, which will make a recommendation to the Legislature, has a work session on the bill scheduled for 1 p.m. April 3 in Room 438 of the State House. MPA members are encouraged to get involved.

Sales tax
Testifying for the MPA, Mahoney told the Taxation and Appropriations committees that a new 5 percent sales tax on newspapers would be discriminatory by singling out publications, and suggested a comprehensive review of Maine’s 94 current tax exemptions. He also noted the logistical problems posed by collecting the tax – including through honor boxes and independent contractors – the fact that it would be a tax on information, and its impact on elderly, low-income and rural residents who lack Internet access.
Also testifying against the tax was Kevin Webb, publisher of Uncle Henry’s, who emphasized the economic impact of making his publication more expensive, discouraging buyers and in turn cutting into revenue and threatening the jobs he provides.
The next step will be a work session by the Taxation Committee, which ultimately will recommend to the Appropriations Committee whether to leave the proposal in the budget.

The Ellsworth American, the Mount Desert Islander and the Lewiston Sun Journal won General Excellence awards in the 2012 New England Better Newspaper Competition this month, as Maine newspapers took a total of 65 awards in the regional contest.

The Ellsworth American, which led all Maine papers with 29 awards, took first place for Advertising General Excellence among weekly newspapers with circulation over 6,000. The Mount Desert Islander took first place in Advertising General Excellence for smaller weeklies.

The Sun Journal got a second-place award for General Excellence among dailies with circulation of 30,000 or less. The Mount Desert Islander was second in General Excellence for smaller weeklies, and The Ellsworth American was third among the larger weeklies.

Maine newspapers won 27 first-place awards in the contest, including 12 for The Ellsworth American, eight for the Mount Desert Islander and three for the Bangor Daily News. Jesse Groening of The Ellsworth American won three individual first-place awards, while Dick Broom and Earl Brechlin of the Mount Desert Islander each won two. Other winners from Maine were The York Weekly, which took seven awards, the Boothbay Register, which won six, and the Advertiser Democrat and the Wiscasset Newspaper, which each took one.

The competition drew nearly 3,000 entries. The awards were presented Feb. 9 during the New England Newspaper and Press Association’s winter convention at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. The full list of winners is at: http://www.nenpa.com/story/contest-better-newspaper. Here are the winners from Maine:

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT REPORTING WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: Earl Brechlin, Mount Desert Islander

EDUCATION REPORTING WEEKLY CLASS 1
Third Place: Susan Morse, The York Weekly

GENERAL NEWS STORY WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: Dick Broom, Mount Desert Islander
Second Place: Susan Morse, The York Weekly

HEADLINE WRITING WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: Earl Brechlin, Mount Desert Islander

HEALTH REPORTING WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: Robert Levin, The Ellsworth American

HISTORY REPORTING WEEKLY CLASS 1
Second Place: Earl Brechlin, Mount Desert Islander

HISTORY REPORTING WEEKLY CLASS 2
Third Place: Stephen Fay, The Ellsworth American

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: Dick Broom, Mount Desert Islander

INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING WEEKLY CLASS 2
Third Place: Cyndi Wood, The Ellsworth American

RIGHT-TO-KNOW WEEKLY CLASS 1
Second Place: Kelly Morgan, The York Weekly

SPORTS STORY WEEKLY CLASS 1
Third Place: Terrill Covey, The York Weekly

TRANSPORTATION REPORTING WEEKLY CLASS 1
Third Place: Charlotte Boynton, Wiscasset Newspaper

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT SECTION WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: Staff, The Ellsworth American

EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY PAGE WEEKLY CLASS 1
Second Place: Staff, Mount Desert Islander

EDITORIAL/COMMENTARY PAGE WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: Staff, The Ellsworth American

FRONT PAGE WEEKLY CLASS 1
Third Place: Staff, Mount Desert Islander

FRONT PAGE WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: Staff, The Ellsworth American

LIVING PAGE OR SECTION WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: Laura Snyder Smith, The York Weekly
Second Place: Suzi Thayer, Boothbay Register

