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The Republic
Five newspapers serving the Globe and Page areas have abruptly closed after their Illinois-based publisher shut down amid financial troubles.
The closures include the Gateway to Copper Corridor, Arizona Silverbelt, and Copper Country News in Globe, as well as the Page-based Lake Powell Chronicle and Gateway to Canyon Country.
Parent company News Media Corporation announced it would shut down Aug. 6. The move means more than two dozen newspapers across Arizona, Wyoming, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota have shuttered.
News Media Corporation CEO JJ Tompkins called the company-wide closure a “difficult decision” in a letter to staff.
“We have explored every possible avenue to sustain our operations and preserve our team,” said Tompkins. “Unfortunately, due to financial challenges, a significant economic downturn impacting our industry, revenue losses and increasing expenses, and the recent failure of an attempt to sell the company as a going concern, we have reached a point where continuing business is no longer feasible.”
Bob Hembree, a reporter for the Lake Powell Chronicle, said he had no advanced notice of the closure in a Facebook post.
“I, along with employees and freelancers of 34 newspapers owned by News Media Corporation, found out today that it was our last day,” Hembree wrote. “All the newspapers closed without warning.”
Hembree is also concerned for the city of Page, he added.
“Small towns need a newspaper for many reasons,” Hembree said.
As of Aug. 8, the websites for the Gateway to Canyon Country and Gateway to Copper Corridor appeared to be offline. The other three Arizona papers remained online, though calls to their listed numbers returned a busy signal. An editor did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Tompkins, a University of Arizona graduate, previously served as group publisher for NMC’s Arizona newspapers before becoming the company’s chief revenue officer and later its CEO.
Tompkins told staff “we will make all reasonable efforts to pay you all remaining compensation you have earned as soon as possible, to the extent permitted by the company’s secured lenders.”
The closure marks the end of nearly 150 years in publishing for the Arizona Silverbelt, which billed itself as “the newspaper of record since 1878.”
Across the country, newspapers and media outlets have faced financial challenges in recent years amid readership and publishing changes.
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Plus, local National Public Radio and Public Broadcast Service affiliates are bracing for tighter budgets after Congress revoked more than $1 billion in funding for the entity that oversees them, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Stephanie Murray covers national politics and the Trump administration for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Reach her via email at stephanie.murray@gannett.com and on X, Bluesky, TikTok and Threads @stephanie_murr.