ROCK SPRINGS — The sudden closure of 14 Wyoming newspapers was announced Wednesday morning, impacting several papers in southwest Wyoming.
News Media Corporation of Illinois announced it would shut down its Wyoming newspapers as of Wednesday. Impacted publications include the Pinedale Roundup, Sublette County Examiner, Uinta County Herald, The Kemmerer Gazette, and the Bridger Valley Pioneer.
According to a letter shared online by Pinedale Roundup Managing Editor Cali O’Hare, financial challenges, a “significant economic downturn” in the industry, along with revenue losses and increasing expenses were cited as reasons for the closure. The letter also noted a failed attempt at selling News Media Corporation.
At the Pinedale Roundup, employees were told the Thursday, August 7 edition of the newspaper would not be published and were to turn over their keys to the building. According to the letter, the company said it “will make all reasonable efforts to pay” employees the remaining compensation they’ve earned to the extent allowed by the company’s secured lenders, with their health insurance coverage ending Wednesday.
“While this chapter is closing, we hope the experiences and relationships built here will carry forward with you,” the letter states.
Many of Wyoming’s newspapers have struggled in the last several years, quietly shedding jobs and cutting back on publication dates. Locally, the Rock Springs Rocket Miner, once southwest Wyoming’s daily newspaper, eliminated carrier delivery and cut back to publishing two days a week in 2019. Its paid circulation, once numbering in the thousands, has declined to 998 according to the Wyoming Press Association. The WPA lists the Rocket Miner as having 40 paid electronic subscribers.
The Green River Star has also seen a decline in its paid circulation, though not to the extent of the Rocket Miner and has become the largest circulated newspaper in Sweetwater County as a result. The WPA lists the Star as having a paid print circulation of 2,218, down from more than 2,700 in 2021, and a paid online circulation of 329.
