New partnerships, expanding technology will help the Gazette stay connected to you

I don’t believe this could have been a better week for the Biddeford Gazette.

I am especially excited about several new partnerships that will allow us to give you more news and information about your community.

Earlier this week, I was invited to a meeting at the University of New England, where I enjoyed a really nice lunch with Michael Cripps, a professor and director of UNE’s School of Arts and Humanities and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Cripps and I had a fascinating and free-wheeling conversation about the state of today’s media landscape and some of the challenges he faces in working to provide his students with real life experiences to support their education outside of the traditional classroom.

Bottom line: Dr. Cripps and I began laying the groundwork of a partnership that will allow his students who are pursuing careers in journalism and communications to work as interns with the Biddeford Gazette.

It has the potential to be a dynamic relationship, one that will allow us an opportunity to expand our coverage and learn the valuable perspective of students attending classes in Biddeford.

But wait, that’s not all . . .

If you don’t know Cy Cyr of Biddeford, you’re really missing out. A Biddeford native, Cy recently launched Brick + Tides, a digital magazine that features his photography and some very compelling document-style storytelling about the people shaping southern Maine today.

I am a huge fan of Cy’s work, and I am ecstatic that he and I will be working together to promote and share his work on the Biddeford Gazette’s site.

We’ll be posting our first story from Brick + Tides on Monday in which Cy does an in-depth interview with Heather Paquette, another Biddeford native who is the president of Good Shepherd Food Bank of Maine.

But wait, there’s more . . .

As you can see from a story we posted yesterday, the Biddeford Gazette is continuing its ongoing media partnership with The Maine Monitor, a nonpartisan, independent publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting.

The Maine Monitor – another digital only publication — has earned an outstanding reputation across the state, providing readers with in-depth, comprehensive reporting on the issues that affect Maine people on a daily basis.

Our partnership with The Maine Monitor is especially valuable as we approach the upcoming election season in which Maine voters will choose a new governor, a U.S. senator, Congressional representatives, not to mention numerous state legislative and county races.

The party primaries are now less than 90 days away. We look forward to sharing more stories from The Maine Monitor in the days and weeks ahead,

A busy week in our own newsroom.

As a reporter, I had a new experience this week.

A local politician voluntarily told me that he was partly to blame for some financial issues that are now plaguing the city of Biddeford.

I don’t recall ever hearing a politician accept responsibility for a problem. Gotta say, it was refreshing to hear City Councilor Marc Lessard talk about his own role in a mess the city is still working through. “You can spread the blame like peanut butter,” Lessard told me. We thought that quote made a perfect headline.

On Thursday, I was the only reporter in attendance during the first meeting of the revised Institutional Zone Review Committee.

Hopefully, other reporters were watching the meeting remotely on-line. It’s convenient for me to be the only reporter in the room, but it’s bad for you, as I explain in this week’s upcoming editorial: Life During Wartime.

We covered several other stories this week. UNE is considering extending a natural gas line from downtown to its Biddeford campus; and several residents spoke in favor of reopening the city’s skatepark during Tuesday’s council meeting.

Video killed the radio star

On a final note, we began experimenting this week with using video and other technology to expand our news and commentary. It’s in a very rudimentary, early stage and well-beyond my experience as a print journalist, but it is fun and somewhat exciting.

The move was inspired by my conversation with Dr. Cripps this week. For younger news consumers, it’s all about video. You can find that video in our new section: Video Commentary & Reporting.

A close friend of mine – a media expert – tried to be as supportive as possible.

“You know,” he said. “You could always do a second take.”

And that, my friends, is the beauty of being a digital publication.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Randy Seaver is the editor and founder of the Biddeford Gazette. He is a Biddeford native who has been covering Biddeford news and politics for nearly three decades. He may be reached by email: randy@randyseaver.com

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