In the wake of a scandal over its founder and publisher’s arrest on child pornography charges, Lewiston Auburn Magazine board members say they have a potential buyer and hope to resume publication by this summer.
“We are still hammering out some of the finer details,” said Paul Roy, who serves on the magazine’s seven-person board and is its treasurer. “It is about more than just one man. The community had an obvious thirst for the type of publication that we were putting out.”
Joshua Shea, 38, a father of two, was arrested in March on a charge that he possessed child pornography. Maine State Police detectives said Shea’s computer contained hundreds of images of child pornography. His initial court date is set for May.
In addition to founding Lewiston Auburn Magazine in 2010, Shea served one term on the Auburn City Council and started the Lewiston Auburn Film Festival in 2011. This year’s film festival was scheduled for early April but canceled because of the arrest. A new festival, the Emerge Film Festival, will be held June 14 instead.
After news broke of Shea’s arrest, the magazine’s board met, fired him from his position as publisher and editor and stopped the presses on the April issue, which was ready to print. Shea had been the only paid staff member since January.
“Josh’s name was all over it,” Roy said. Shea had written an article and the editor’s note, and advertisers were calling to say they wanted to pull their ads, he said. “We just felt given the circumstances that it wasn’t something we wanted going out.”
He declined to say much about the potential buyer, other than that “he is a very community-minded person.” Lewiston Auburn Magazine has about 750 subscribers, Roy said.
Mary Pols can be contacted at791-6456 or at:
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