On Aug. 11, The Chronicle announced it would publish its final edition after more than 100 years of informing the southern Willamette Valley. Founded in 1909, the publication served the Cottage Grove, Springfield, Creswell and Pleasant Hill communities.
Executive Editor and Part-Owner Erin Tierney-Heggenstaller wrote in a column published on The Chronicle website the paper had been struggling since the COVID-19 pandemic. She wrote after seeing over 1,000 similar papers go out of business, The Chronicle staff fought to keep theirs alive.
“We were strategic, offering communities with virtually no other credible journalistic outlet what people say they want: hyper-local news about family, friends, and neighbors; practical reporting to make daily life easier; and curated content edited with standards that social media, AI slop, and corporatized commodity news no longer offer,” Tierney-Heggenstaller wrote…