Whatever Happened to The Casco Bay Weekly Newspaper?

There was a time in Maine's greater Portland area when a local, alternative newspaper was found all over the city and was appropriately named, The Casco Bay Weekly. Whatever Happened to the Casco Bay Weekly?

The Casco Bay Weekly was published in Portland from 1988 to 2004. It came out every Thursday and was free to anyone who wanted to pick up a copy, which was available just about anywhere in the city.

It had great articles, highlighting local music, politics, events, restaurants, you name it. If it was happening in Portland, the Casco Bay Weekly would cover it.

In the Beginning

According to Wikipedia, in 1990, Dodge Morgan, who also owned the Maine Times newspaper, purchased Casco Bay Weekly from Mogul Media Inc. Back then, the Casco Bay Weekly had a circulation of about 20,000, all in the Greater Portland area.

Why create an alternative, free newspaper?  The original editors said in their first issue in 1990:

"The idea for Casco Bay Weekly evolved from our attachment to Portland. We like it here.”

Plain and simple.

The End

Competition came into the market when the Portland Phoenix launched in 1999. It was basically another newspaper writing about Portland.

The Casco Bay Weekly struggled as ad revenue started to shrink significantly. Neither of the papers survived, with the Casco Bay Weekly ending in 2004 after 14 years and the Portland Phoenix ending in 2023, unable to recover after the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you want to read old issues of the Casco Bay Weekly, the Portland Public Library has archives of the paper available on its website.