Messager (Le)

Notes et remarques

Extrait de la fiche rédigée par la Maine State Library, disponible sur la fiche de la LOC citée plus haut : 

« The most notable Franco-American newspaper was Lewiston’s Le Messager, which began as a weekly in March 1880 and ran continuously for 88 years, longer than any other French-language newspaper in the United States. It was only Maine’s second French newspaper, after Biddeford’s L'Emigré Canadien, which lasted just six weeks in 1870. Catering primarily to the migrants working in the textile and shoe industries of the Androscoggin River Valley, Le Messager's readership extended beyond Maine and today remains a historical touchstone for Franco-Americans throughout the Northeast.

Le Messager was founded by Louis J. Martel, a prominent local physician and statesman, and Joseph D. Montmarquet, a New York newspaper proprietor with ties to Worcester’s French newspaper, Le Travailleur. Le Messager‘s four-page first issue featured a masthead that included the phrase, "Religion et Nationalité," a nod to what is commonly known as "la survivance," or preservation of language, Catholicism, and French-Canadian national identity; at the same time, from the beginning, the paper promoted naturalization to the United States. Though purportedly nonpartisan, Le Messager took anti-Republican stances early on and, over time, aligned more with the Democratic majority of its readers, later overtly supporting the Democratic Party and its electoral candidates.

Beginning with nearly 500 subscribers, Le Messager struggled in its first decade. Ownership changed hands eight times, editorial leadership ten times, and newspaper offices moved five times before finding security in the 1890s, expanding to two issues per week by 1891 and three by 1906, when it counted over 3,000 subscribers. A staff of eleven men and four women appear outside the paper’s Lincoln Street imprimerie in a 1908 photograph; a personnel list and photograph two decades later show twenty-two staff, including six women.

In 1934, Le Messager began printing Monday through Saturday, and circulation climbed over 7,000. Readership remained strong into the 1950s, when inflation and rising production costs reduced the paper to a weekly in tabloid format. The paper later alternated between weekly and biweekly until its final issue in May 1968. »

De 1880 à 1891, le journal paraît à toutes les semaines, puis deux fois par semaine de 1891 à 1906, trois fois par semaine de 1906 à 1934, et enfin, tous les jours de 1934 à 1966. Il redevient hebdomadaire en 1966, en changeant de titre.

Une édition spéciale a été tirée le 18 juillet 1970 pour le 150^ème anniversaire de l'État du Maine. Il est disponible ici.