AUBURN — The owners of the Lewiston Auburn Magazine are negotiating the sale of the magazine, hoping to get the publication “back up and running,” Paul Roy said Thursday.

He declined to identify the buyer, other than to say the individual is local.

The magazine’s last edition, for March, was published in mid-February. The downtown Auburn office closed after magazine publisher and president Joshua Shea was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography in March. Shea was then fired by the magazine’s owners.

Roy, the former director of sales for the magazine, is one of a group of individuals who own the magazine, he explained. “Josh was never a majority owner of the magazine,” Roy said. “A lot of people assumed he was.”

While Shea was the face of the magazine, “the product is more than just one man,” Roy said.

In talking about the magazine’s shareholders, Roy said, “The remaining board members do have full-time jobs. The time we can put into the magazine is limited,” he said. “We’re trying.”

The party the group is negotiating with is interested in saving the publication, Roy said. The individual “recognizes how positive a role Lewiston Auburn Magazine played over the past few years, how it should continue as an integrated part of the community fabric.”

The shareholders are hopeful that a plan to continue the magazine and expand its reach and appeal will be obvious with an innovative launch being developed.

When that could be isn’t known, Roy said. He hoped it would be “very soon;” that new editions circulating in the summer after the magazine is rebranded and the business reorganized.

The new owner will need community support, Roy said, adding he hopes the community considers the jobs being saved or created by the magazine continuing. Four people and one part-time worker were employed by the magazine, he said.

Chip Morrison, head of the Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, said Thursday he was certain the community would welcome the magazine back without question.

“Look at what happened with the film festival. The community rallied around a replacement for that,” Morrison said. The magazine has had a very positive impact “on our community and our image,” he said. “I used it all the time. A replacement will be embraced.”

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