Long-Struggling Local Newspapers Pushed to Brink by Coronavirus

  • Publications across the country are cutting print days, staff
  • In Oregon, Smith family sells off newspapers after 87-year run

A man reads a newspaper on the sidewalk in Brooklyn, New York, on March 31.

Photographer: Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Sign up here for our daily coronavirus newsletter on what you need to know, and subscribe to our Covid-19 podcast for the latest news and analysis.

The late Elmo Smith and his wife borrowed $25 in 1933 to start a mimeographed weekly newspaper along Oregon’s Snake River, near the Idaho border.