If you think it’s hard running Maine’s biggest embattled newspaper chain, try doing it while you’re also flipping two eggs over easy with an order of toast.
That’s the plight of Stefanie Manning, who took over just weeks ago as the top manager of the Portland Press Herald in the wake of the resignation of the paper’s CEO, and who also has a side hustle owning a breakfast diner
Manning takes the reins even as the paper is suffering a flood of executive resignations, as well as staff and budget cuts.
Not to worry.
The mainstream media, aka The Boston Globe, just ran a soufflé-like quote from Manning as part of its piece speculating about layoffs.
“We can’t say that there will be staffing impacts in the near future, but we also can’t rule out that tough decisions will be required for getting ourselves to sustainability,” Manning the short-order cook was quoted as saying.
But even as she was obliquely warning the reporting staff about the dire outlook for the paper, she was earning a second income running Miss Portland Diner, which she owns with her husband just blocks from the paper.
Talk about a scrambled mess…
Manning, a longtime newspaper advertising executive, was promoted to “managing director” when Lisa DeSisto suddenly resigned in December as CEO of the Maine Trust for Local News.
Besides running the diner, Manning had also been the chef of staff – sorry, chief of staff – for the state’s largest newspaper chain for several years.
So how do you run a newspaper while you’re trying to juggle breakfast orders?
It’s apparently not easy, judging from the state of affairs at the Portland-based newspaper chain that the “non-profit” trust bought in 2023.
Just days ago, the Poynter Institute reported that the National Trust for Local News had embarked on a “community journalism” experiment in Maine that apparently turned rancid as it tried to manage the large group of newspapers – including several dailies and weeklies – without having to make a profit.
But once the founder of the national trust, which is the parent of the Maine group, resigned unexpectedly last month, the responsibilities on the woman slinging hash at Miss Portland Diner became all the greater.
Manning prominently reports on her own LinkedIn profile that she bought the 1949 Worcester Diner Car, a longtime breakfast staple in Maine’s largest city, in 2008.
“If you haven’t tried our corned-beef hash you don’t know what you are missing,” Manning says proudly on her profile.
Can’t make it up folks.
Quality corned beef hash aside (sorry, couldn’t resist), Manning is trying to figure out how to keep the trust’s flagship daily newspaper afloat while she handles breakfast orders.
In just the past few weeks five top-level executives have quit the paper, including DeSisto, national trust co-founder Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, executive editor Steve Greenlee, managing editor Nita Lelyveld and Jody Jalbert, who was the publisher of the Lewiston Sun Journal.
Though Manning the newspaper executive transparently features a description of the Miss Portland Diner on her LinkedIn page, her husband Tom makes no mention on the eatery’s website of her involvement in the management of the restaurant they apparently bought together.
When Manning was serving (sorry) as the Press Herald’s marketing director 10 years ago, the paper carried a glowing review of the diner she co-owns.
“You won’t find much that’s cutting edge or modern at the Miss Portland Diner, but that’s the whole point,” restaurant reviewer James Schwartz wrote with a straight face in 2015. “Nostalgia is alive and well, and Miss Portland’s the place to enjoy it.”
𝘞𝘩𝘰’𝘴 𝘯𝘦𝘹𝘵? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘺𝘢 𝘺𝘢 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦?
Apparently there’s not much of an appetite for nostalgia among the worried newspaper staff, who recently received a scary forecast from Manning about the future of the paper
The Miss Portland Diner menu says the Manning’s “signature hash” comes with “two eggs your way and choice of toast.” ($15.25).
If you prefer just the hash without the eggs and toast, figure on $8.25. The dessert menu, meanwhile, includes a “two-scoop sundae with one sauce, whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry” for $7.75.
Now 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 a scoop.
Editor’s Note: Ted Cohen is a former, long-time Portland Press Herald reporter.
The reporting is just to left for me. And Soris money.
its being set up to fail. there is a plan without your best intrests at heart, a plan by a big club and you aint in it
Another Internet casualty? Sounds like a good opportunity for some savvy entrepreneur to pick up some cheap newspapers.
If you’re trying to find some left-wing, social engineering journalism, check out the Bangor Daily News.
Its not as unusual as you would think. Like the governor of maine was a pig farmer before she was elected. Strike that… being a pig is not the same as pig farming, sorry.
Nemitz still there? My mother had a copy of the PPH and I laughed at the size of the paper, about 20 pages long and about the size of Readers Digest. What a waste of subscription money.
CEO rats are leaving the sinking SS Project Mockingbird.
Never before have I read, or heard of, that frequently rattles the tin cup for donations, or run a full page ad soliciting same. If that isn’t a death tremor, I don’t know what is.
Maybe they should try the PBS model; you know, a great musical special, interrupted every 15 minutes or so for a 10 minute “membership drive” with varying levels of swag for varying levels of membership.
They could also put apparent panhandlers out at various Portland intersections with a Shopping Cart and sign from a used box reading “anything helps.”
Come to think of it, maybe they already have!
Not funny Ted. Making jokes during a funeral just wreaks of disrespect. So I’m sure the Trust and Manning will hash things out. Can the printing machines fit inside the diner? Maybe print on invisible paper – like that Emperor in the fairy tale.
Might I suggest putting all the printing operations into a stand-alone LLC since that is your most valuable asset. And buy lots in the local cemetery so your writers can get a head start on decomposing. No, the government isn’t going to bail you out (have you seen how bad our roads are)?
If you hurry up and apply for funding from USAID, I’m sure they can find a home for your papers in the mideast somewhere.
The Trust is in a bad place – got a table next to the restroom eh? Maybe join the cannabis industry – one giant grow center in SoPo and a small diner-like pot shop on Marginal Way. Spice up that hash, it will.
Nice hit piece on the Mannings who have done way more for this city than most people know of…..certainly way more than the clown who wrote this article