I just learned from a reading a story in Saco Bay Newsthat Bill Johnson – a former Saco mayor and city councilor — recently passed away at the age of 92.
This news leaves a gaping hole. I regret losing touch with Bill.
He was such a kind and wise man, and he always offered sage and measured advice. I first met him almost 30 years ago after he had just been elected to transition from serving as a Ward One councilor to becoming the city’s mayor in 1997.
He was a new mayor, and I was a new reporter in Saco, despite having grown up in that city.
Bill Johnson (left) receives a service award from Saco Mayor Ron Michaud (Portland Press Herald)Fomer mayor Bill Johnson photo from City of Saco annual report)Bill and his wife, Mary, after donating two of their beloved donkeys to Sweetser (Sweetser photo)
Bill took me under his wing and offered me advice with his warm grin and elder-statesmen sense of discipline. He was always quick to smile and had a deep laugh.
He said he was happy to be working with a reporter who had a long and personal connection to the city.
We reporters are trained to not become personally connected to the government officials they cover, but I could not help myself.
Bill was just so decent, kind and patient — a perfect grandfather of sorts. He leaves behind a legacy of public service, a love for his community and a reputation for hard work and dedication to his family.
Bill was one of a kind; a man equally comfortable in a suit and tie at some government function; or wearing a flannel shirt and wandering Saco’s northwestern rural and pastoral neighborhoods.
Bill was just so decent, kind and patient — a perfect grandfather of sorts
The late 1990s were not the best of times for Saco. There was plenty of political tension, and Bill’s job as mayor was anything but easy.
The city was still rebounding from serious and consequential financial difficulties, but Bill was the right leader at the right time. He was quiet, measured and thoughtful. He never spoke an unkind word about anyone.
Bill Johnson will be missed . . . by me and by everyone who ever had the good fortune to cross paths with him.
Godspeed, Mr. Mayor.
May you eternally rest in peace, and may your memory never be forgotten, especially in the city you loved.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR | Randy Seaver is the editor of the Biddeford Gazette. He also was a reporter who covered the city of Saco from 1997 to 2006 for the Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier and as a freelance reporter for Saco Bay News from 2023 to 2024.
NOTE: Some photos in this story were used without expressed permission. Those photos are attributed to their original source, but may be removed, if necessary.
DISCLOSUSURE | Randy Seaver’s stepsister, Jodi MacPhail, currently serves as mayor of Saco.
I understand there is a moratorium on UNE initiated by the mayor and city council. UNE is an institution that is a huge plus for Biddeford. They hire professionals as professors, adjunct professors and administrators who live in our community. More importantly, UNE educates young people from Maine who aspire to better themselves and get good paying jobs.
In addition, UNE provides jobs for residents from Biddeford and surrounding areas to maintain the building, grounds and services. UNE is not a burden to residents of Biddeford.
The Portland Press Herald had an article (Biddeford Committee plans public hearing, Feb. 24, 2026) about the moratorium, which revealed the hidden agenda for this moratorium.
It appears the Hills Beach residents want to constrain development and growth of UNE. They are more interested in keeping people out and the coastline to themselves for nothing more than selfish reasons.
Biddeford has failed to provide public parking at every beach in Biddeford for all the residents. When I drive through Biddeford Pool these days, I noticed all the places I had parked to go scuba diving when I was in high school are now blocked or have no parking signs, essentially keeping city residents out.
The Biddeford City Council recently enacted a six-month moratorium on continued development at the University of New England’s Biddeford campus to allow city officials and a new subcommittee time to review and recommend potential changes
If you drive to Goose Rocks Beach, you are welcomed with a sign that says, “welcome to Goose Rocks Beach, no parking on any street any time”. When you drive through, you can see a beautiful beach near the road.
Most of the time there are very few people on the beach. But there is no public parking anywhere. Instead, you find a pseudo security guard following you to make sure you leave. He essentially chases you out.
My sister stopped there last year to show her daughter the beach and was rewarded very quickly with a parking ticket. I thought, here I am a resident of Biddeford and could not go to one of our beaches.
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Editor’s Note:Goose Rocks Beach is located in and controlled by the town of Kennebunkport, not Biddeford)
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Driving through, I noticed most of the license plates are from out of state. Is this where Hills Beach is going to not provide any public parking?
We see our coastline being bought up by many who are from out of state and moving to Maine to retire. If you read the Portland Press Herald article on February 18, Maine has become the oldest state, where people over 65 outnumber the people under 18 in Maine.
It is one thing to buy up the coastline, but another when these people do whatever they can to prevent Maine residents from accessing the beaches in order to keep the coastline to themselves. I have 22 nieces and nephews and only two still reside in Maine. The others all had to go out of state to find good paying professional jobs.
