Eric Russell
Press Forward Maine, an initiative of the Maine Community Foundation (MaineCF), today announced that Eric Russell, a former news editor at the Portland Press Herald and one of Maine's most decorated journalists, will serve as the founding editor-in-chief of the Maine Community News Hub, a new, nonpartisan, student-driven newsroom created to serve nonprofit and independent news organizations across the state.
“MaineCF is thrilled to welcome distinguished journalist Eric Russell as founding editor-in-chief of the Maine Community News Hub,” said Deborah Ellwood, MaineCF president and CEO. “Expanding access to local news is critical, and this innovative news hub will support local news outlets across Maine while providing student journalists with real-world reporting experience.”
Russell, a graduate of the University of Maine with a degree in journalism, brings more than two decades of local experience to the role. He was named the Maine Press Association's Journalist of the Year in 2018 and has won more than two dozen Maine Press Association writing awards. Russell joined the Portland Press Herald in 2012 as a general assignment reporter and quickly became the newsroom's go-to enterprise writer, handling many of its most important and complex stories. Most recently he has served as a news editor, overseeing a team of five reporters, leading newsroom projects including a special section on housing and managing college student interns. Before joining the Press Herald, he spent nearly eight years at the Bangor Daily News, covering the city of Bangor and then the State House.
“This is a tremendous opportunity, not just for me, but for Maine’s entire journalism landscape, which is something I care deeply about,” said Russell. “Students interested in journalism need more avenues to get practical reporting and writing experience, and newsrooms across the state have well-documented challenges covering everything they might like. The Maine Community News Hub can help address both, and I'm excited to play a role in training the next generation of reporters.”
As editor-in-chief, Russell will work with faculty and staff at colleges and universities across Maine to recruit student journalists and pair them with nearby news outlets. He will coordinate coverage with newsroom editors statewide, accept story pitches, help students develop their own ideas, and edit each story before it is distributed to partner outlets. The initiative advances Press Forward Maine's mission to ensure all Mainers have access to trusted local news and information.
The News Hub’s mission is twofold: provide more local journalism to resource-constrained news outlets across the state, with a focus on underserved communities, and give students the published clips and experience they need to secure internships and jobs—helping develop the next generation of Maine journalists. The program will launch as a pilot with a small number of campuses and new outlets before expanding across the state. It was designed by the former executive editor at the Portland Press Herald, Steve Greenlee, who is now a journalism professor and the director of the Newsroom Initiative at Boston University.
