Toledo Free Press closing immediately (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Toledo News Now ^ | April 27, 2015 | Holly Tuey and Nick Bade

[2ndDivisionVet]

TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - Toledo Free Press Publisher Tom Pounds says the paper will be shutting down operations. Pounds says financial troubles are the reason he's closing the paper.

“When you can't pay your bills, you don't keep going,” Pounds said Monday.

Pounds says about 50 families in total will be impacted by the decision to cease publication. That includes 10 full-time employees, as well as writers, paper carriers, artists and others who worked on the Free Press's weekly issues.

Even as he announced the decision to shut down, Pounds said he's proud of what the Free Press has accomplished over the past decade.

“I think we changed the landscape. I think we changed the way people report news...We had to work a little harder, I think. Everyone did, and that's a good thing. In my opinion, competition's a good thing,” said Pounds. “We were given six months to live when we started, and here it is 10 years later.”

Pounds issued the following statement Monday:

We fought long and hard to make sure this day would never come, but it's with a heavy heart that I must announce Toledo Free Press is closing.

Between years of legal wrangling and ongoing struggles with predatory ad pricing from a competitor, business conditions are such that we can no longer continue.

When I started Toledo Free Press 10 years ago, I pledged this newspaper would be honest, objective, transparent, accessible and would treat readers with respect. We set out to take a glass half full approach to the Glass City and the region without shying away from hard questions and difficult truths.

I think we've accomplished all that and much more, including five consecutive nods for "Best Weekly Newspaper in Ohio" from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. We'll find out later this year if we won one more.

In the end, while delivering news is a right, it is also a privilege, one that we can no longer afford to provide.

Closing hurts, but even more painful would be to never have tried. This newspaper has been a dream. We have enjoyed offering area readers an alternate voice and relished the challenge of changing the status quo of news reporting in Toledo. By adding to the conversation, we did what we set out to do, and I'm proud of the work we've done.

While our last print issue was April 26, we will continue to post some remaining content on our website and social media accounts for the next few weeks.

I'd like to thank founding Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller and current Editor in Chief Sarah Ottney for their passion and dedication. Thank you to our hardworking staff, generous investors, loyal advertisers and network of dedicated freelancers and carriers. Most importantly, thanks to you, our readers, for supporting a small local business and a free press.

[rabidralph]

If only they could afford to host a riot.

[fhayek]

Too Bad. Don't know or care about their political leanings. I come from a generation (maybe one of the last) who like the idea of a newspaper. I remember reading the funnies, grabbing the sports section, puzzling over the political cartoon. It's a sign of the times, but I will miss those old gasbag liberal rags.

[MeganC]

Amazing that Free Republic is literally free and it’s outliving so many of the mainstream leftist dinosaurs.

[Steve_Seattle]

This does not sound like the demise of a major newspaper. It has existed only ten years, and its closing will affect only about fifty employees. It sounds like an alternative newspaper.

[2ndDivisionVet]

So something has to affect 500 people to really matter?

[GeronL]

It is a weekly too

[W.]

It was a little 20-30 page Enquirer-size local paper, news, reviews, ads, etc. It was ok for what it was, too bad it had to go away. I can think of less-deserving survivors...

[Mears]

” I pledged this newspaper would be honest, objective, transparent-———————————————

—

Sure,just like Obama.

(I know nothing about this paper—it’s the quote that made me chuckle).

.

[Engedi]

I was born and raised in Toledo- moved to Michigan 30 years ago for husband’s job. It was a wonderful place to live and grow up back in my day. It was a strong Union-Democratic City with Champion Spark Plug, Dana, Jeep plants.

The big paper forever in Toledo is the Toledo Blade- which is the competitor for Toledo Free Press. Toledo Blade tended to be left leaning/Democrat swinging.

But it has gone the way of other Democratic run towns- poverty stricken, all the major plants closed down, unemployment, lot of gangs. Most of the once beautiful Malls have been closed or torn down. Only one remains.

I cold just cry when I got back for family events- everything is just so run-down.

[fhayek]

Liberalism leads to ‘run-down’ just as sure as night follows day.

[markomalley]

“When you can't pay your bills, you don't keep going,”

Really? I thought when you can't pay your bills, you asked for a government bailout...

[Axenolith]

I still get the Harrisonburg (VA) Daily News Record sent out to me via a subscription every year from my Grandmother.

The office loves the crossword and it’s a hoot to compare the content with CA news. Never seen a help wanted ad for a tom turkey milker in the Chronicle either ;-)

[hinckley buzzard]

Another hippie newspaper bites the dust for lack of interest.

[ExCTCitizen]

10 years? I guess it is one of these alternative papers that has ‘men seeking men’ or ‘women seeking women’ ads.

[NoCmpromiz]

I guess it is one of these alternative papers that has ‘men seeking men’ or ‘women seeking women’ ads.

You might be right..

In an editorial by Editor in Chief Sarah Ottney (Ottney: End of watch) she opined (excerpted):

TFP offered weekly space for columns discussing comic books, local hip-hop, regional history and more. We regularly covered LGBTQ issues, 
opened our editorial pages to guest columnists and championed nonprofit causes. Who will step up now and give these communities a voice?

What message does it send to the college students who planned to intern with us this summer that the paper folded before they ever arrived? 
Seeing the instability of the profession, many would-be journalists may change majors or career paths. Would one of them have won a Pulitzer Prize? 
Would one of them have requested public records, crunched some numbers and exposed an abuse of public trust? 

Since I moved out of Toledo (courtesy of a transfer by my employer) back in 1975 I have no first hand knowledge of this paper, but I would think that if they offered even a bit more truth than the Toledo Blade (one of Americas great newspapers - or at least they claimed to be back then) a la Fox News, they would still be viable. That they didn't cut it says the even with their concern for LGBTQ issues, their guest editorials, the concern for the poor college journalist students, coverage of local hiphop, and all that, the product they produced was of the same quality bird cage liner as the Blade...

[W.]

I lived in T-Town in the mid-late 70's, and it was entirely different back then, compared to now. Back then I sometimes went to Detroit for training, and what I saw and make note of today, is that what lots of Detroit looked like back then, much of Toledo looks like today. Deja Vu in reverse. Sad, indeed.

[Steve_Seattle]

"So something has to affect 500 people to really matter?"

No, I was just saying it sounded like a small newspaper, and didn't really fit the narrative of the collapsing dinosaur media, i.e., it wasn't the demise of another major metropolitan daily.

[Steve_Seattle]

"We regularly covered LGBTQ issues, opened our editorial pages to guest columnists and championed nonprofit causes. Who will step up now and give these communities a voice?"

Yeah, the mainstream media have totally neglected the concerns of the LGBTQ community. /sarc