Springfield newspaper prints its final issue.

Byline: Jack Moran The Register-Guard

SPRINGFIELD - The Springfield News - the community paper that focused on local people and small-town events - died Friday after a long battle with much-larger competitors. It was 103. No service is planned.

The weekly newspaper's final edition was delivered to readers with a banner headline screaming "Springfield News Closes!" Friday's issue included a special section detailing the paper's long history as a voice in the community.

Owned by Iowa-based Lee Enterprises since 1997, the small paper had been losing money for years while relying on a skeleton staff of reporters and advertising executives.

"It was a non-profitable activity," said Dan Hayes, Lee's communications director.

The publication failed because it could not compete with other local media outlets, as far as news coverage and advertising revenue, Hayes said.

Working to turn around the paper "had been a project for a long time," he said.

In February, Lee made a final stab at turning a profit in Springfield. In an effort to boost circulation to gain advertising revenue, the publication became an unpaid weekly, mailed to Springfield residents on Fridays. It previously produced two editions per week, and had a paid circulation of just 4,211.

The owners decided at the time to shut down the printing press at the newspaper's Laura Street headquarters, forcing layoffs in the paper's pressroom, mailroom and composing department. The publication has since been printed at the Albany Democrat-Herald, another Lee property.

The strategy to attract additional advertisers ultimately proved unsuccessful, as was Lee's effort in recent months to find a buyer willing to purchase the foundering paper.

Publisher Theresa Willmann and Editor Stacy Stumbo, who both oversaw The Springfield News' last gasps, did not return telephone messages Friday seeking comment.

Last Tuesday, Willmann sidestepped a reporter's direct question about the paper's impending demise, stating that "It would not be entirely accurate to say" that Friday would be the end of The Springfield News.

The paper employed 16 people, although many of them - including virtually all of the news staff - were part-timers. Lee is reportedly providing the former Springfield workers with some sort of "transitional assistance," although Hayes said he did not know exactly what type of help was offered.

Lee purchased the Springfield newspaper in 1997 as part of a package that included the Cottage Grove Sentinel and the daily paper in Albany. From the start, Lee officials viewed the Springfield publication as dead weight.

"It was just sort of a tag-along," Hayes said. "Had it been on the market by itself, we wouldn't have bought it."

Hayes said the Sentinel, a 4,500-circulation, weekly publication, is a profitable operation that's not in jeopardy of closing.

"It's cooking along," he said. "Cottage Grove is in a much different market than Springfield."

Sid Leiken, Springfield's mayor, characterized the paper's closing as "the end of an era." He said he valued the fact that reporters of The Springfield News provided coverage of community events typically ignored by other media.

"It wasn't always about hard news with them," Leiken said. "They'd do pieces about local folks and different things people in Springfield were up to. I appreciated that."

The Springfield News published its first issue in 1903. For seven years before that, Springfield's newspaper was known as The Nonpareil. Several ownership changes occurred in the past century. Before it was purchased by Lee, the paper was part of a chain of publications controlled by Disney.

Lee owns more than 300 daily and weekly newspapers in 23 states. Last month, the company announced the sale of several properties in the Pacific Northwest totaling $51 million. As part of the deal, the Newport-News-Times in Lincoln County was acquired by News Media Corporation.