Longtime Boothbay Register Editor Kevin Burnham likes to get out and cover local sports events when the occasion arises. Sports and writing have been two lifelong interests for the Boothbay Harbor native. (Photo courtesy Robert Mitchell, Boothbay Register)
It’s been said when people in the Boothbay region need to call the Boothbay Register for some reason, they don’t say “I am going to call the newspaper.” They say, “I’m going to call Kevin.”
Kevin refers to Kevin Burnham, the long-tenured editor of the Boothbay Register. A Boothbay Harbor native, Burnham started at the newspaper as a staff reporter in 1987. Within six months he was named the newspaper’s editor, a position he has held ever since.
“I think I’m part of the whole community that put trust in me; that we do a good job covering their stories and their work,” he said. “I feel a responsibility to the news, to the community that we’re serving. It’s not just a job.”
One of seven children of Louis and Gloria Burnham, Kevin Burnham grew up in a house just a couple streets over from the newspaper’s 97 Townsend Ave. offices. One benefit to having a large family was getting to know more people as each siblings brought their friends around and friends mixed and mingled, Burnham said.
“Back then, there were neighborhoods, and something was going on all the time,” Burnham said. “It was slower paced community. It was a great time in the ‘60s and early ‘70s. That is something I write about once in a while, how fortunate we were.”
He took an early interest in sports and in newspapers, both thanks to the influence of his father, Burnham said.
“My dad was into watching sports, and he always bought newspapers, and I would devour them,” Burnham said. “He was a grocer for over 50 years, so he had access to newspapers and he always brought them home. I always enjoyed reading about sports, and that’s why I got into the writing mode.”
Burnham grew up wanting to be “some kind of a writer” and an early interest in sports prompted his lifelong interest in sports writing. While his editorial duties restrict his ability to cover some events, Burnham still likes to cover athletics when he can and attend local sporting events when he is not working, Burnham said.
A dedicated high school athlete is his own right, Burnham ran track and played basketball and football for the Seahawks.
After graduating from the Boothbay Region High School in 1975, Burnham enrolled in the journalism program at the University of Maine Orono. Graduating in 1980, he returned home to Boothbay Harbor. While he sent out resumes, he worked in restaurants, painted houses, and tended bar.
“I came back here and twiddled my thumbs,” Burnham said. “I applied at a couple of places, but nothing happened. Then the editor here then, Mary Brewer, asked me to write a couple of feature stories for our summertime supplement. Luckily, a friend of mine, who was the staff artist, Bill Harris, read it and said, ‘You got to hire this guy. He can write.’’’
Shortly after Burnham started at the Register, the assistant editor moved to Australia with her husband, who was transferred there by his employer. Brewer approached Burnham about taking the position. Before the year was out, Burnham became the editor and Brewer became the managing editor.
To this day Burnham credits his parents, his athletic coaches, and Brewer for helping him develop the work ethic and management skills he uses every day.
Kevin Burnham at work in the offices of the Boothbay Register circa 1990. Burnham was hired a staff reporter in 1987 and was named the newspaper’s editor in January 1988. (Photo courtesy Boothbay Register)
“You need to have a soft glove and a boxing glove,” he said. “That’s the way I would put it. Each person is different, but I feel the people that I’ve worked with have appreciated my approach.”
A small community weekly dedicated to the Boothbay region, the Register covers Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Southport, Edgecomb, Wiscasset, and occasionally Woolwich in Sagadahoc County.
The start of Burnham’s career predates personal computers, cellphones and fax machines. During his tenure typewriters have given way to computers. Page layout, or “paste up,” used to be by hand and pictures were taken on film using a dedicated camera to be developed and poured over later. News items and press releases entered the newspaper office either by mail or hand delivered.
Today, much of the newspaper’s production, from submissions to staff articles, pictures; all of it is done via computer. Stories are posted on the newspaper’s web page for consumption around the world as soon as they’re ready to go.
“It was a matter of adjusting, but it wasn’t too bad,” Burnham said. “Mary was not very savvy when it came to computers, but luckily, I was young enough and other people were young enough to push her along. It was fun to tease her a little bit. She was a great lady and a great mentor to me.”
Looking back at his career, Burnham said he never had professional motivation to leave to Boothbay Register. He does not like cities and his hometown newspaper provided him with professional satisfaction and paid him well enough to raise a family.
He got a taste of journalism for a bigger newspaper during an internship at the Bangor Daily News while he was in college and he saw enough to know he didn’t want to be restricted to one specialty like sports, legal issues, or government.
“I was always learning so I never really wanted to get bigger, and it was a matter of knowing this place, knowing the people, and this newspaper,” he said.
By far the story that stands out in Burnham’s memory and career is the Washburn and Doughty fire on July 11, 2008. Ignited by sparks from a cutting torch, the fire destroyed the company’s 50,000-square-foot fabrication facility in East Boothbay, temporarily putting at least 65 people out of work and causing more than $30 million in damages.
Burnham started at the scene getting pictures before repairing to the Register’s offices.
Boothbay Register Editor Kevin Burnham has been working for his hometown newspaper for almost 40 years. A Boothbay resident today, Burnham grew up in a house a couple streets away from the newspaper’s offices on Townsend Avenue in Boothbay Harbor. (Sherwood Olin photo)
“At the time we didn’t have a website,” he said. “I came back here and started saying, what are we going to do? We got to get the history. We got to get the fire story. We got to get people’s responses and stuff like that. Luckily, I had very good reporters. Not that I don’t have good reporters now, but they jumped on it with me. We were getting calls from TV stations for photos and information.
“I worked a good many hours getting that on the pages, and it was everything you know?” he said. “The layout people, everybody; everybody was in.”
As Burnham looks ahead to his 69th birthday and upcoming 40th anniversary of his hiring, he acknowledges retirement is something he will start thinking about more in the near future. He still loves what he does, but having had some friends pass away in recent years, Burnham acknowledged he would like to do other things besides work, like devote time to his two granddaughters, Kayla and Ella.
“They’ve been the joy of our lives,” he said, including his wife Melodee. “We’ve done a lot of things with them.
Kevin and Melodee Burnham went to school together although they did not start dating until years later when both were in their 20s. They married in 1982 and raised two children, Sara and Tim.
When he is not working Kevin Burnham likes to spend time at home where he enjoys reading, following New England’s professional sports teams, and on occasion, blasting classic rock-n-roll through the home stereo at considerable volume.
Looking over the state of media today, Burnham acknowledged some concern over the industry he has devoted his life too. There are a number of challenging issues for all media outlets, ranging from standard business issues like staffing and keeping the lights on to larger issues like political headwinds, the rise of social media as a source of information, and the public’s changing habits for news consumption.
Journalism in general and print media in particular faces a challenging future, Burnham said.
“Big city newspapers, I think they are really struggling to keep readership, to keep advertising,” he said. “Luckily, (The Lincoln County News) and the Register have a steady audience. I know we have to adjust somehow to keep going. I think we have to embrace the internet and change the way we do things, as far as getting the news out.”
As far as the Boothbay Register holds, Burnham expressed a hope someone will take it on as he did.
“Hopefully someone will stay interested and get some good ideas to keep this going,” he said.
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