How Stephen King’s tweets saved book reviews for a local paper

When Stephen King tweets, things move — like the number of subscribers to a local newspaper.

The best-selling author tweeted his outrage over a Maine paper’s decision to ditch locally-written reviews of books about Maine or by Maine authors.

“Don’t do this,” King urged people to tell the newspaper, , appealing primarily to his fellow Maine residents. 

Mainly fictional towns in the New England state of Maine provide the setting for many of King’s novels, including Salem’s Lot, Pet Sematary, and The Dead Zone, among many others. One of the most famous is King’s dreaded fictional town of Derry, Maine — where It lives.

“It’s all about money and a shrinking income for newspapers,” King went on in a follow-up tweet. “They want to go wire service reviews only, so Maine writers won’t get a boost. Many of them depend on those reviews to buy bread and milk.”

Maine residents and enthusiasts in other states responded to King, voicing their love for the reviews, with one Maine librarian calling them “essential in finding local authors,” as opposed to recommendations from Amazon, for example.

Sure enough, The Press Herald responded to King’s request. And they played it smart, promising to reinstate the local book reviews immediately, on one condition: King must convince 100 of his 5 million followers to buy digital subscriptions for the paper.

Supplying a suitable promo code, “KING,” for the challenge, the game was afoot.

The Press Herald posted updates on the total number of new subscribers, cheekily asking King for a retweet to “get us over the threshold.”

“The Portland (Maine) Press-Herald has agreed to reinstate local book reviews if 100 people subscribe,” King wrote, acknowledging the slightly promotional nature of the challenge. 

“Sales pitch? Blackmail? Either way, 71 people have subscribed so far. Are there 29 more Twitterheads out there who want to ante up? Just asking.”

And either way, it worked. The Press Herald gained over 200 new subscribers in under 48 hours, according to the New York Times. 

“We’re at our goal. Book reviews will return,” the newspaper announced on Sunday.

King posted his gratitude to his followers for subscribing, tweeting, “You saved the day.”

If you’re wondering, the paper didn’t actually misspell King’s name, they were replying in thanks to a nice comment from Twitter user Steven Moore. You can see how that could get confusing.

While a small victory for a local paper may not mean that much to you if you’re not a Maine resident, it’s an important part of a much larger industry problem. 

Although integral to their communities, local newspapers have found themselves under pressure in recent years, working hard to stay afloat amidst an ever-expanding digital media landscape — hence the growing need for online subscriptions like those gained by The Press Herald.

With print advertising revenue taking a dive over the last few years, and with staffing and circulation on the decline, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, local newspapers have the odds stacked against them. 

“For more than a century, most people in the Western world have taken local journalism for granted,” wrote Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of research at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, in his 2015 book on the subject.

“Having a local news medium dedicated to covering you and people around you helps mark the identity of the place where you live as somewhere and helps mark people there as someone,” he wrote. 

“Local news helps cultivate consensus, coherence, and stability within a community.”

Subscribe to your local newspaper, whether Stephen King wants you to or not.