SPORTS PAGE OR SECTION WEEKLY CLASS 2
First Place: Hugh Bowden, The Ellsworth American

EDITORIAL WRITING WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: A.M. Sheehan, Advertiser Democrat
Third Place: Kelly Morgan, The York Weekly

EDITORIAL CARTOON WEEKLY CLASS 1
Second Place: Joe Marshall, Mount Desert Islander

SERIOUS COLUMNIST WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: Marvin Ott, The Ellsworth American

OVERALL DESIGN AND PRESENTATION WEEKLY CLASS 1
Second Place: Staff, The York Weekly

ENTERTAINMENT VIDEO WEEKLY CLASS
Second Place: Jesse Groening, The Ellsworth American

FEATURE VIDEO WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: Jesse Groening, The Ellsworth American

NEWS VIDEO WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: Jesse Groening, The Ellsworth American

OVERALL WEBSITE WEEKLY CLASS 1
Second Place: Boothbay Register

OVERALL WEBSITE WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: Staff, The Ellsworth American

SPOT NEWS VIDEO WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: Jesse Groening, The Ellsworth American

SPORTS VIDEO WEEKLY CLASS
Second Place: Jesse Groening, The Ellsworth American

WEBSITE DESIGN WEEKLY CLASS
Third Place: Staff, The Ellsworth American

ADVERTISER CAMPAIGN DAILY CLASS
First Place: Bangor Daily News

LOCAL ADVERTISEMENT (BLACK & WHITE) WEEKLY CLASS 2
First Place: The Ellsworth American

LOCAL ADVERTISEMENT (COLOR) WEEKLY CLASS 1
Third Place: Mount Desert Islander

THEMED, BANNER OR SPONSORED AD PAGE WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: The Ellsworth American

AUTOMOTIVE DISPLAY AD DAILY CLASS 2
Second Place: Bangor Daily News

AUTOMOTIVE DISPLAY AD WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: Mount Desert Islander

AUTOMOTIVE DISPLAY AD WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: The Ellsworth American

BEST IDEA FOR GENERATING AD REVENUE WEEKLY CLASS
Second Place: The Ellsworth American

EVENTS WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: Boothbay Register

NICHE PUBLICATION WEEKLY CLASS 1
Second Place: Boothbay Register

PRINTED AD SUPPLEMENT/SPECIAL SECTION WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: Mount Desert Islander
Second Place: Boothbay Register

AD RATE CARD/RATING STRATEGY WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: The Ellsworth American

ADVERTISING SALES MEDIA KIT DAILY CLASS 2
First Place: Bangor Daily News

ADVERTISING SALES MEDIA KIT WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: The Ellsworth American

AUDIENCE BUILDING PROMOTION DAILY CLASS 2
First Place: Bangor Daily News
Second Place: Bangor Daily News

AUDIENCE BUILDING PROMOTION WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: Boothbay Register

AUDIENCE BUILDING PROMOTION WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: The Ellsworth American

CLASSIFIED PROMOTION WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: The Ellsworth American

DIGITAL PRODUCT PROMOTION WEEKLY CLASS
First Place: The Ellsworth American

SUBSCRIPTION SALES PROMOTION DAILY CLASS 2
Third Place: Bangor Daily News

SUBSCRIPTION SALES PROMOTION WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: Mount Desert Islander

SUBSCRIPTION SALES PROMOTION WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: The Ellsworth American

GENERAL NEWS PHOTO WEEKLY CLASS 2
Second Place: Stephen Rappaport, The Ellsworth American

SPOT NEWS PHOTO WEEKLY CLASS 2
First Place: Dean Kotula, The Ellsworth American

ADVERTISING GENERAL EXCELLENCE WEEKLY CLASS 1
First Place: Mount Desert Islander

ADVERTISING GENERAL EXCELLENCE WEEKLY CLASS 2
First Place: The Ellsworth American

GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD DAILY CLASS 1
Second Place: Sun Journal

GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD WEEKLY CLASS 1
Second Place: Mount Desert Islander

GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD WEEKLY CLASS 2
Third Place: Ellsworth American