local Oregon journalism • Oregon Capital Chronicle

Two big news stories from Oregon newspapers broke shortly after Memorial Day, sending shockwaves across the state.

One was the sale of one of Oregon’s largest newspaper groups, Portland-based Pamplin Media, and the other was the announcement of deep cuts at another group, EOMedia, owner of the Bend Bulletin and other newspapers. Both show the immediate urgency of finding a way to save community news in Oregon – sooner rather than later, not later. Among other things, the Oregon Legislature urgently needs to address the subject in its next session.

Consider the state of Oregon’s newspapers just 12 years ago, when Steve Bagwell of the McMinnville News-Register and I co-authored a book called “New Editions” about the recent history and prospects of Oregon’s newspapers. North West. We counted 82 large circulation paid newspapers, including 16 daily newspapers, in Portland, Eugene, Salem, Bend, Medford, Albany, Corvallis, Pendleton, Astoria, Ashland, Ontario, Coos Bay, The Dalles, La Grande, Roseburg and City of Baker.

Since then, an economic hurricane, a real storm, has swept through the ranks of these newspapers. Many dailies that appeared six or seven days a week now publish three or four days a week if they have not completely disappeared. The large office buildings they occupied have almost all been sold, along with almost all the newspaper presses, and a growing number of newspapers now consist of one or two journalists working from their homes, with no offices at all. Some Oregon newspapers have been sold to investor groups, and while they are still true print newspapers, they are much smaller.

That was largely the case for Pamplin Media Group, which owned 22 newspapers from Prineville to Forest Grove and from Madras to Portland, more than any other owner in the state. Their operations and staff declined, but they continued to publish regular weekly reports on their communities.

On June 1st, all these papers have been sold has Carpenter Media Group of Natchez, Mississippi, which until recently focused primarily on newspapers in the Southern states. Pamplin is not his only major recent purchase, however, even in the Northwest. Last year, with the backing of two Canadian investment firms, it purchased 150 newspapers and other media outlets from Black Press Media of Surrey, British Columbia, as well as dozens of newspapers in Washington state. Carpenter is now by far the largest newspaper owner in the Northwest.

It appears to be run by former executives of the Booth Newspapers Group, but aside from reports of its numerous purchases, there is little public information about it – or where the money for all these massive purchases is coming from. Carpenter bought newspapers large and small, including daily newspapers in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Everett, Washington. What this means for Oregon’s largest newspaper collection is far from clear.

Development with EOMedia did not result in a change of ownership, but it marked a step change in operations.

EO Media Group, named after one of its newspapers, the East Oregonian of Pendleton, publishes a dozen newspapers in the state, furthest east of the Cascades. Operated by the Forrester family of Astoria, it has been a savior in recent years of community newspapers. In 2019, she took over the Bend Bulletin, which was in bankruptcy, and kept it running. When Medford’s daily Mail Tribune closed, EO launched a new newspaper there, the Rogue Valley Times.

EO said June 3 that it will cut 28 of its 185 employees, end print editions at newspapers in La Grande, Hermiston, Baker City, John Day and Enterprise, and reduce the number of editions per week in Medford, Bend and Pendleton.

Areas of Oregon that are new deserts – or at least extremely arid regions – are expanding rapidly. And given the magnitude of these recent significant developments, the collapse of Oregon’s newspapers appears to be accelerating rather than slowing.

Oregonians need reporting to decide how to vote and participate in their community, and the companies that made that possible are quickly disbanding. This amounts to a real and immediate crisis for Oregon government and society, as it does in many other places.

The answers are far from clear.

The Oregon Legislature devoted some attention to the problem last session with House Bill 2605. The proposal would have given rise to a study of the situation, but it was never the subject of a vote in the room. It was still a good start. Over the next year, much time and attention will need to be devoted to finding ways to help Oregonians keep up with the news around them, so that the system of self-government we have had since generations can continue to function.