• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

There’s sad news out in the Heartland as Passover and Easter approach:  Iowa’s Mid-America Publishing is going out of business this week.

This will result in the closure of the Madrid Register-News Ogden Reporter. Postville Herald, Monoma Outlook, Calmar Courier and Sigourney News-Review,according to reports.

“Well, folks, this is probably the hardest thing I've ever had to tell anyone,” writes Craig Shultz, a Mid-America editor. “Last week, we were notified our parent company, Mid-America Publishing, is closing next month. In turn, it led to our company trying to find a buyer for the Madrid Register-News and Ogden Reporter.

Shultz adds, “I'm sorry to tell everyone this, but no one has expressed interest in buying our county publications to allow us to keep operating. This upcoming Wednesday, April 1st, and I am well aware of the irony of the timing, will be the last publication date for the Register-News and the Reporter.” 

The resulting layoffs will not be a large as some we’ve seen, but they will hurt. And readers will lose access to needed local reporting by journalists who live in and know their communities.

“I grew up in Boone county,” Shultz notes “I went to Ogden in seventh grade. I have family in Madrid. It hurts me to have to let everyone know about this.” 

Sadly, this is typical of a broader trend, according to another Heartland publication.

“Nearly 60% of the counties with one or fewer news sources – 1,055 in total – are in the heartland, a region comprising 20 states in the middle of the country that together would be the third-largest economy in the world,” Mississippi Today reports “That means more than half of heartland counties are news deserts or at risk of becoming one.”

A similar view is provided by Milwaukee Independent.  

“As the economics of journalism collapse across the country, social media companies increasingly position themselves as partners ready to support independent news through ad-sharing programs, bonuses, subscriptions, and branded content systems.”

“The language suggests opportunity, but the underlying structure offers little stability for organizations already fighting for survival.”

The article goes on to state that local journalism “is facing its more precarious era in decades. Hundreds of community newspapers have closed, and many more have reduced their newsrooms to skeletal operations that no longer cover basic civic functions.”

Meanwhile, social platforms that spent “years urging newsrooms to invest in on-platform content have largely retreated from the commitments they made during the 2016–2020 period, leaving smaller organizations with shrinking visibility and no leverage to negotiate better terms,” it continues.

We suppose we should end on a hopeful note, befitting these joyous holidays. 

“While news deserts continue to grow, there’s a promising trend,” Mississippi Today writes. “More than 300 local news startups have launched across the U.S. in the past five years.” 

These Bright Spots (as Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative dubs them) “share common traits: funding that combines foundation support with reader contributions, deep community relationships, editorial independence and a commitment to working together,” continues.

Is too much to ask that some non-profit group step in to save Mid-America's Iowa news outlets before Wednesday?