Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
The paper had covered the cities of Springfield, Cottage Grove, Creswell and Pleasant Hill for more than a century.
The Chronicle, the hyperlocal print newspaper covering the cities of Springfield, Cottage Grove, Creswell and Pleasant Hill since 1909, is shutting down.
The newspaper’s executive editor, Erin Tierney-Heggenstaller, announced the news in a column published Tuesday, Aug. 11. She wrote that the decision ultimately came down to a lack of subscriptions and advertising as the paper struggled to repay pandemic-era debt.
The newspaper bills itself as the oldest locally owned newspaper in the southern Willamette Valley. Noel and Denise Nash purchased the newspaper from Scott and Jeanne Olson in 2019.
“After years of barely hanging on, we have no choice but to let go,” wrote Tierney-Heggenstaller, who is also a part owner.
Tierney-Heggenstaller wrote that the newspaper took a Small Business Administration loan in 2020, believing it was a “bridge to stability” during the pandemic. But in March 2025, the federal government discontinued the repayment relief program that allowed struggling borrowers, like the newspaper, to pay 10% to 50% of their regular payment, she said.
“Suddenly, a staggering percentage of our revenue was swallowed up just servicing that debt,” Tierney-Heggenstaller said.
The newspaper shuttered its brick-and-mortar newsroom for a model where employees worked out of libraries, coffee shops and bookstores, she wrote. Still, the paper’s savings from the closure were “instantly wiped out” by changes to the loan repayment program, the editor said.
Tierney-Heggenstaller added that rising costs from newsprint tariffs have compounded the squeeze, and the “deliberate dismantling” of the U.S. Postal Service has threatened the paper’s “delivery pipeline.”
“You cannot innovate, hire reporters, or keep the presses running when nearly everything you bring in goes straight back to the government for the privilege of surviving 2020,” she wrote.
Tierney-Heggenstaller said despite the paper’s attempts to be strategic, weather its financial hardship and tailor its journalism to the community’s needs, The Chronicle is “out of options, out of funds, and at the end of our timeline.”
The newspaper took home 14 awards at the 2025 Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association conference. Noel Nash, the newspaper’s publisher, wrote a column encouraging readers to subscribe and donate as recently as July 30, citing rising reader engagement. Under his ownership, the newspaper tripled its publishing size and regularly printed 28-page color tabloid sections, according to The Chronicle’s website.
Tierney-Heggenstaller said constant financial stress has taken an “inescapable toll” on staff, many of whom work on a “hometown discount” because they believe in The Chronicle’s mission. The Chronicle currently employs two reporters and features work from eight contributors and four photographers, according to the newspaper’s website.
“When a local newspaper dies, a community loses far more than just ink on paper,” she wrote. “It loses its mirror, its public record, its watchdog, and its storyteller. I worry deeply about what fills the void when small-town news goes silent — who will hold local officials accountable, who will celebrate the high school athletes, and who will record the history of this place.”
