Opinion | A call for Gannett to donate the Eugene Register-Guard to Oregon’s J-school

When what’s now the Gannett Company — the corporate monster that owns more U.S. newspapers than any other — bought the R-G, butchery began: de facto pink slips to venerable reporters and editors and photographers in the form of buyouts, and local news coverage replaced with outdated reporting from elsewhere via Gannett’s USA TODAY Network.”

Peter Laufer, Ph.D, James Wallace Chair Professor of Journalism at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication

 

Peter Laufer writes that journalism schools could help save daily papers — and calls on Gannett to donate the Eugene Register-Guard to Oregon’s J-school as proof of concept.  

Travel with me to my not atypical college town, Eugene, Ore., where I’m privileged to labor as a professor at our vibrant University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Ours is a fast-growing city of some 175,000 people, straddling the sparkling Willamette River. We’re a cultural, political and economic powerhouse sporting big-city accoutrements such as a magnificent hall for our symphony, a heated mix of blue and red politics, and a thriving business sector producing world-class commodities ranging from fine pinot noir to state-of-the-art electric bicycles. All that minus most typical big-city woes.

What’s missing here in our piece of paradise is what traditionally helps bind a community together: a vigorous daily newspaper. Despite the intrusions on our collective consciousness by the likes of TikTok, Instagram and Twitter, there’s no longer any question in my mind that most of us want and need a daily rag (ink on paper and/or onscreen; the delivery system is not of importance). Here’s how I can be so sure a daily is essential. Just before Thanksgiving, I published an op-ed in the Eugene Weekly lamenting the decline of our city’s once-vibrant daily newspaper, the Register-Guard ....

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View E&P's interview with Dr. Laufer