EO Media Group, which runs the East Oregonian and 11 different Pacific Northwest newspapers, will quickly cease printing 5 of them.
The La Grande Observer, Blue Mountain Eagle, Hermiston Herald, Wallowa County Chieftain and the Baker Metropolis Herald will all stop to publish print editions on July 1, in response to an announcement from the chain’s writer, Joe Seashore. Subscribers will get copies of the East Oregonian of their mailbox as an alternative.
The chain can be shedding 28 staff, however remaining workers on the 5 papers will “proceed to put up information on-line and contribute to the East Oregonian print publication,” based mostly in Pendleton. That paper will now “function the regional newspaper for all of Northeastern Oregon,” in response to an article within the East Oregonian saying the adjustments.
All 5 papers, which serve rural Oregon communities, have been based over a century in the past. However the rural newspaper enterprise has struggled lately, as promoting income drops and postal prices rise.
EO has beforehand tried to stem the lack of print media throughout the state. Two of the now affected papers have been beforehand acquired by EO after the chapter of their former proprietor in 2019. And final 12 months, it introduced it was stepping in to open a brand new paper in Medford after the shutdown of the Mail Tribune.
However the firm finally succumbed to the identical headwinds. The agency’s house owners are analysis “all choices” for the corporate’s future, together with switching to a nonprofit mannequin.
“Small family-held media firms like EO Media have to regulate operations to the brand new realities of the business so as to survive,” CEO Heidi Wright mentioned.
