Newspapers lost anywhere are newspapers lost everywhere

Two weeks ago, Illinois-based News Media Corp. abruptly shuttered every one of its newspapers, stunning dozens of communities across Arizona, Illinois, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming.
The move devastated staffers, who learned via email that they had instantly lost not only their jobs but their health coverage as well. CEO J.J. Tompkins wrote the company would “make all reasonable efforts” to ensure everyone received the wages they had already earned.
Ironically, as of Sunday, News Corp.’s slogan, “Leading the way in community newspapers for over 45 years” still sat front and center on its website.
In his email, Tompkins cited financial challenges, the economic downturn affecting newspapers, and a recent attempt to sell the company as reasons for the closure. Employees in print and on social media channels tell a different story, one of a poorly managed corporation that left hundreds of employees at all levels completely in the dark about its dire position.
In a note to readers, Brookings Register managing editor Josh Linehan acknowledged that print newspapers are facing tough times, and the Register was no exception.
“But make no mistake — we’re closed for now as a result of poor corporate management,” he said.
We’ve seen this before. A little over a year ago, we were writing about Alden Global’s closure of 10 Minnesota newspapers and a printing facility. That move, too, made national headlines, and rightly so.
Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism’s 2024 report, “The State of Local News,” reported 130 newspapers shut down last year alone. From 2022 to 2023, the country lost 2,000 newsroom jobs. With fewer journalists working, chain newspapers often resort to sharing stories across multiple publications and using wire service stories, the report noted.
But what does the closure of newspapers in other states have to do with our own Steele County Times?
MPR News, in reporting on the recent closures, quoted University of Kansas journalism school professor and newspaper publisher Teri Finneman, who called News Corp.’s collapse “a wake-up call to every town in this nation that your newspaper could be at risk as well, and it is incumbent upon people to start supporting their newspapers through subscriptions and through advertising if we are going to keep critical news in these communities.”
We have often said how deeply we appreciate the support we receive from our readers and our advertisers—and now, we’re saying it again. As these sad closures show, every copy purchased, every ad contract signed literally keeps this newspaper in business.
For all us in the business, the loss of a newspaper anywhere is a blow to newspapers everywhere. For us here at the Dodge County Independent, it’s a stark reminder how lucky we are to serve a community that values timely, original, local news.