Lookout Eugene-Springfield enters the Lane County media market

Lane County has a new kid in town.

Following two years of fundraising and eager anticipation of its arrival, Lookout Eugene-Springfield was launched April 10 as an all-digital daily newspaper by Ken Doctor, founder of Lookout Santa Cruz, his first digital newspaper.

Doctor’s company, Lookout Local, Inc., is a public benefit corporation that focuses on community news. The Santa Cruz digital newspaper began publishing in November 2020 and has since grown into the largest local news organization in Santa Cruz County.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield will be in direct competition with The Register-Guard, which was owned and operated by the Baker family of Eugene for more than 90 years. The Bakers sold the paper to GateHouse in 2018 and GateHouse merged with Gannett a year later, forming the largest newspaper chain in the U.S. and keeping the Gannett name.

At its peak, just before the turn of the century, The R-G’s circulation was approaching 80,000. The circulation then began a gradual decline but dropped precipitously after the sale to GateHouse. Gannett’s annual postal report in October 2024 showed total paid distribution of 11,017 on July 24, 2024, including 7,798 in print and 3,219 electronic copies. The current print circulation is a little over 9,000 on Sundays and around 8,500 during the week.

Lookout’s other competitors will include two that have competed with The R-G for more than four decades: Eugene Weekly, which has a free print circulation of nearly 40,000 copies and claims a weekly multi-media reach of 70,000 people, and Lane Community College’s public radio station, KLCC-FM, which has a broadcast radius of 100 miles and, among other services, carries National Public Radio.

In Eugene, the new Lookout staff works in a spacious office with a soaring ceiling at 771 Willamette St. Its donated desks and cubicles were among the furnishings in The R-G newsroom on Chad Drive during the final 20 years of the Baker family’s ownership.

By June 1 Doctor expects Executive Editor Dann Miller to complete the painstaking process of hiring 15 seasoned reporters, editors and a photojournalist, supplemented by local freelance contributors.

Additionally, Lookout runs investigative and enterprise stories written by the Oregon Journalism Project, a Portland-based nonprofit that partners with independent print and online news publishers across the state.

On launch day, Doctor introduced himself to readers and told the inside story of Eugene-Springfield’s digital daily.

“As a business-of-news analyst,” he wrote, “I covered the torturous print to digital transitions of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post – along with the cringeworthy entry of hedge funds and their fellow travelers as they entered and then mercilessly downsized good-to-great daily newspapers, like the long-time-respected Eugene Register-Guard, along with literally hundreds of other trustworthy dailies. As I transitioned from analyst to later-in-life entrepreneur, I told people the job in front of us was clear: Stop complaining about the hedge fund-driven dailies. Replace them.”

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The inaugural editions of Lookout Eugene-Springfield featured contributions from two veteran R-G retirees, former Editorial Page Editor Jackman Wilson and longtime columnist Bob Welch. Here are excerpts, followed by links to the full articles.

First up, Jackman Wilson.

Eugene is known for robust opinions. Once again, we have a place for them

The orchestra is still out there, with all its piccolos and kettle drums, but the platform for the expression of public opinion that once was provided by a daily newspaper is gone. The Register-Guard cut the size of its editorial section in half just as I left the paper in 2018, and dropped it altogether four years later.

It’s as though Nashville had no music halls, or New York had no stages.

Sure, Eugene Weekly publishes letters to the editor and articles with an element of opinion. KLCC produces solid public affairs programming. And the Oregon Daily Emerald should not be overlooked. These are far better than nothing. But Eugene and Lane County need a comprehensive daily forum for commentary of all kinds — editorials, letters, columns and more.

Everyone at Lookout Eugene-Springfield is trying to do many new things at once. Good work, even great work, lies ahead, but there may be some stumbles along the way. Though criticism is expected, it is constructive criticism that yields the best results.

The prospects for this section of Lookout Eugene-Springfield will lean heavily on people’s willingness to contribute ideas, suggestions, letters and columns. I encourage all of the thousands of people who found their opinions welcome on The Register-Guard’s opinion pages to avail themselves of the same opportunities here.

Let’s stop moping about the sunset days of print, and pick up powerful new digital tools for sharing ideas with one another. Let’s use those tools in ways that honor the timeless principles of responsible journalism. Let’s help Lookout Eugene-Springfield succeed, for its sake and for our own, because self-government cannot succeed without an engaged and informed citizenry.

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Next up, Bob Welch

Lookout has the potential to restore some of the identity we’ve lost

I’m not naïve; a single newspaper isn’t going to save us. And our weekly papers and KLCC are making Lane County better.

But for seven years, we’ve been without a true public square that gives the community a sense of place.

Any hope that the new corporately owned daily was going to invest in our community and not just its shareholders died in 2022 when the paper dropped its editorial section.

Now, Lookout has the potential to restore some of the identity we’ve lost. To give people somewhere to voice opinions. To offer the community context, nuance, analysis. And to hold local public officials accountable. I’m honored to have a small role in this effort.

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— Donovan Mack