If you watch the video of the public hearing meeting just before the city council voted for the moratorium, you will see there was absolutely no interest of any city council member to listen to public inputs. They were simply going through the motions and had their minds made up.
It will be interesting to see if the public hearing meeting (March 2) will be a repeat of that or whether anyone on the city council will listen to public inputs and take them into account.
Council members should be representing all city residents, not just a handful in Hills Beach.
When one sees the committee made up of three city council members who live in Hills Beach and Patricia Boston, a Hills Beach resident heading up the committee, there is little faith they will do their job of representing all residents of Biddeford, but more for their own benefit.
I believe this committee is a serious conflict of interest and unethical. I hope the mayor and other city council members choose to do that right and just thing and abandon this moratorium.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Bernard Roy is a former Biddeford resident, and 1971 graduated of Biddeford High School. Today, he resides in Ada, Michigan
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NOTE: The Biddeford Gazette strongly encourages reader feedback and public commentary regarding our coverage and issues directly related to the city of Biddeford. To submit a letter to the editor or guest column, please contact us at biddefordgazette@gmail.com
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THE BIDDEFORD GAZETTE | A Legacy of Trusted, Independent Journalism
When journalists compete, readers win | Good news for people in Biddeford
Whether you’re buying a new car or just picking up the week’s groceries, you are always better off when you have choices and competition in the marketplace.
It’s no different when it comes to the highly competitive world of journalism. Having choices about where you get your local news ensures that you are well-informed and up to date about what is happening in your community.
Most journalists I know – me included – would rather have “exclusive rights” when it comes to local news reporting. We’re doing just fine. There’s no need for competition. Thank you very much.
But if there is only one dominant media outlet in any market – large or small –news consumers suffer.
Competition keeps journalists on their toes, hungry to find new and more detailed information. Competition also serves the public as an appropriate ‘check and balance’ on each reporter and every media outlet.
Bias and inaccuracy are exposed when multiple journalists cover the same beat.
The idea – and the importance – of “getting the scoop” is a well-known mantra, that even those outside the realm of the so-called Fourth Estate understand and appreciate.
But getting the scoop should be much more focused on getting the story right rather than getting the story first.
So, how does all of this impact local news consumers in Biddeford?
What’s the buzz? Media competition in Biddeford
The local news landscape in the Biddeford area has changed dramatically over the last 30 years.
I have written about this subject ad-nauseam on my personal blog, Lessons in Mediocrity.
I grew up here, and when I returned to Biddeford in the mid-1990s, there were three newspapers regularly covering City Hall, local politics, news and events.
The Portland Press Herald – Maine’s largest daily newspaper – had a fully-staffed regional bureau on Main Street. The legendary and award-winning Journal Tribune – an afternoon daily – was then “the paper of record.”
At the same time, the weekly Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier – a locally-owned publication — was keeping the big boys on their toes, filling the gaps and providing (during my tenure as editor) a somewhat manic approach to covering City Hall.
What happened?
For all intents and purposes, it was like a slow-acting bomb was triggered. There were a lot of things at play, most notably corporate restructuring of local media and big changes in how consumers accessed their news and information.
Welcome to the internet and social media.
Suddenly, everyone was a reporter. The Fourth Estate was being overrun by a mob of discontented citizens who no longer trusted the media or valued its self-described role as guardians of local news and information.
The Journal Tribune – after more than a century of providing local news in Biddeford – permanently closed its doors in October 2019. The Press Herald closed its regional bureau; and the Courier was sold and then – just last year – ceased publishing its print edition and was folded into an electronic newsletter distributed by the Press Herald.
Rising from the ashes
It may have happened slowly, but over time folks in the Biddeford area realized that they were living in a vacuum of local news coverage. The local newspapers were always taken for granted.
Many of us didn’t recognize how lucky we were to have three independent, professional publications covering Biddeford news.
Not surprisingly, it was a local journalist who took the very first step in filling the news vacuum in Biddeford.
Liz Gotthelf, a former Journal Tribune reporter, launched Saco Bay News – a digital publication – only months after her employer sent her and her co-workers packing in 2020.
Liz Gotthelf (Saco Bay News photo)
It likely would have been easier for Liz to find a job at another newspaper or go into the much more lucrative field of public relations. But with tenacity and grit, she almost single-handedly built a trusted, local media source.
Saco Bay News does an excellent job of covering local news, but since Liz is basically running it as a one-person show, she is stretched thin and challenged by simultaneously covering three communities: Biddeford, Saco and Old Orchard Beach.
Another fighter enters the ring
Almost two years ago, I found myself increasingly frustrated about some local issues, including Biddeford’s brash and rather obnoxious former city manager and a lack of coverage about a controversial project put forth by the University of New England.
