Newspaper Industry

The U.S. has lost more than 2,800 newspapers since 2005, many of them in rural areas. Now some journalists are redoubling their efforts to provide local news and trying new models in a difficult industry.

The Illinois Local Journalism Task Force, is recommending a mix of strategies intended to increase funding, mitigate high operational costs and keep newsrooms local.

Word in Black, a digital website that publishes national news and local content from 10 local Black newspapers — including The St. Louis American — has been incorporated into a public benefit company.

“It’s a somber time,” said Jackson Brandhorst, the newspaper's former editor in chief.

In his new book, "Changing Models for Journalism: Reinventing the Newsroom," Brant Houston explores the deep transformation that journalism has undergone in the last decade, including the decimation of traditional newsrooms, changing revenue streams, corporate ownership and investors, and the surge in nonprofit newsrooms and collaborations.

The future of print media, especially for local outlets, is in dire straits as large enterprises buy out community newspapers. The Webster-Kirkwood Times is an anomaly in the St. Louis media landscape — because its journalists got together to purchase the paper themselves.

The country's largest newspaper company, Gannett, is once again forecasting it will sell off more of its daily newspapers. Its publications include the Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune, Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader, the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Illinois and McDonough County Voice in Macomb, Illinois.

A top investor thinks the owner of newspapers like St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Omaha World-Herald are entering a difficult business climate with advertising sales continuing their decline.

Alan Achkar is now executive editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, his second stint at the daily.

Shareholders for Lee Enterprises, owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and 23 other papers in the Midwest, re-elected three directors on Thursday. That news could complicate any future takeover bid by Alden Global Capital.