On July 3, the Press & Journal, a weekly newspaper in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, produced its last issue after 166 years of local publication. The Independent-Enterprise in Payette, Idaho, shut down June 24. The New Sharon (Iowa) Sun closed June 18. The Merkel (Texas) Mail ended its 130-year run on May 27.
The list goes on. One casualty of COVID-19 has been the accelerated carnage of newspapers across America. Publishing businesses that were, in many cases, already shaky have been ravaged by a decline in advertising from other local institutions affected by the pandemic.
Just one Montana news organization, the online Havre Herald, has closed as a result of COVID., but journalists and other staff have been furloughed at all the state’s dailies. Along the Hi-Line, the Cut Bank Pioneer Press, Glacier Reporter, Shelby Promoter, and Valerian have, at least for now, merged into a single weekly edition.
