The first months of 2025 have not been kind to alternative newspapers, as three journalism stalwarts have announced major changes due to economic issues.
In February, Triad City Beat, which had served Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point, N.C., for 11 years, closed up shop. TCB put out a call for help late last year, asking readers for donations; they raised enough money to continue for a few more months, but not enough to sustain the operation.
“Despite the donations and the community support, there have been insurmountable obstacles to keeping the organization operational, including lack of a business leader and inadequate future funding,” managing editor Sayaka Matsuoka wrote on Jan. 31. “Our co-founder and publisher, Brian Clarey, resigned from Triad City Beat earlier this month and is now working full-time for (the University of North Carolina Greensboro). He was tasked with making difficult life changes after a devastating car accident last year forced him to find a new job.”
Closer to home, the San Diego Reader published its last print edition, with zero fanfare, in February. The Reader will continue to publish online, founder and editor Jim Holman told The San Diego Union-Tribune. Holman cited the rising costs of printing and distributing the weekly print edition, which had been published since 1972, as contributing factors, but said the inevitable shift from print to digital was the primary reason.
“It’s just a technological, cultural shift you can’t deny and you can’t fight,” he told the Union-Tribune.
Finally, the Chicago Reader, which has been publishing for more than 53 years, is working its way out of a financial crisis that led to layoffs and pay cuts in mid-January. In a Jan. 14 announcement, the Reader said: “A combination of financial losses, operational challenges, and external pressures has brought the Reader to an imminent risk of closure.”
Fortunately, the publication’s call for donations brought in enough support for the nonprofit newspaper to, as of now, continue publication and make progress on its “path forward.” In a Jan. 31 note to readers, publisher Amber Nettles said the Reader had gotten more than $125,000 in one-time donations as of Jan. 30.
The closure of TCB hit close to home for me, as the paper’s founder, Brian Clarey, started the paper just a year after I launched the RN&R’s current sister paper in Palm Springs, Calif., and we often used each other as sounding boards in our papers’ early years. I consider him and Sayaka to be friends. Similarly, I know some of the Chicago Reader folks very well. I serve on the AAN Publishers board of directors with both Sayaka and Reader publisher Amber Nettles, and I’ve watched as they’ve tried valiantly to keep their figurative ships afloat.
I am also heartbroken for these cities. TCB’s final issue includes a couple dozen notes from readers who talked about how important the publication has been to them and their community. Readers of the San Diego Reader’s print edition who don’t consume news online will no longer have a source of vital information. And the mere thought of a Chicago without the Chicago Reader seems unfathomable, as it’s such an institution.
Here in Reno, it’s been five years since the RN&R suspended publication when the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns began. After a brief hiatus, the RN&R resumed limited publication online; under new ownership, we returned to print as a monthly with our June 2022 issue. We’re now 34 issues into our comeback, and we hope there will be many more to come.
However, times are tough. Revenue is down for the first three issues of 2025 compared to last year, and the economy around us full of uncertainty (to make a massive understatement). The RN&R is not in any sort of immediate financial jeopardy, but the trends aren’t exactly encouraging. Within a month or two, we’ll start a fundraising campaign, with the help of the wonderful locals who have expressed interest in helping us out, through our fiscal sponsor. The goal will be to raise enough money for us to hire a full-time publisher/fundraiser/revenue-generating employee.
The lesson here is one I’ve mentioned many times before in this space, and will likely mention many times again: Journalism—real reporting, quality writing and good editing—costs a LOT of time and money to produce and distribute. If you don’t support the media outlets you enjoy and value, they will die.