Last Editions
The print closure record — named papers, dated final editions, the economics behind each one.
The Tribune Company filed for Chapter 11 on 8 December 2008, one year after Sam Zell’s buyout closed at a nominal personal cost of one dollar. Eleven weeks later the Rocky Mountain News printed its last edition, and sixteen days after that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer stopped its presses and continued as a website with a newsroom cut from 165 people to 20.
Underneath every one of those closures sat the same line of revenue. Classified advertising had carried close to 40 per cent of a metropolitan daily’s income on Pew Research Center figures for 2000; Craigslist, open in San Francisco since 1995, charged nothing for most listings. What followed the closures was ownership: the New York Times metered its site in March 2011, and in August 2013 the Washington Post and the Boston Globe were sold within a month of each other.
The 2009 closures
Denver, Seattle, Boston and Tucson inside fifteen months.
Classifieds
The revenue line Craigslist took, 2000 to 2009.
Ownership and paywalls
The Times meter in 2011, the Post and the Globe sold in 2013.
- 149 Years, Ten MonthsThe Rocky Mountain News printed its final edition on 27 February 2009 after 149 years and ten months of continuous publication, closing because the E. W. Scripps Company could not find a buyer.Long piece
- Print Ends on a Tuesday in MarchThe Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last print edition on 17 March 2009, sixteen days after the Rocky Mountain News closed, and relaunched as a web-only operation with a staff cut from 165 to 20.Standard piece
- The Smallest Type on the Page Was Paying for the RestClassified advertising generated roughly 40 percent of newspaper revenue at its peak, according to Pew Research Center figures from 2000, and Craigslist's free listings drained that line faster than any other single cause.Standard piece
- Sam Zell Bought It for a DollarThe Tribune Company, owner of the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and eight other papers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 8 December 2008, one year after Sam Zell's leveraged buyout closed at a nominal personal cost of one dollar.Standard piece
- Twenty Articles, Then the WallThe New York Times launched its metered paywall on 28 March 2011, allowing twenty free articles per month before requiring a digital subscription — the first attempt by a major American daily to reverse the free-access norm established in the mid-1990s.Short piece
- The Graham Family Sold on a MondayThe Washington Post Company sold the newspaper to Jeff Bezos for $250 million on 5 August 2013 — a personal purchase, not an Amazon transaction — ending eighty years of Graham family ownership.Short piece
- From the First Alt-Weekly to the Last IssueThe Village Voice, founded in Greenwich Village in 1955, ceased print publication in September 2017 and closed entirely in August 2018, sixty-three years after Dan Wolf and Ed Fancher launched it as the country's first alternative newsweekly.Long piece
- The Daily That Chose Not to Die DailyThe Christian Science Monitor announced in October 2008 that it would stop printing a daily edition in April 2009, becoming the first major American newspaper to shift entirely to web-first publication while retaining a weekly print magazine.Short piece
- What the Contract Said When the Newsroom ClosedThe Newspaper Guild — founded in 1933 and merged into the Communications Workers of America in 1997 — negotiated severance and buyout terms as dozens of papers closed or cut staff between 2008 and 2014.Standard piece