Former BDN reporter tapped by MPR

A veteran reporter is returning to the Maine State House press corps later this month.

A.J. Higgins, who covered state politics from the Capitol for 13 years for the Bangor Daily News, will replace Fred Bever as Maine Public Radio’s State House reporter in Augusta on Aug. 27.

Bever left the post to work as spokesman for the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

Higgins spent more than 30 years with the Bangor Daily News before he left last November due to a series of layoffs at the paper. He has since worked as a general assignment reporter at the Kennebec Journal in Augusta.

Higgins said he had not anticipated moving into radio but is looking forward to the experience.

“It just so happened that Fred Bever left and they [MPR] gave me a call because of my 13 years’ experience as the BDN reporter in Augusta,” Higgins said Monday in a telephone interview. “It’s interesting to take everything you’ve known for so long in print and readapt it to broadcast. It will be fun.”

In his new position, Higgins said he anticipated covering daily legislative action, state government and politics, as well as statewide issues from different locations during the legislative off-season.

While Higgins believes State House coverage is very important to Maine residents, he said “pressures of the industry” have forced Maine newspapers to reduce or even eliminate reporters from the Capitol.

“There are fewer organizations that maintain reporters there,” he said. “Even in situations where papers still have staffing there, it’s not at the same level. I think that without State House coverage, residents don’t have any sense of where things are going statewide.”

Higgins is scheduled to finish with the Kennebec Journal on Aug. 16 and take a break before beginning his new job with MPR.