The Eugene Register-Guard newspaper will no longer publish any local opinion content, including letters to the editor.
In a column published Wednesday, editor Michelle Maxwell called it a "difficult" decision.
"The time to edit and ensure accuracy and fairness before publishing opinion content is a time-consuming responsibility that this newsroom’s resources can no longer bear," she wrote. "And to publish the opinion page without that oversight would be irresponsible."
Maxwell referred questions about the newspaper's decision to Gannett, the media company based in suburban Washington, D.C. that now owns the Register-Guard. A spokesperson for Gannett declined to speak to KLCC.
The discontinuation of opinion content reflects a broader industry trend of scaling back investments in local news, said University of Oregon journalism professor Peter Laufer.
“Of course they don’t want to ruffle any feathers, because they want to keep raking in the profits and exerting as little effort and capital as they can to just percolate along, barely in business,” he said.
Laufer wrote an occasional guest column for the paper. He said even in an age when anyone can share their opinion broadly on the internet, a daily paper with a history that spans more than a century offers a degree of a perceived legitimacy that can't be found on social media or newly-created websites.
"I think it's an unfortunate and further negative development in the newspaper world," he said.
In 2018, the long-time local owners of the paper sold it to Gatehouse Media, a national chain. One year later, Gatehouse merged with Gannett, making the Register-Guard "part of the USA Today network," as the paper proclaims on its masthead.
"That means it's an affiliate," said Laufer. "It's an opportunity for Gannett, this enormous corporation that owns all these newspapers all over the country, to extract readers—but more importantly, advertising dollars—out of our community without having to spend any kind of equity of consequence serving the community."
In her column, Maxwell wrote that opinion content "is often cited as the reason for canceling a subscription, with readers saying they feel we are choosing sides on an issue or we lack objective discipline, something we take great care and pride in doing as journalists."
It's a paragraph that matches, nearly word-for-word, a paragraph in a column published in May by Cherrill Crosby, the executive editor of the Statesman-Journal in Salem, the only other Gannett-owned publication in Oregon.
The decision to cease publication of an opinion section is a "huge loss," said Andrew Kalloch, president-elect of the Eugene City Club.
"The 'public square' is disappearing," Kalloch wrote on Twitter. "Paths to having our assumptions challenged are dwindling. We have to find a better way."
While it has ended the publication of locally-written editorials and letters to the editor, the paper said it still offers readers the chance to post comments on stories online.
Maxwell, meanwhile, announced on a public post on her personal Facebook page Thursday that she would be leaving the paper, effective Nov. 11.
"My decision is in no way a reflection of the work of the dedicated staff of The Register-Guard," she wrote. "I realize subscribers have been on the receiving end of corporate decisions aimed at helping survive as the business it is," she added, referring to the paper's earlier deadlines for its print edition, as well as cuts to the paper's delivery schedule.
"I’d ask that you see the forest from the trees – those decisions are typically out of local control," wrote Maxwell. "And as disheartening as it can be, I will remind everyone the journalists in Eugene – who live here with you, not in Texas or D.C. -- are dedicated and passionate about covering this community and providing local news."
