Make the McKenzie Connection!

LINN COUNTY PAPERS IN CRISIS

One outlet shutters this week, while another teeters

Those were the bad news headlines in the Corvallis Gazette-Times this week.

The article explained that the 188-year-old Brownsville Times newspaper had published a paper the week before and was quietly shuttered.

The story from the Sweet Home New Era was that its former publishers had to take back the reins and were contemplating whether the 95-year-old publication would continue to exist after the end of December.

As most readers know, River Reflections faced a similar fate back in 2022 when the costs of printing and mailing a weekly newspaper ballooned beyond what was sustainable. So, I know the gut-wrenching feeling these other owners are now going through.

What you don’t know is that back in the ‘22 crisis, the two papers I just referred to, along with the Fern Ridge-Tribune in Veneta and River Reflections, pooled our resources to move our printing to a web press plant in McMinnville. Every week, that press would send a truck down Interstate 5 to meet one of us to pick up bundles of all four publications and shuttle us to our different offices.

That process was just another checkmark to add to my tally of reasons for changing from a legacy, print-based publication to a primarily digital weekly one. The fact that the number of subscribers dropped by only 3% supports that decision as a good one.

In November 1922, the Tribune News's publisher died, and so did the paper. Today, from our group of four, only the New Era and Reflections remain in business.

I’m writing to ask for your help. No, this isn’t a plea to send financial support (although I wouldn’t turn it down). I’m requesting that you respond the next time you read, listen to, or watch a story about “Newspapers are dying.”

Please get in touch with the newspaper, radio/TV station, or website wherever the story appears. Tell them they need to balance their “news” because you know of a publication showing a way to buck those negative trends.

Why? Because I want more publishers to contact McKenzie River Reflections so I can share what’s worked with this publication.

This week I talked with the publisher of the New Era, who wants to learn more about what I’ve been doing. Let’s hope there’s more out there - before it’s too late.

 

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