Eugene Register Guard: 3 local stories among 8 pages

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,

There are more big signs of decline in the print industry.

The Eugene Register Guard used to have 80 reporters, and is now down to 6 or less.

The Eugene Register Guard, before the pandemic, had at one point 40,000 subscribers, by 2021 it fell to just over 20,000.

It is still printed everyday.  A sample of their Tuesday edition revealed that only 3 local stories were covered in their 8 page news spread (not including sports).  Most of their news is national and that comes reprinted from their parent company that utilizes USA Today content.

Newspapers find that they must fit the perfect niche and community connection to survive.   Most newspapers are failing in this task and closing down.

As many newspapers move to all-online content, they find the unique challenges posed by online services such as declining news consumers, ad blockers, attention competition and a deep drop in online advertising.   The decline in newspapers impacts people’s connection to their local government and their understanding of what their civic leaders are doing with their tax dollars.