11 hours ago
- Business
- New Indian Express
Newspapers across Wyoming and South Dakota rescued from closure as buyers swoop in
The turnarounds happened quickly. Illinois-based News Media Corporation announced on Aug. 6 it was immediately closing 31 outlets in five states because of financial problems.
In less than two weeks, a publishing group in Wyoming said it would buy eight papers in the state, while a company in North Carolina said it would purchase four newspapers in South Dakota. Both buyers say all staff will be offered a chance to return.
The fate of other papers in Arizona, Illinois and Nebraska remains unclear.
After the closures, journalists and their communities scrambled for options to save the publications. In addition to regional news, many of the papers serve as their towns' official outlet for legal notices.
Rural areas often don't have local radio or TV stations, said Benjy Hamm, director at the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues. That can leave a lone newspaper as the only media outlet in the area.
"If it goes out, it has a significant impact on the community itself, not just the media,' Hamm said.
The publishers in Wyoming said they stepped in because they couldn't imagine more newspapers going dark in their state.
'We believe in the importance of a newspaper in a community,' said Jen Hicks, co-publisher the Buffalo Bulletin. 'We know that in communities without newspapers, that civic engagement goes down and specifically, voter participation goes down, which is a really tangible way to see the decline in civic life.'
