The East Oregonian beginning July 1, 2024, will be published once a week on Wednesdays, and will be a regional publication, covering Umatilla, Morrow, Union, Wallowa, Baker and Grant counties. 

The East Oregonian has a rich history, but sadly, we have made the decision to reduce print publication of the newspaper. Beginning July 1, the EO will be published once a week on Wednesdays, and will be a regional publication, covering Umatilla, Morrow, Union, Wallowa, Baker and Grant counties.

The EO also will be mailed to subscribers of our other newspapers covering Eastern Oregon — the Hermiston Herald, The (La Grande) Observer, the Baker City Herald, the Wallowa County Chieftain and the Blue Mountain Eagle.

Followers of the newspaper industry in America will understand this change is far from unique, and some may be surprised that the EO took this long to transition to a regional publication, once a week in print.

Starting with the inception of Craigslist and other online marketplaces in the early 2000s, newspapers began seeing an erosion of classified advertising revenue, which had provided a reliable source of income for all newspapers for generations.

In most newspaper business models, the costs of producing, printing and distributing newspapers has been heavily subsidized by display advertising and classified advertising. This is why the cost to subscribe or buy a copy of your local newspaper has traditionally been much lower than the cost to produce it.

Like so many other businesses, newspapers were rocked by the Great Recession starting in 2008. Newspapers that survived after 2010 continued to face the challenges of technological change. With the rise of social media, local newspapers lost advertising revenue and subscribers.

“I get my news from Facebook” has frequently been the reason given for the cancellation of newspaper subscriptions. This is frustrating for journalists to hear, as Facebook “news” often originates with journalists who are paid employees of local newspapers.

Our older readers may remember the pre-internet days when an avid reader in Eastern Oregon would subscribe to a number of newspapers to get a wide variety of perspectives, and most would be delivered to your door by young carriers on bikes. The Oregon Journal and The Oregonian provided statehouse coverage from Salem, as well as news from all around the state, and the East Oregonian covered multiple counties in Northeastern Oregon, as well as carrying national and international news via The Associated Press. And, many other towns had weekly newspapers of their own.

Now, most of us experience a barrage of news, available at all hours of the day and night. Newspapers, television, radio, text messages, emails and the internet in general — especially social media — all compete for our attention. The sheer volume of information coming at us can be overwhelming.

In 2008, the East Oregonian Publishing Co. (now EO Media Group) acquired the Hermiston Herald from Western Communications. In 2019, EOMG acquired The Observer and the Baker City Herald, also from Western Communications. Those newspapers have often operated at a loss, supported by other EO Media Group publications.

Now, in mid-2024, after exploring a number of options, it is clear there is no profitable path forward for the EO’s related newspapers in Eastern Oregon. Our company can no longer afford to print those newspapers at a loss. However, we will continue to employ reporters who cover Union, Wallowa, Baker and Grant counties, and that reporting will appear on those newspapers’ websites, with some of this news also in the weekly print edition of the East Oregonian.

We are so appreciative of the subscribers, readers and advertisers of the EO and our related newspapers who have hung in there on this bumpy ride over the past decades of change.

We salute everyone who ever worked for these papers as well — reporters, editors, graphic designers, advertising sales reps, customer service staff, delivery drivers and carriers alike. The newspapers touched many lives and contributed to their communities in so many ways, and that work and those legacies will live on.

The East Oregonian will continue to evolve over the months and years ahead, changing with the times and technology. There is no doubt that our American democracy needs journalists, working in their local communities and writing the first draft of history.