Retired newspaperman publishes own zine

Jim McCarthy, a retired Maine newspaperman, has published his first zine, “Photo-Journal: Peace Elders”, The zine is a modern publication with full-color pictures and glossy pages, with the bulk of the writing inside authored by the subjects themselves.

The zine is marked “Volume 1” on the cover. McCarthy said he is already pondering the second issue.

For more than 30 years, McCarthy served as a beat reporter, editorial writer and as an executive editor at a Maine daily. The Times Record in Brunswick. His newspaper run came to an end when an out-of-state company bought his paper.

From there, McCarthy joined as a reporter at a weekly newspaper, the Bangor Daily News and stayed in the business another 10 years. When that stint was over, McCarthy got hired on at MaineBiz.

McCarthy has also worked at The Times Record, where he worked his way up from reporter to city editor and eventually executive editor.

“Photography is my secret garden,” McCarthy said. “Retirement is giving me the time to come back around, full circle.”

Currently, copies of the zine are sold at the Gulf Of Maine Bookstore in Brunswick. It is also available online at Blurb.