ANOTHER ‘NEWS DESERT’ – This time in La Conner – Let’s prevent this in the islands (with reader comments)

Sunday, January 5, 2024
by Jeff Noedel

America’s local newspapers continue to disappear at the rate of 2-1/2 per week.

La Conner, Washington is in the process of losing its local newspaper.

And this is not just any weekly community newspaper. It’s believed to be the oldest continuously running newspaper in the State of Washington. Rutherford B. Hayes was President when the La Conner Weekly News went into print.

December 18 was the last time The La Conner Weekly News was published. The townsfolk are trying to buy the suspended 146-year-old newspaper or raise funds to open a new one.

“The people are sad, frustrated, and disappointed,” newspaper owner Ken Stern told SanJuans.Today. “But I am even more sad, frustrated, and disappointed.”

Stern bought the newspaper seven years ago. He said he wrote his eventual retirement into the business plan when he bought the paper. He said he has revitalized the award-winning brand in the years he’s run it. In June 2024, Stern let the town know he was ready to retire and sell the newspaper.

The sticking point that may end The La Conner Weekly News is the price. Stern’s asking price started at $250,000. In the ensuing months, the price has fluctuated, but no offer in excess of $125,000 seems to have been offered.

Andrew Ashmore is a retired industrial engineer who resides in La Conner. Ashmore is president of La Conner Community News, a non-profit in La Conner trying to buy The La Conner Weekly. And if they can’t buy it, they want to try to build a new non-profit community newspaper. They have applied for 501(c)(3) IRS recognition as a tax-exempt organization.

They held their first meeting in September to gauge interest in keeping a community newspaper. Approximately 75 people attended, and 45 of them wrote checks or made pledges. So far, $25,000 has been raised, but Ashmore believes the town will raise $125,000 for the effort within the next three months.

Newspapers in America rose in prominence and profits through the first 200 years of our republic. The industry peaks occurred between 1995 and 2010, and then steep declines began, thanks mostly to the Internet.

In 2021, The Washington Post reported that from 2005 to 2021, about 2,200 American local print newspapers closed. From 2008 to 2020, the number of American newspaper journalists fell by more than half.

After taking decades to climb to a $60 billion industry, newspapers’ ad revenue declined by 80 percent in only the past 15 years. Today, newspapers rely slightly more on subscriptions than they do on advertising.

There’s never been a more important time to subscribe to our local newspaper. Paid subscriptions and paid advertisements (or the lack of them) have never had a bigger impact than they do now.

Studies show that the typical local government does worse work when its last newspaper disappears. From innocent errors to mismanagement to corruption, the loss of a town’s last newspaper ultimately costs the citizens and taxpayers.

SanJuans.Today COMMENTARY:

It’s 50 times easier to save the newspaper a town has than rebuild a new one.

The San Juans enjoy three local newspapers, part of the Sound Publishing family of community newspapers. With thousands of subscribers and hundreds of advertisers, The Journal of the San Juan Islands (founded in Friday Harbor in 1906), The Islands’ Sounder (Orcas Island), and The Islands’ Weekly (Lopez Island) have served our islands for many decades, both on paper (with home delivery) and online.

However, the staff of each paper is smaller than ever because revenue is thinner than ever. That makes for a smaller weekly newspaper, with fewer pages and fewer articles. To subscribe and advertise in these good newspapers is to keep multiple professional reporters on the streets and in the council chambers and courtrooms asking the questions you would ask…demanding to see the documents you would demand.

If you are already a subscriber, a gift subscription is doubly helpful: extra income for the newspaper and you might help convert a new reader who will renew their subscription in the future.

To see your subscription options, choose from below:
* Journal of the San Juans subscription
* Islands’ Sounder subscription
* The Islands’ Weekly subscription

To advertise, email [email protected].