Announcement pronouncements: A political activist recently sent me an e-mail complaining that some Maine media outlets were providing far more coverage to certain politicians when they announced their intentions of running for governor than to others.

I took a look at most of the recent coverage of the 2010 Blaine House contenders. I also checked news reports from the 2002 and 2006 races. After all that, I came to this conclusion:

The activist is right.

Sample-ing tax dollars: A lively ethical debate is raging in neighboring New Hampshire over the decision by the Eagle Times of Claremont to accept a loan guarantee from state government.

Tony award: The Kennebec Journal in Augusta has captured a real prize. According to an e-mail sent to staff at the paper this week, the KJ’s new managing editor will be Tony Ronzio, currently the feisty editorial-page editor of the Lewiston Sun Journal.

The morning after: If you were looking for local election results from the greater Portland area early on Nov. 4, you probably searched a lot of Web sites without success. The Portland Press Herald had a comprehensive list of winners and losers, but its site was in full meltdown mode and most stories couldn’t be accessed.

Moving on: Mark Woodward, the executive editor of the Bangor Daily News, announced on Nov. 2 that he’s retiring as of the first of the year.

Woodward joined the BDN in 1971 as a reporter. He was promoted to editorial page editor in 1982 and spent 15 years in the post, before leaving in 1997 to work for Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in Washington. He returned to the paper later that same year to take over the editorship.

Numbers up: According to new figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram showed a small but significant jump in sales for the six months ending Sept. 30. The Press Herald’s average weekday circulation rose from 59,487 for the preceding six months ending March 31 to 60,821 for this period, a gain of just over 2 percent.

Love fest: Over the past few days, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins has been receiving the kind of treatment in the news media, both local and national, normally reserved for war heroes and discoverers of medical miracles.

Charity begins with a tough question: The Maine media loves feel-good stories, particularly those in which kind-hearted people contribute to help a worthy cause. So, it’s little wonder this month’s Dempsey Challenge, a 100-mile bicycle ride to raise money for the Patrick Dempsey Center For Cancer Hope and Healing, got a lot of free publicity from the state’s newspapers and television stations.

It had the aforementioned kind-hearted people.

It had the requisite worthy cause.

And it had a TV-star patron.

Sore losers: The Maine Press Association gave out its annual awards last weekend at its fall meeting, but don’t expect to learn much about who won by reading most of state’s daily newspapers.

Who’s paying attention? On Oct. 10, the Portland Press Herald ran this headline over a story by Washington Post reporter Jason Horowitz on national reaction to a controversial issue on this state’s November ballot:

“Gay-marriage question gets little notice outside Maine.”