Kentucky Press Association
Four weekly newspapers in Northern Kentucky will be closing at the end of May.
The Boone Recorder, Campbell County Recorder, Kenton Recorder and Campbell Recorder will no longer be printed after this month.
The closures are part of moves made by parent company Gannett that affect papers in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties. All four are weekly newspapers.
Photo provided by Kentucky Press Association
“Until this time, Kentucky has almost the same number of newspapers we had in 1985,” said David Thompson, executive director of the Kentucky Press Association. “We have not lost that many papers. Those newspapers that we have lost, we have been able to replace with new people coming in and starting newspapers.”
Gannett is also closing or merging 20 print papers in eastern Massachusetts as the company shifts to more digital and regional coverage of local news.
Gannett CEO Mike Reed has been clear — the future is digital. In a recent earnings call, Reed bragged that Gannett passed the $1 billion mark for digital revenue last year, representing about one-third of all sales. The company grew digital-only subscribers by 49 percent, year over year, to 1.6 million.
GateHouse acquired industry giant Gannett at $1.4 billion — keeping the Gannett name. The 2019 acquisition made the company the country’s biggest publisher of local news.
Gannett has shed about one-third of its workforce since the megamerger, shrinking to under 14,000 people, according to the Globe.
