My first look at the Wiscasset Newspaper came in the autumn of 1978. I was living in Fort Collins, Colorado finishing my senior year at Colorado State University where I majored in journalism. I was looking for a job as a newspaper reporter and some friends convinced me to come to Maine. They mailed me a package with copies of: the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal, Times Record, Coastal Journal and The Wiscasset Newspaper.

Just a few months later, I started working as a reporter and photographer for The Wiscasset Newspaper. Dan DeRepentigny, the owner and publisher of the Boothbay Register, hired me. Dan in 1970 had started The Wiscasset Newspaper which began as a small, eight-page tabloid. It was printed on a letter press in the basement of the Boothbay Register on corner of Townsend Avenue and Union Street in Boothbay Harbor; the same small building where the newspaper is still located.  

Dan had hired Velma Sutter to serve as The Wiscasset Newspaper’s editor and reporter. Mrs. Sutter had had a long newspaper career that began in Boston; she had been working as a news correspondent for the Kennebec Journal. Velma ran the paper from her home on the West Alna Road and was still working as the editor when I started as a reporter in March of 1979. By that time The Wiscasset Newspaper was no longer a separate publication; it had become a part of the Boothbay Register which was a broad sheet. Both newspapers maintained their identities by printing a separate front page. They also had their own pages devoted to local sports and education. The rest of the paper was filled with news from the Boothbay area, including Southport and Edgecomb. Coverage of the schools was a pretty big deal back then, high school basketball in particular. In Wiscasset, the town’s Fourth of July celebration, town meeting and high school graduation were the year’s biggest events.

One unique thing about The Wiscasset Newspaper was its masthead at the top of its front page. On it were small illustrations of the historic blockhouse at Fort Edgecomb, the Hesper and Luther Little, Wiscasset’s famous four-masted schooners, and another of the Lincoln County Court House and First Congregational Church. The lettering and pictures were all original, hand-drawn by Schuyler Fairfield. Schuyler lived in Wiscasset and for years operated a sign painting business on Railroad Avenue. He also owned the building on Water Street where the Wiscasset Newspaper rented a one-room office next door to Wiscasset Hardware that’s where Velma and I worked along with Dotty Koughan.

In 1980 DeRepentigny sold the newspaper to Howard Cowan of Oklahoma who gave both newspapers a new look replacing the masthead lettering with an old English style typeface. Gone were the illustrations on The Wiscasset Newspaper, although Mr. Cowan kept the slogan, “The Prettiest Village in Maine.” It was during Howard’s tenure that the newspapers began running column’s by Paul Harvey and Andy Rooney. If I remember correctly, Mr. Cowan had met Rooney when the two were news correspondents during World War II.

Mrs. Sutter retired in 1980, and for a time Mary Brewer edited both the Register and Wiscasset Newspaper, along with Lyndel Blackmore. In the 1990s, Paula Gibbs became the editor of The Wiscasset Newspaper. After she retired, Brewer, who retired in 2012, and Kevin Burnham edited the newspaper. Susan Johns eventually became the editor and continues on in that role. Both newspapers are published in Boothbay Harbor. 

After Mrs. Gibbs became editor the masthead was changed again to include a photograph of Wiscasset’s landmark town clock, the old schooners having disappeared from the waterfront. The “Prettiest Village in Maine” slogan was eventually dropped, replaced with “Serving Alna, Dresden, Edgecomb, Westport and Wiscasset” to reflect the newspaper’s expanded area of coverage. This too was later changed to read: “Serving the Lincoln County seat and its neighboring communities.”

Over the years when other Maine newspapers have grown considerably smaller, The Wiscasset Newspaper and Boothbay Register have struck with their supersized format, 16 ½ inches long, by 23 inches wide with seven columns of news. Websites were created for both publications in addition to the “Morning Catch,” a free local news service updated daily and emailed to readers.

Burnham, the Boothbay Register’s editor since 1987, said the two publications continued to run separate editions until April 16, 2020. That’s when financial challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led management to consolidate the two newspapers into one publication the Boothbay Register-Wiscasset Newspaper.

“Besides the combining of news on page 1, we have moved our editorial page from page 2 to deeper inside the 12-page front section. We have also combined the sports and education news,” wrote Burnham in announcing the change.

The consolidation ended a 52-year run by the Wiscasset Newspaper, although Burnham added, “We, like all of you, hope this is temporary and we can get back to normal soon.”

Phil Di Vece earned a B.A. in Journalism studies from Colorado State University and a M.A. in journalism at the University of South Florida. He is the author of three Wiscasset books and is a frequent news contributor to the Wiscasset Newspaper and Boothbay Register. He resides in Wiscasset. Contact him at pdivece@roadrunner.com