The National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit that has pledged to preserve and invest in local news, has completed its purchase of most of Maine’s daily newspapers, including the Portland Press Herald.

The papers’ previous owner, Reade Brower, and Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro, chief executive officer and founder of the National Trust for Local News, confirmed Tuesday that the sale had closed. Neither would disclose the sale price.

“I am so grateful to Reade Brower for believing in the vision and mission of the National Trust for Local News, and for entrusting us with the future of these incredible local news outlets,” Hansen Shapiro said in an email.

“I’m happy with the outcome,” Brower said in an interview. “I’m hoping it’s the best possible course for the next steward of the papers.”

In addition to the Press Herald, Brower’s Masthead Maine included the Sun Journal in Lewiston, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, the Morning Sentinel in Waterville, the Times Record in Brunswick and 17 weekly papers in southern and western Maine, including the Forecaster group.

The papers are now part of the Maine Trust for Local News, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit founded in 2021, which also owns a chain of 24 community newspapers in suburban Denver.

The Maine Trust for Local News is an L3C, or low-profit liability company, with a mission of supporting educational or charitable purposes similar to a public benefit corporation.

The National Trust has said that under the nonprofit ownership the Maine newspapers will continue to operate as businesses, with philanthropic donations supplementing existing sources of revenue like advertising, circulation and commercial printing.

News of the sale was announced July 10, a little more than three months after Brower said he was exploring a sale of Masthead Maine.

Lisa DeSisto, who served as chief executive officer of Masthead Maine and is now CEO and publisher of the Maine Trust for Local News, announced the new ownership in an email to employees Tuesday morning.

She and National Trust for Local News Chief Portfolio Officer Ross McDuffie introduced the trust at a meeting and celebration with employees in South Portland.

“We are the Maine Trust for Local News and I’m so excited to share this news with all of you,” DeSisto said. “We’ve been reading about some of the really unpleasant outcomes for newspaper organizations across the country and I can’t imagine one that is more opposite than what we’ve seen out there.”

Steve Greenlee, executive editor of the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, said the sale is promising news for the papers.

“We want to continue to do the type of journalism that finds the truth for Maine,” he said. “This ownership model will help us there.”

Aimsel Ponti, a music writer at the Press Herald and secretary of the News Guild of Maine, a union representing nearly 200 workers at the Press Herald and Morning Sentinel, said in a statement Tuesday that the initial meeting with McDuffie was positive.

“We look forward to working with him and other representatives from the National Trust for Local News/Maine Trust for Local News,” Ponti said. “We appreciate that our current contract is being honored and look forward to negotiating the next one later this year.”

The acquisition was made with a mix of financing and support from the National Trust’s general operating fund and local fundraising efforts, according to a memo to employees Tuesday.

The National Trust said it plans to share more information about who supported the purchase when it constitutes a local board in September. The nonprofit’s website lists more than a dozen general funders of the organization, including the Knight Foundation, the Gates Family Foundation and the Google News Initiative.

The Maine Journalism Foundation, which launched last spring with the goal of acquiring Masthead Maine and operating its newspapers under a nonprofit model, also contributed local donations to the sale.

Bill Nemitz, a former Press Herald columnist and president of the board of the foundation, did not respond Tuesday to a voicemail seeking information about the future of the foundation.

McDuffie said the foundation and local voices will continue to play an important role in the National Trust – but what that will look like in the long term is still being worked out as the National Trust establishes a local governance model.

“We’re very eager to have the experts at MJF play a part in that,” he said.

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