Stephen King complaint spurs newspaper subscription drive

PORTLAND, Maine — A Maine newspaper that horrified author Stephen King by dropping its local book review coverage used his complaint to boost digital subscriptions.

King, who lives in Bangor, complained Friday about the Portland Press Herald’s decision to stop publishing freelance-written reviews of books about Maine or written by Maine authors and urged his 5.1 million Twitter followers to retweet his message .

The paper responded by promising to reinstate the local book reviews if 100 of King’s followers purchased digital subscriptions to the newspaper. It reached that goal late Saturday morning.

In a tweet announcing the subscriptions, the newspaper said, “You all are the best readers anywhere. Sincerely,” and “We love you Maine. We love you journalists. We love you newspapers.”