2024 will be remembered as a highly transitional year in Oregon local news.

The pressures on local news here have been building, as they have nationally, for almost 20 years, as the old print daily models have tattered. Many journalists have lost their jobs, and most local news readers have witnessed a noticeable decline in the amount of local news available to them month by month. The numbers on loss are profound, and are well-summed up here in a recent study by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. In Oregon, 68% of our state’s incorporated cities,  and three entire counties, now lack a local news source.

In Oregon, these losses have been exacerbated by the sale of two prominent Oregon-based media companies to the Alabama-based Carpenter Media Group (CMG).  In June, CMG bought Portland-based Pamplin Media, publisher of the Portland Tribune and 23 other papers. Then, in October, it closed on its purchase of the last family-owned group in the state, the Forrester-family owned (for four generations) EO Media Company. EO Media’s reach across the state—from Bend and Medford/Ashland to Astoria and Pendleton, as well as much of eastern Oregon—has been profound. So the crisis in local news statewide is now several magnitudes greater.

What followed these acquisitions was predictable: rounds of layoffs that severed decades of journalistic experience from the communities these reporters served. With its recent purchases, Carpenter Media Group now owns more than 170 newspapers nationwide. It is among a growing number of financially driven consolidators, often indifferent to community news missions, that have reshaped the American newspaper landscape over the past 15 years.

We know that many of you care about this larger issue throughout the state, and so here we’re adding a page we’ll update with links on news about local news in Oregon.

But, as a follower of Lookout Eugene-Springfield’s launch, you know it’s not all bad news. We’re so glad you are keeping up with our news, and you’ll see a lot more of it soon on these pages.

In addition, there’s more to look forward to in 2025.

The Oregon Journalism Project has launched, and will be publishing soon. It’s a small, but potentially powerful, non-profit operation focused on digging deeply into stories that hold power accountable. It is an initiative “inspired by other similar ventures across the country,” including The Seattle Times’ civically funded Journalism Lab, Searchlight New Mexico and Spotlight PA.

Mark Zusman, long-time editor of Portland’s Willamette Week,  is the founder and director of OJP, and Willamette Week’s Nigel Jaquiss, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer for Investigative Reporting, will help lead its work. You can read more about who’s involved, on the staff and board, here.

In Lane County, Lookout will be the partner of OJP. What does that mean to our readers? We’ll have first call on publishing OJP pieces we think are telling and useful to local readers, and we will consider partnering with OJP staff on projects. While we’ll approach this step by step, we’re excited about the timing of these two ventures launching simultaneously.