In many ways, the story of the Source Weekly is the story of Bend—once small and scrappy, now a bit more citified… and populated by a Portlander or two or three.
The Source Weekly, dubbed the “Deschutes Source” during its early days in 1997, has survived 25 years of fires, droughts, political upheavals, recalls, opt-outs, walkouts, occupations, media hemorrhages and even a global pandemic—emerging as now the only newspaper in Central Oregon to be owned locally, by people who live and work inside the same brick walls that have recorded so many of Central Oregon’s ups and downs.
What is a community newspaper, and what keeps one going?
The answer lies, at least in part, with the first part of the title: Community. A newspaper survives and thrives because a community circles around it and supports it. In our 25 years, we have served our community by keeping our publication free, with no internet paywalls barring our stories from the rest of the wide world. In turn, advertisers and readers come back time after time, continuing to invest in our mission of bringing smart, informed and sometimes even smart-ass coverage of news, arts, culture, outdoors and other stories. In a time when media outlets continue to fall by the wayside—when so many find so many reasons not to trust the journalists whose job it is to seek out and report the closest approximation of the truth they can find—you, readers, are what keeps it all going.
So as we celebrate this silver anniversary of 25 years, pat yourself on the back, too. You are the community in community newspaper, and we salute you!
PARTY ON US! Join us Wed., Aug. 10 from 6-9 pm at the Deschutes Historical Museum for an anniversary celebration featuring live music and entertainment—free and open to the public.
