The Maine Monitor’s website will get a new look and add many useful features in the near future thanks to a Sustainable Publishing Solutions grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The Monitor is one of 25 newsrooms that received the grant, which is designed to help news outlets adopt publishing platforms that grow audiences and increase revenue.

“The awarding of this highly-competitive grant is a game changer for our digital presence,” said George Harvey, the Monitor’s multimedia editor. “This has been a top newsroom priority for well over a year, and I have spent the last 12 months working behind-the-scenes preparing for this opportunity.” 

The grant will provide the Monitor with the necessary funding to reconfigure its website in several ways, including responsiveness that will allow the Monitor’s content to be better consumed across all platforms, especially for those who access the website via mobile devices.

The grant from the Knight Foundation is allowing the Monitor newsroom to invest in tools that will help us grow our audience engagement, invest in data visualization tools and tailor the website to be more accessible to those needing that support. This is the third year Knight has awarded the sustainability grants, helping 25 sites each year.

“The Sustainable Publishing Solutions grant has been a transformational opportunity for these 75 publishers,” said Christina Shih, senior vice president of revenue at News Revenue Hub, the nonprofit organization that helped select the award winners.

The Maine Monitor is looking for your suggestions on the best and the brightest web developers (feel free to nominate yourself, if you have the skills) that may be interested in helping us. We’ve identified a small handful of potential developers, but want to consider as many as possible.

They don’t have to be based in Maine, though they must have familiarity with WordPress. We already have our desired theme selected and have a fair idea of how we want everything to look.

If you know someone who may be interested, pass their information along to: george@themainemonitor.org. 

And, if you would like to help us pay for further improvements, feel free to make a donation. (For those who have struggled to make a donation from your phone, this feature will be solved with the new website design!)