Advertising dollars that once supported journalism have moved to Craigslist, Meta, and Google. Across the country, this has driven local newspapers out of business or resulted in zombie newsrooms.
In Oregon, the problem is particularly acute.
Out-of-state ownership and business-model disruptions have left Oregon with media enterprises unwilling and unable to devote sufficient resources to quality, independent local journalism.
Eugene and Salem are currently served by “ghost newspapers” owned by a hedge fund. They produce few of the stories they publish. They do not provide routine coverage of government meetings. They are called “ghosts” because their existence is so insubstantial. In Portland, the newsroom of the New York City-owned newspaper The Oregonian — which once had 400 reporters and editors — has shrunk by more than 80 percent.
The Klamath Herald & News lost all its reporters last year and is now owned by a Minneapolis-based company. Other newspapers like the Lebanon Express, Medford Mail Tribune, and Bandon Western World have closed entirely. The McMinnville News-Register just dropped to a weekly printing schedule.
This June, the largest locally owned media company, Pamplin Media Group, sold to a Mississippi chain with a reputation for cost cutting.
That same day, EO Media, the second-largest locally owned news company in Oregon, which publishes the Bend Bulletin, The Daily Astorian, and 13 other newspapers across the state, announced it would lay off 15% of its workforce. It also announced it would stop printing five of its newspapers entirely and would put itself up for sale to what will almost certainly be an out-of-state buyer.
The result of all this? According to The Oregonian, 75% of our state’s newspaper jobs have been eliminated in the past 24 years.
In Oregon, one of the basic building blocks of effective democracy — local news — is crumbling. That's why we're here.
