The Chronicle Calls It Quits
117 years serving Springfield, Eugene, Cottage Grove, Creswell and Pleasant Hill...
The Chronicle, a weekly publication serving Springfield, Eugene, Cottage Grove, Creswell, and Pleasant Hill, has printed its final edition after a publishing history that goes all the way back to 1909.
“After years of barely hanging on, we have no choice but to let go,” co-owner and executive editor Erin Tierney-Heggenstaller wrote in announcing the closure on their website.
The reason was an all too familiar one in the local news publishing industry. The Chronicle did not have enough subscribers or advertising revenue to keep going. Outside of the bottom line (no longer lining up), there were some other financial pressures that helped to push it over the edge.
The newspaper took out an SBA loan during the COVID-19 pandemic. A federal repayment-relief program had allowed struggling borrowers to make reduced payments, but when that changed in March of last year, The Chronicle said its loan went from a lifeline to a major financial burden.
“Suddenly, a staggering percentage of our revenue was swallowed up just servicing that debt,” Tierney-Heggenstaller wrote.
The Chronicle tried to cut costs, including closing its physical newsroom and having employees work from libraries, coffee shops, and bookstores. Those savings ended up not being enough. They also cited increasing newsprint costs associated with tariffs and problems surrounding postal delivery.
Tierney-Heggenstaller said in their final post, “the newspaper was out of options, out of funds, and at the end of our timeline.”
The closure comes despite having journalistic success. The Chronicle won 14 awards at the 2025 Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association conference, and under its current ownership, had tripled the size of the publication.
Its closing also leaves another hole in Oregon’s shrinking local-news landscape.
“When a local newspaper dies, a community loses far more than just ink on paper,” Tierney-Heggenstaller wrote. “It loses its mirror, its public record, its watchdog, and its storyteller.”
Oregon has lost several longstanding community newspapers in the past few years.
The Columbia County Chronicle & Chief published its final edition in September 2024. Its predecessors traced their history to the 1880s.
In 2025, the Sandy Post (founded in 1937), also ceased operating as a standalone newspaper after its lone reporter was laid off. The nearby Estacada News disappeared with it.
Earlier this year, Portland’s The Skanner News ceased operations after 50 years. Founded by Bernie and Bobbie Foster in 1975, it had become one of Oregon’s longest-running Black-owned news organizations.
Southern Oregon’s Mail Tribune, whose predecessors dated to the late 1800s, shut down in 2023 after more than a century. The Medford newspaper won Oregon’s first Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1934.
According to the Oregon Journalism Project, more than a quarter of Oregon’s small-town newspapers have closed, while 68% of the state’s incorporated cities now lack a local news source.
The full story on the closure was reported by KLCC and published by Oregon Public Broadcasting. Their final edition can be read here.
(Photo: The Chronicle staff on its last day of publication, from left: Photographer Bob Williams, Sales Director Lindsey Black, Distribution Manager Ben Nash, Office Manager Dana Ufford, Photographer Craig Strobeck, Co-Owner Denise Nash, Owner and Publisher Noel Nash, Executive Editor and Part-Owner Erin Tierney-Heggenstaller, and reporters Ron Hartman, Ashlin Sanderson, and Steve Mims.)
This article was written by Jesse Grant, a contributor to The Corvallis Inquirer. Feel free to send us your stories or articles to publish at: editor@corvallisnow.com
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