In November of 2024, I tentatively launched the Biddeford Gazette as a special section on my blog. Two months later – following my wife’s suggestion – I formally launched the Gazette as a stand-alone publication.
Biddeford is the largest community in York County, and the eighth-largest city in Maine. I thought the city deserved its own news source.
I doubt that Liz – a good friend and former co-worker – was very happy about a new competitor, but readers almost immediately embraced the Gazette because of its commitment to be a Biddeford-only publication.
There’s an old saying: “Write what you know.”
Well, I know Biddeford. My family’s roots here go back generations. I was raised on the third-floor of a Quimby Street triple decker and received First Communion at St. Mary’s.
Heck, I even had a paper route delivering the Journal Tribune in the 1970s.
As a professional journalist, I have been covering the city of Biddeford for nearly 30 years. Thus, I have a somewhat unfair advantage over Liz and various reporters from the Press Herald. I know this city and its people, and they know me.
The media landscape continues to change
Today, any person with a smartphone and an internet connection can set themselves up as a journalist or as “a community reporter.”
That’s a good thing, and that’s a bad thing. Allow me to explain.
Last year, during a small, community symposium about local media issues that was hosted by The Maine Monitor at the McArthur Library, several folks raised concerns about how to “separate the wheat from the chaff.”
In an age of rampant internet communication, how are consumers supposed to discern and distinguish the news being fed to them, asked Susan Gold, a veteran journalist who once worked at the Journal Tribune.
Sadly, there is no easy answer to that question.
As I said at the top, increased competition among the media is good for you, but you have to be careful.
A few months ago, another digital media outlet emerged in Biddeford.
The Biddeford Buzz was launched last summer by Josh Wolfe, a man who was reportedly less than satisfied with the area’s existing news coverage, especially the Gazette.
The Biddeford Buzz may not be my cup of tea. Josh has had no editorial training or professional news experience prior to launching his own publication. For example, the Buzz recently published a story about a political candidate simply by “copying and pasting” something the candidate wrote on Facebook. She called me to complain. “He [Wolfe] never even called me,” she said.
But what Mr. Wolfe may lack in experience, he more than compensates with enthusiasm and a dogged desire to keep other reporters on their own toes.
Unlike many other reporters, Wolfe has become a regular fixture at Biddeford City Council meetings. He has a near perfect attendance record, always sitting up front and eager to cover even rather benign city issues.
Furthermore, — and perhaps most importantly — the Biddeford Buzz gives its readers and others another platform to share their own news and opinions about the city of Biddeford. That’s very important, especially for people who have a rather dim view of the Gazette or other local publications.
More choices often lead to better outcomes, and at least Biddeford consumers are no longer living in a news vacuum
CORRECTION: The original article contained an error. The Journal Tribune closed in October 2019, not in 2020. The story has been updated, and we apologize for the error.
There’s no denying it. This is not your father’s news industry anymore. That’s good news, but it’s also very bad news.
I’m writing this because there were three significant local changes in the news industry that happened in just the last two weeks.
More about that in just a moment.
Traditional, legacy media outlets are no longer the sole guardians of truth and justice, and that fact — like it or not – will impact you — and it might even hurt you.
For centuries, newspapers, (and then later) radio and television news operations kept an immeasurable amount of gravitas in their pants’ pocket, like so many nickels and dimes. The publishers, editors (and oftentimes the reporters) took your trust in them for granted.
Nearly 300 years ago, Edmund Burke, a member of British Parliament, reportedly coined the term “Fourth Estate” to describe the press, pointing out its obligations as a check in government oversight and its responsibility to frame political issues as well as to be an advocate for the general public.
Pretty big responsibility, eh?
The industry that was once the trusted and almost sole gatekeeper of vital public news and information is now scrambling, desperately trying to find a way to remain relevant or at least financially solvent.
So, what are the threats and challenges facing both you as a news consumer and traditional media outlets?
First and foremost, social media platforms are taking over the distribution of news and information. There are no more paperboys and even newsrooms are shifting away from brick-and-mortar structures.
In survey after survey; in poll after poll, one fact becomes abundantly clear. Consumers want their news on their schedule (on demand). Readers also try to skirt paywalls, no longer seeing the value of paid news subscriptions.
Readers today gravitate toward click-bait headlines and “news” websites that match their own political ideology.
Photo: The Death of the Newspaper Industry | John W. Hayes)
Never-ending competition, a 24-7 news cycle and the disturbing rise of AI (artificial intelligence) all remain as threats to established and not-so-established news outlets.
And to top it off, reader trust in traditional news outlets is plummeting faster than shares of K-Mart stock.
