It was only five short years ago that an Oregon media company rolled into town, trumpeting its efforts to “save local journalism” in Central Oregon by purchasing the then-daily newspaper, The Bulletin. The company was convincing enough that it got a group of local investors with the best intentions to aid in the acquisition. Unfortunately, here we are, a mere handful of years later, our worst fears founded. What local readers received was a decline in published days, fewer journalists and most importantly, a steady decline of actual opinions on its opinion page. Its total abdication of duty in endorsements (look how that worked out for The Washington Post this week) and its layoffs should have alerted the community that it all pointed to a pending sale to a faceless out-of-state media conglomerate.
We don’t relish talking about the sale of EO Media and the decline of the area’s (formerly) daily newspaper. We’d love to see a robust daily that delivers thoughtful analysis of our community, and even a bright editorial from time to time to help keep our local news ecosystem strong. Surprisingly, though we differed greatly in our opinion, we have grown a little nostalgic for the editorials Erik Lukens used to pen under the former ownership. We waited for the trumpeted change to materialize under the ownership of regional owner EO Media. However, it is time to abandon that narrative surrounding the recent chapter in Central Oregon’s journalistic history, now that Prineville’s Central Oregonian, the Madras Pioneer, the Redmond Spokesman, and The Bulletin have now been offloaded to one controlling entity — the same one that bought up the Pamplin group of newspapers in Oregon this year.
We understand that it’s self-serving to tout the benefits of local ownership among the institutions that shape our lives, since we enjoy such a distinction. But local ownership does matter. In our case, we add to that the value of our product being free. Delivering news and information to the community and refusing to charge people for the privilege is the most egalitarian move we can make, and we do it week in and week out. People deserve to have access to the news that impacts their lives. To quote one of our favorite newsletter journalists, Dave Pell, Real News Saves Lives.
As a reader, you should be horrified by EO Media’s sale to Carpenter Media, a Mississippi company that claims 250 titles under its ownership. Companies like this buy publications in order to grind them into the ground. This isn’t “save local journalism” ¬— it’s an abdication of local control and local values. One could argue that the local papers will continue to employ local people — but so does Walmart. Look how that worked out for the local stores it decimated in the retail space.
Carpenter Media’s press release about the purchase of EO Media placed a big focus on how it will help local businesses market themselves, and less on how it will continue to uphold the local values and the local focus on quality journalism we have hoped for all along. There will, of course, be a significant effort to put competitors like us out of business. Because we truly care about this community and what happens to it, we’ll fight that. We’ll continue to grow, as we have done over this past year through our commitment to the community and being a nimble media company. Our nonprofit, the Lay It Out Foundation, which this year hired two people in the service of producing and promoting local journalism, is one such example. Through that effort, we have been able to produce more in-depth investigations on the issues that matter, like the sheriff’s race. We’ll continue to follow that news coverage up with well-researched and locally focused opinion columns, like the ones that weighed in on that local sheriff’s race — ones that our readers tell us have helped them see the issue more clearly during this passionate election season. All this has been powered by local people who are invested in the local community, and who we see as so much more than the employee spreadsheets that corporate media employs.
In a few short weeks, the holiday-season talk about how shopping local benefits the local economy will begin in earnest. People will remind you to visit the mom-and-pops, to shop the local maker’s wares, to secure that deal with the local contractor so she’s able to pay for ballet lessons. And while all that goes on, we’ll sing a dirge for one piece of the local journalism ecosystem, and what could have been.
This article appears in Source Weekly October 31, 2024.
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