The media group that owns a dozen newspapers in mostly rural areas of Oregon and southwest Washington is cutting 15% of its staff and consolidating its print publications.
EO Media Group told staff Monday that 28 of the company’s 185 employees are being laid off this month, and 19 more will see their hours reduced in July. The family-run media firm owns the Bulletin based in Bend, the Rogue Valley Times in Medford, the East Oregonian in Pendleton, and others.
The company will still publish daily news online, but will explore different models for newspaper publishing with the help of a consulting firm, majority owners of EO Media Group Steve Forrester and Kathryn Brown said in a statement.
“EO Media Group is also considering the nonprofit model of newspaper publishing,” the majority owners wrote. “Our aim is to ensure that these publications continue to thrive and reflect the voices and stories of the communities they represent.”
Starting in July, the company will stop print editions for the La Grande Observer, Blue Mountain Eagle, Hermiston Herald, Wallowa County Chieftain and the Baker City Herald. Subscribers to those papers will instead get a copy of the East Oregonian, which the company said will include news from the communities losing their print editions.
“Our local sales teams are doing well,” EO Media Group CEO Heidi Wright told OPB. “But there’s just a lot of challenges with the operating costs, and the hard costs of producing news in smaller communities in particular.”
Wright said postage and printing costs have gone up at a much higher rate than revenue.
The announcement comes about 15 months after the company last expanded. A year ago February, in response to the closure of the Medford Mail Tribune, EO Media Group created the Rogue Valley Times to serve southern Oregon.
In 2019 the company purchased two newspapers in central Oregon for $3.65 million: the Bulletin and the Redmond Spokesman. Last October the reporters, news assistants and photographers at those publications unionized as the Central Oregon NewsGuild.
In response to the layoff announcements, the NewsGuild said it was “dismayed” by the decision.
“The announcement comes on the heels of the company’s decisions to implement a hiring freeze and outsource design staff,” the union said in a statement. “This process of cutting staff to create profitability waters down our efforts to produce news that benefits the communities we live and work in.”