Lance Dutson is New Media Director for Maine Senator Susan Collins. Prior to joining the Collins staff, he was principal of Maine Coast Design/ Maine Coast Media, a web design and search marketing firm located in Searsmont, Maine. He also served as Director of Internet Strategy for the campaign to re-elect Senator Collins.

Lance grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, in Northern Virginia. He cut his teeth in the technology world as a kid, running Strat-O-Matic baseball statistics through an early Apple II, and spending an inordinate amount of time playing Breakout on his Atari 2600.

He left Virginia when he was 19, hitchhiking across the country and back again, landing in a blueberry field on the coast of Maine. He began dabbling in web design about 10 years ago, and started running Maine Coast Design full time in 2005.

Dutson's interest in internet search and its social and economic ramifications led him to write articles, and to begin publishing Maine Web Report. Dutson offered consulting services to local businesses and business groups on the topic, and has assisted numerous non-profit businesses to amplify their presence through the use of internet and search technology. Maine Web Report evolved away from being a specifically technology-oriented blog when Dutson began researching the internet marketing strategies of the State of Maine. Dutson's investigative work exposed a series of inefficiencies and dubious relationships that gained substantial online and traditional media attention. A highly publicized PR battle between the State of Maine and Maine Web Report evolved. Heavy-handed attempts by the State and its contractors to end Dutson's reporting were loudly decried in opinion pieces in the Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal Online, PBS online, Advertising Age, the Associated Press, and over 1000 blogs.

Dutson continued to pursue policy and ethics issues in the Maine State Government through Maine Web Report. In particular, Dutson's work centered around the investigation of the contracts awarded by the State's Tourism office. His writing has appeared in both the Bangor Daily News and the Portland Press Herald, and he has been featured on Fox News, NECN, and various local television and radio programs.

Lance served as a board member of the Media Bloggers Association, a non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting MBA members and their blogs, educating bloggers, and promoting the explosion of citizen's media. Dutson developed the MBA's website, and continued to work on new initiatives through the site with fellow MBA members. He was one of several MBA members to gain credentials to cover the US vs Libby trial, the first time bloggers have been credentialed to cover a Federal court case. Dutson also worked with the Associated Press to deliver the aggregated feed of MBA coverage to over 750 AP partner websites.

Dutson's work has been recognized by numerous industry organizations, including the Maine Software Developers' Association 'Best of the Web' Award for the Collins for Senator website, and the Interactive Media Council's Outstanding Achievement Award for work on MaineBoats.com.

Dutson has been a guest lecturer and panelist on new media issues and politics at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and the University of Maine at Orono. He serves as part of a four-person panel that judges the Florida Bar Association's Media Awards, and has also been a featured speaker for local media and business events.

Lance is a member and volunteer for several local business groups in coastal Maine. His pro bono web development has helped local groups to promote festivals and events that help to draw visitors to the coast of Maine. He is a member of the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce, and co-chairs the Board of Directors of the Lincolnville Business Group.

Lance lives in a civil war-era farmhouse on the St.George River in Searsmont, with his 3 kids, wife, and dog.

Jason Clarke:

Beginning with his pointed, relentless coverage of Maine’s Department of Tourism back in the early winter, through the travails of the lawsuit filed against him, and continuing on through his freedom of access requests and reports, as well as his coverage of a myriad of other issues affecting the people of Maine, Lance put the bite back into Maine media and showed by example truly how deeply the explosion of citizen’s media can effect the status quo.

"LANCE DUTSON is a hyperopinionated blogger"

Bill Hobbs:

"He struck me as an intelligent and careful citizen journalist who just wants to tell the truth about the things he writes about. That makes him a good journalist - and because he likes to examine and write about his government, that's good for the citizens and taxpayers of Maine"

Media
-National Journal: Senator Collins jumps on New Media bandwagon

-Lance Dutson and Ron Coleman on Fox and Friends discussing Google's suspension of ads critical to MoveOn.org, Fox News (video)

-Chet Curtis Report, New England Cable News, February 2007 (video)

-Bloggers get chance to cover Libby trial, Portland Press Herald, March 8, 2007

-Maine blogger to cover Scooter Libby's federal court trial, USAToday, January 13, 2007

-Maine blogger gains seat at major trial, Portland Press Herald, January 13, 2007

-Bangor Daily News op-ed on net neutrality, February 28, 2007

- Portland Press Herald op-ed on newspapers and blogging, December 20, 2006

- Bangor Daily News op-ed on political use of blogs, December 6, 2006

- Maine Things Considered story, Maine Public Broadcasting Network, October 4, 2006 audio link >>>

- USAToday, "Courts are asked to crack down on bloggers", front page story,October 2, 2006

- Bangor Daily News, "Searsmont man Maine tourism gadfly", front page story, September 24, 2006

- Interview with Tom Paine at Shire Network News, New Zealand (listen)

- Citizen Journalism Un-Conference, August 7, 2006 at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University (listen)

- Boston Globe editorial, May 5, 2006 (link)

- Wall Street Journal Online, Law Blog, April 28, 2006 (link)

- Orlando Sentinel, May 12, 2006 (link)

- National Journal, May 8, 2006 (link)

- Honolulu Star Bulletin, May 14, 2006 (link)

- Advertising Age, May 5, 2006 (link)

- PBS Online Mediashift Top Five, May 17, 2006 (link)