Lakeshore Weekly News all shut down shortly after Covid hit last year.
Despite casualties, two venerable publishers are still standing.
Last year the St. Paul-based
Villager (once known as the
Highland Villager) started asking readers to shell out $59.88 for 26 editions per year. That works out to $4.99 per month. “It’s the cost of a cup of coffee,” says Michael Mischke, publisher and owner.
But it’s also a tougher sell.
“It’s a very difficult thing for a paper that’s been free since 1953 to begin asking for subscriptions when I’m still forced to [home] deliver for free for the benefit of our advertisers,” says Mischke. “[But] the advertising dollars just don’t support it anymore, and that was the case even before Covid.”
A few Minnesota newspapers get new owners
Papers in southeastern and northeastern Minnesota have been sold.
Author:
In a year where Minnesota s newspaper landscape has seen a lot of change, more is on the horizon after three more community papers have new owners.
The Republican Eagle, which covers Red Wing, and Hudson Star-Observer, which covers Hudson, Wisconsin, newspapers have been sold to O Rourke Media Group.
Forum Communications Company, which owns several newspapers in the state, sold RiverTown Multimedia, which publishes the two papers, according to a story on the papers website.
And for the time being, O Rourke Media Group says readers of the two papers won t see any immediate changes to the print or digital sides after the transition takes effect Jan. 1, 2021.