UMF alum J.W. Oliver ’10 is helping reshape local news in Maine
When J.W. Oliver was a student at the University of Maine at Farmington, he didn’t know where he’d land after graduating from college. But it didn’t take him long to find out.
The new editor of The Harpswell Anchor is making news across the state of Maine. Relaunched as a nonprofit venture, the paper has a bold mission: to cover local news and serve as an example to small towns and rural areas often forgotten by large media outlets. Oliver says this work—and its potential to re-shape local news—is an experiment worth testing.
A ninth generation Lincoln County native, 37-year-old Oliver grew up in South Bristol. He and his family now call neighboring Bristol home. After homeschooling through high school, Oliver took two gap years in New Mexico and a few community college courses before enrolling at UMF in January of 2007.
“I felt right at home there because it’s small, and the campus is integral to the town,” Oliver says. “The closest town to South Bristol is Damariscotta, and Farmington reminds me a lot of it. You’ve got Reny’s downtown, and it’s a little bit funky. It’s just a vibe.”
Enrolling as “undeclared,” Oliver dabbled in courses to discover what interested him most. He eventually applied, and was accepted, into the BFA program. Classmate Caitlin (Flaherty) Wallace ‘10, who was working on The Farmington Flyer, encouraged him to dive into campus journalism. Movie reviews, Q&As and articles followed. Time, space and support helped. By the time he finished school, he was editor.
“UMF introduced me to professors who mentored me and the classmates I learned from,” Oliver says, recalling late nights and dark basement offices where they printed their work to share with campus. “The Flyer was kind of an outcast then. No one quite knew what to do with us. So we really learned by doing. We taught each other—and ourselves. I think trial and error is really part of what a liberal arts education is all about.”
In a state linked by twisting strands of two-lane roads, Oliver’s path to a career in community news was a remarkably straight line. When he graduated, job prospects seemed thin. He was working at a coffee shop when he spotted an ad for a reporting job at The Lincoln County News. It was in his hometown of Bristol. He applied and got the job.
His break came despite warnings that journalism offered more layoffs than jobs, Oliver recalls. “In a profession with irregular hours, low pay, high stress, burnout, and a lot of churn, even with all the turmoil the industry had been through, I found there were jobs to be had. I just didn’t know that when I graduated.”
Over the span of a decade, he moved from reporter to deputy editor and, finally, to editor of the paper. “I really enjoyed the work,” he says, looking back. He surprised himself and old-timers. “I was a pretty quiet, shy person, so it was neat to hear from a lot of people I’d known growing up say to me, ‘You know, I read this article that you wrote in the newspaper. I never knew that you had it in you!’”
He did. The 37-year-old was named the Maine Press Association’s 2018 Journalist of the Year. And he has become an active member of the Maine Press Association’s board, in part because he recognized what an important role local newspapers play.
“Community newspapers keep people connected, engaged and informed,” Oliver says. “Studies show that when your newspaper goes away, communities are less efficient and more corrupt. We serve as a connecting agent, as a one-stop shop for information about community events, local government, and schools. With us around, there’s more accountability.”
The town of Harpswell is a case in point. It includes Harpswell Neck, which juts into Casco Bay parallel to the mainland, three large islands connected by bridges, and more than 200 smaller islands. Its geography matters: Four-fifths of the town’s 127 square miles are water, which forms 216 miles of coastline—the longest in the state of Maine. Harpswell’s three historic fishing villages each have distinct characters. And pulling them together can be a challenge.
That was never more evident than during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the town’s 5,000 residents weren’t gathering at town meetings, bean suppers or for coffee at their closest general store. And when the town’s monthly print newspaper closed, they lost touch with what mattered most—eachother. Locals found they were struggling with no lifeline to local government and community news.
A group of motivated residents, many with a background in journalism, marketing, development and non-profits, had an idea. They’d relaunch The Anchor under a new model: a local non-profit newspaper funded by and serving its rural community.
After 11 successful years at The Lincoln County News, Oliver was restless. As editor, “a fancy word for manager,” of his eight-person newsroom, he missed doing the hands-on reporting and writing that made the work varied and fun. And he was intrigued by the non-profit model The Anchor had cast into the choppy waters of community journalism.
“Almost everyone is asking, ‘When is somebody going to find a business model that works?’” Oliver explains.
This summer, he took the helm as editor of The Anchor. Only now, he actually reports, writes, photographs and edits the 24-page tabloid. And he gets to try something brand new.
“It occurred to me, I don’t know if this nonprofit model is the future, but I think it is part of the future,” Oliver said of The Anchor’s early success. “We’ve doubled the revenue of the paper because we still have the same advertising revenue stream—maybe even a little stronger—but we have a roughly equivalent revenue stream of donations, sponsorships, and grants.”
Is it sustainable? Only time will tell. But Oliver is plenty confident and more driven than ever.
“We’re very interested in propagating this model,” he says, his face lighting up at the prospect. “I want to go and show others, ‘Look what we did! And here’s how you can do it, too.’ And, after two years, we can show people that we’re not just surviving. We’re thriving.”
Oliver knows the best experiments need time and space and support to reveal where they’ll lead us next.
Oliver owes much of his success to a handful of great folks who wouldn’t let him fail at UMF. Adjunct writing professor Jan Watson pushed him to apply to the Bachelor of Fine Arts program. “Jan was generous with her time, thoughtful with her feedback, inclusive of everyone.” Thatcher Freund taught a Feature Writing class and gave Oliver advice on writing and editing that he still follows and teaches today. And journalism professor and Flyer advisor Luann Yetter offered gentle guidance while giving Oliver and classmates freedom to shape the Flyer’s direction. But the story doesn’t end there: “I learned more from Caitlin (Flaherty) Wallace ‘10 than from any professor, maybe because I listened better to a peer. Without her encouragement and friendship, I doubt I would have gone into journalism,” Oliver says now. “I was not an exemplary student at UMF, but my experience there was key to my career in journalism. I consider myself a blue-collar journalist, a community journalist. And I believe in the importance of local news and in the work we are doing at the Anchor to pioneer a new way of sustaining local news in Maine.”