Six Local Newspapers In Northern Illinois Shut Down
The closed newspapers were likely the only reliable sources of information for many residents in those communities.
By Kevin Gosztola, Editor-in-Chief
News Media Corporation abruptly shut down six local newspapers in northern Illinois. The company closed the last remaining newspapers in Lee and Ogle counties.
The newspapers that ended operations include the Amboy News, the Ashton Gazette, the Mendota Reporter, and Ogle County Life.
Brandon LaChance, the editor for the Mendota Reporter, told the Rockford Register Star, “It's a shame the papers had to go, but it's the climate. Everyone wants them to continue and be in the communities but [don’t support them]. After all options and strategies [were] thought and tried, it comes down to finances. That's our world. Now we move on to the next adventure.”
The Clinton Journal in Clinton, Illinois, was on the list of closing newspapers, but general manager Katy O’Grady Pyne announced, “We will continue to publish under new ownership but can't say at this time who that will be.”
J.J. Tompkins, the CEO of News Media Corporation, emailed staff at not just the company’s Illinois newspapers but also newspapers that the company owned in Arizona, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
“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,” Tompkins stated.
Each of the newspapers closed in Illinois operated in largely rural communities with less than 10,000 people. They were likely the only reliable sources of information about their towns (aside from announcements and press releases by local officials).
The end of a half dozen newspapers deepens the decline of local journalism in Illinois. In 2024, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism reported that Illinois had lost 86 percent of its journalists since 2005—“the highest percentage decline in the nation.”
Six Illinois newspapers, as the Chicago Sun-Times highlighted, closed last year: “Arthur Graphic Clarion in Douglas and Moultrie counties; Arcola Record-Herald and Newman Independent in Douglas County; Prairie Advocate in Carroll County; Pawnee Post in Sangamon County and Panhandle Press in Christian County.”
While Sangamon County is considered an urban county, the rest of the newspapers that ceased operations in 2024 were in rural areas.
Nationally, at least 3,300 newspapers shut down between 2005 and September 2024. The pace of newspaper closures is not slowing, and for many counties in the United States, the rapid loss of newspapers means residents have only one news source or no news source at all.
The Elmwood Park Advocate launched in May as a counter to a nationwide collapse of journalism. Our first “Community Conversation” at the Elmwood Park Public Library grappled with the loss of local news reporting and why there was a need to build a newsletter in Elmwood Park to fill this void.
A DeKalb County Facebook page shared that six newspapers in Illinois had shut down, and a few comments recognized the seriousness of this loss.
“Try finding out about your small town news from the internet. Whatever you see there may be true or it could just be gossip. Local newspapers provide a real service,” one person wrote, pushing back on someone who said, “Who reads the newspaper anymore. People get their news from other sources."
Another pushed back, “[I]t’s about independent investigative journalism. Without independent journalism nobody ever finds out about politicians’ wrongdoing, local news, facts about people running for office in your community, crime in your community, and more.”
It is true that Elmwood Park’s newspaper still technically exists. The village government even publishes notices of public hearings in the Elm Leaves, which was founded in 1913. However, as a result of media mergers, it is a hollowed out publication now owned by the Tribune Media Group.
Each edition of the Elm Leaves is basically a few articles on suburban Chicago communities, like Elmhurst, La Grange, Naperville, and Oak Park. And if Elmwood Park is covered, readers can no longer expect that the reporter who wrote the article has any understanding of any of the nuances or particularities that should be paid attention. That’s because the reporter is probably tasked with covering several suburbs, and not just one community regularly.
Fortunately, the Illinois government recognizes that this is a crisis. The Medill Local News Initiative reported in August that Illinois “became the first state in the nation to distribute money directly to local news organizations for employing journalists.”
Rebuild Local News further described the Local Journalism Sustainability Tax Incentive Program. So far, recipients of $4 million in credits have included “major legacy outlets, small community papers, digital start-ups and public broadcasters, with most funding going to organizations outside the Chicago metro and 30% to nonprofit outlets.”
The state also passed the Strengthening Community Media law in 2024, which requires “a 120-day notice to employees and the community before a local news organization can be sold to any company. This “replanting” provision, the first of its kind to be passed, gives the community time to organize an acquisition bid to keep local news in local hands.”
At some point, the Elmwood Park Advocate could possibly apply for this program. We would have to expand our base of subscribers and readers significantly so that we could hire at least one or two full-time reporters. We also would need a board of directors. Plus, the newsletter must reach the milestone of publishing "at least one community-related piece per week for the past 12 months” in order to be eligible.
We have a long way to go. For now, thank you to the subscribers and readers who have engaged with us over the past three months, especially by participating in our monthly “Community Conversation” events at the library.
And if you’d like to help the newsletter expand what we do, share our articles with your family, friends, and neighbors—and consider leaving us a donation.