Running Bad News thread...

https://www.wweek.com/news/2024/06/03/five-oregon-newspapers-to-cease-printing-next-month/

Throw this on top of Portland metro area publisher Pamplin selling its five or so suburban twice weeklies this week, and the other recent news.

Anyone get the sense that newspapers know almost exactly when they will cross the "red line" and have to sell, fold or lay off staff? With most publications now reliant on subscribers for income, they must now at which point they can no longer function.

I'm surprised papers don't offer free obits for subscribers (say four to six graphs) to keep people paying. But there must be some stat that shows the average age of their subscribers, and I'm guessing its over 75 by now.

 

I used to know the sports editor at the La Grande paper. That’s actually a scenic area of the state, with the Blue Mountains. Tough to travel through when it snows.

Anyway, I can’t imagine Pendleton will do a great job covering that wide of a geographic area with the small number of staffers it has.

And the beat goes on …

 

There's talk of trying to find a new owner for the East Oregon Media Group (Bend, these northeast papers, others). But I believe the company owns no more real estate, meaning a vulture swooping in and trying to make a buck off selling physical plants won't have a carcass to begin with.