In his Nov. 29, 2022 opinion column, Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby pointed to a recent Gallup report, which revealed that just one out of three Americans claimed to have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of confidence in the media.
We could talk all day about the national news scene and the spiraling demise of legacy media, but let’s take a deeper look at the news on a local level, right here where it hurts the most.
Today, almost everyone is a journalist – or so they believe. All you need is a keyboard and an internet connection and its off to the races.
While I love certain aspects of “citizen journalism” it does sort of invite a Wild, Wild West approach in reporting news.
These citizens journalists typically do not have editors or the resources of an editorial board. They have no professional training. Ethics and objectivity are now electives, no longer requirements.
In other ways, however, these pesky citizen journalists and their social media followers do keep some much needed pressure on those Fourth Estate guys, the traditional legacy media outlets.
We’re not in Kansas anymore
Speaking of legacy, traditional media, the Bangor Daily News (BDN) – Maine’s preeminent source of political news – decided last week to shut down its editorial board. The paper will no longer have an Op-Ed (Opinion-Editorial) section.
I found that news strange. It struck me as counter-intuitive, especially since so many people are saying that readers are flocking toward opinion and away from objective news reporting.
While I love certain aspects of “citizen journalism” it does sort of invite a Wild, Wild West approach in reporting news.
In aJan. 24 column, the BDN described the move as “the end of an era.”
Susan Young, the paper’s opinion editor, said the news was “bittersweet.”
“Far too few people read opinion content, so we have to try different things,” Young told me during an online conversation, saying the decision was influenced by the paper’s digital analytics.
The BDN’s decision will also mean the end of rigorous and highly regarded opinion columns from people like Amy Fried on the political left to Matt Gagnon on the political right.
Still closer to home, the publishers of the Biddeford-Saco Courierannounced on Wednesday that they will now offer their subscribers a digital weekly update via email.
That “announcement” dropped exactly two weeks after I formally launched the Biddeford Gazette, a free digital newspaper dedicated to covering Biddeford news, opinion and events.
For more than 30 years, the Courier has relied upon free delivery of its print publication at newsstands or tossed into the driveways of private homes.
The Courier was founded and locally owned by David and Carolyn Flood. A few years ago, the paper was then sold to the owner of the now defunct Journal Tribune, a daily newspaper that was later acquired by the daily Portland Press Herald. Today, the Press Herald owners also contributor several weekly and daily publications throughout central and southern Maine.
Courier reporter Sydney Richelieu announced the “inaugural edition” of “Biddeford-Saco | Now” in an email sent to subscribers. The move, she said, is designed to offer readers another option in finding out what is happening in their community.
I have some unsolicited advice for Sydney and the Courier’s editors, please stop printing press releases and then labeling them with a byline of “Staff Reports.”
Otherwise, I am quite pleased that you guys finally want to step up your game in covering local news.
To be honest, I have a bit of an advantage over the other guys. I’m a Biddeford native and resident, and I have been covering Biddeford for nearly three decades. I have a stockpile of sources and lots of time on my hands.
Just a few days ago, a close friend of mine remarked that other local publications are now starting to pay more attention (deservedly so) to the city of Biddeford, since I launched the Gazette.
That’s actually really good news, especially for the people of Biddeford.
The other guys may not like the fact that I am now in the mix, but they should remember the folks at the Journal Tribune were none too happy when the Courier was launched in 1989; and the folks at the Courier were none too happy that Saco Bay Newscame along in 2019 and showed off the nimble advantages of being a digital publication.
Increased competition does not help the Courier, Saco Bay News or the Biddeford Gazette, but it does keep a fire lit under our asses; and that is good news for readers.
The people of Biddeford should not have to rely upon just one reporter for the news that matters to them.
Competition keeps reporters motivated, but more importantly – it keeps them in check.
The Biddeford Gazette is not trying to put anyone else out of business. In fact, the opposite is true.
The Biddeford Gazette uses its own social media pages on Facebook, BlueSky and X to round up and share local news stories from other media companies. No one else does that.
You read that right. We take the time to share news from the other guys on our social media pages. And when you click to read those stories, you are not directed to our website, instead all the postings will link automatically to whatever source produced the news, whether it’s Saco Bay News, the Courier or WGME-TV.
Please visit our new Facebook page and follow us to experience a new level of local news coverage.
Whenever or wherever news about Biddeford is published, we will be there to make sure you know about it.
That’s my mission. That’s my passion.
I value your trust.
I will not stop.
Editor’s Note: This is a corrected version of an earlier story. The Biddeford-Saco Courier was originally acquired by the publisher of the Journal Tribune, not the Portland Press Herald. We regret the error and apologize for any confusion it may have caused.
BIDDEFORD GAZETTE 