Journalistic hope on the horizon

A soon-to-come alternative to the lackluster Register-Guard shows promise — and just won a Pulitzer

By Bob Welch

IN THE EARLY 2000s, I was checking into a Boston hotel when the clerk saw that I was from Eugene.

“Oh, yes,” she said. “The place with that great newspaper!”

Part of the reason why the demise of The Register-Guard has been so painful for me is because I worked there, but part, also, is because it was so good—and so deeply enriched our community. Now, because its new corporate owner, Gatehouse-Media-become-Gannett, prioritizes profit and shareholders over journalism and community—it has become a shell of its former self. (Anybody notice the two recent headline references to OU instead of UO, most likely the work of a copyediting crew based in Austin, Texas? It’s like changing USA to ASU.)

Don’t blame the staff, or what’s left of it. Blame the lack of staff, the lack of commitment to the community, the lack of any sense from the Gannett higher-ups that they value serious journalism and the uniqueness, and history, of our community.

“Its recent ‘election coverage’ was farcical,” said Tim Gleason, former dean of the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. “It would not pass your basic reporting class’s test.”

Seemingly overnight, Eugene went from being a place with a revered newspaper to a virtual news desert nourished only by a sprinkling of papers with limited resources. Wrote The Oregonian’s Jeff Manning a year ago: “The Register-Guard, once one of the best newspapers in the region, today has no local editor, no publisher, no physical newsroom and little love from a dismayed citizenry. The news staff that once exceeded 80 now stands at six.”

Alas, amid such bleakness I come bearing good news:

Eugene-Springfield is on the cusp of a journalistic jolt that promises to invigorate the community’s news and opinion offerings in big ways.

— Used with permission

Read more of Bob Welch’s columns at Substack.