The Roberts family accepts a legislative sentiment in celebration of The Lincoln County News 150th year of publication from Maine Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, on Oct. 24. Reny presented Chris Roberts with a legislative sentiment during his 70th birthday celebration. From left: Paula and Chris Roberts, Cameron Reny, Allan Roberts, and John Roberts. (Maia Zewert photo)
For 150 years, The Lincoln County News and its pages have stood witness to countless celebrations, milestones, and challenges. And for the decades they’ve been involved and the thousands of editions they’ve helped produce, Paula and Chris Roberts can’t help but feel grateful to their community.
“We’ve enjoyed doing the works that needs to be done to keep it going,” Chris Roberts said.
This week marks 150 years since the first issue of The Village Herald, one of The Lincoln County News’ predecessors, made it to news stands on Nov. 15, 1876.
The first edition of The Lincoln County News came out on Feb. 13, 1919, but the Erskine-Roberts family wouldn’t have their names attached to the paper until Samuel Erskine published his first edition in Dec. 9, 1920.
Erskine would eventually pass the paper on to his daughter Dorothy Roberts, who owned the paper until 1966. Sam Roberts, her son, then became the third generation to take on The Lincoln County News.
As the fourth generation born into the family business, Chris Roberts began life with ink in his veins. He said he remembers working at The Lincoln County News and Lincoln County Publishing Co., the full-service print shop that prints the paper, early on.
Chris Roberts remembers helping his father at the publishing company as early as sixth grade. Paula Roberts said Chris decided at the age of 12 he would eventually take over the family businesses.
“I’d be hand feeding the business cards on the off time I didn’t go to school,” he said.
When they first started dating in high school, Paula Roberts said she quickly got acquainted with the family business.
“My first meeting of his father was when they were melting the lead to make (casting material) for the linotype (machine),” Paula Roberts said.
Knowing he wasn’t meant for the writing, Chris Roberts picked up the technical work that comes with publishing the paper. With his decades working in the publishing warehouse, Paula Roberts said he knows “the heartbeat of every machine.”
“It takes all types of people to get the paper out,” Chris Roberts said. “The technology and the mechanics part of that is what I enjoy the most.”
Paula Roberts took on a number of jobs at the paper before becoming a part-time sports reporter in 1981 and going full time in 1991. She was immersed in sports in more ways than one, having coached the state championship-winning Lincoln Academy girls hockey team in 1987.
She said she was drawn to covering sports after seeing the difference in how much space boys and girls sports got in the paper.
“I decided that it wasn’t fair to the girls, and they should get equal coverage with the boys,” she said. “That was part of the reason why I started.”
Throughout both of their tenures, Chris Roberts said the couple has learned that “doing a family business is a way of life.”Paula Roberts remembers carrying John and Allan Roberts around in a backpack while doing tasks like stamping the addresses onto newspapers.
“When you own a business … you work extra,” Paula Roberts said.
Instead of just working a “five- or 10-year stretch” leading the paper, Chris Roberts said it takes an “until you’re done stretch” to pass the business down to a new generation.
“You improve it as much as you can and you hand it off,” he said.
As new technology has come out, updating everything from the start of the story to the end of print production has been a priority, Chris Roberts said.
The paper’s early move to create an electronic edition, a digital copy of the newspaper available as a PDF, was largely fueled by community need, he said. With many seasonal residents reading the paper to keep up with Lincoln County while in other places, their desire to stay connected is what encouraged the e-edition.
He said The Lincoln County News has stayed up to date with technology in a number of ways. Lincoln County Publishing Co. gained its first color unit in 2000, marking the addition of two color pages per section in The Lincoln County News.
Since then, three new color units have been added and the paper now has eight color pages per section. When the publishing company’s color units went from two to four in 2017, John Roberts said the acquisition was completed to improve the reader experience. At the time, he said over 500 man-hours went into installing those two new color units.
“As soon as you’re standing still, you’re being passed by,” Chris Roberts said.
Chris Roberts addresses the attendees of the Maine Press Association’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Bar Harbor in October 2022. Chris and Paula Roberts were recognized for their decades of work at The Lincoln County News. (LCN file photo)
Most of all, he said his job was to keep the paper going until elder son John Roberts was able to step into the role of publisher in January 2023. Allan Roberts, the couple’s younger son, is the associate publisher.
The handoff to the next generation was gradual, Chris Roberts said, because a job like publishing requires learning by doing.
“There’s no textbook to read to understand … just like any other small business,” he said.
To have The Lincoln County News pass on to a fifth generation and already have a member of the sixth-generation helping out, as John Roberts’ son Matthew joined the company payroll this summer, Chris Roberts said he feels lucky above anything else.
“Lucky to live here, lucky to have been given this opportunity, lucky that my boys joined here,” he said.
Since Chris Roberts became publisher emeritus and Paula Roberts has scaled back to reporting part-time, the pair have started taking on new adventures.
They took what Paula Roberts called their “first vacation” in 47 years back in September, traveling to Niagara Falls and Canada for a few days, but the pair remains consistently involved at the paper. They both have rarely missed a Wednesday, which is when the front section of the paper is laid out and the finished product is printed in the Newcastle facility.
Their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed inside and outside of Lincoln County. Paula and Chris Roberts were inducted into the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame in October 2022.
Chris Roberts said local residents tell the couple again and again how the paper keeps people in touch with their friends, family, and neighbors. Whether it’s someone’s engagement or the birth of their child, Paula Roberts said The Lincoln County News has been here to document residents’ lives.
“We’ve never thought of the papers as ours,” Paula Roberts said. “To us, it’s the community’s paper.”
As one of few newspapers in Maine that remain family owned, Chris Roberts said it’s been an honor to see a fifth generation of the family at the helm and to remain an integral part of the county.
“It takes a community to have a newspaper and a newspaper to have a community,” Chris Roberts said.
Chris Roberts (left) and sons Allan (left) and John stay busy at the newspaper. Allan and John Roberts are now the fifth generation to lead The Lincoln County News. (LCN file photo)
