A red Eugene Weekly newspaper distribution box sits outside
its office in Eugene, Oregon. The weekly newspaper had to lay off its
entire staff three days before Christmas and halt its print edition
because its funds were embezzled by a former employee, the paper’s
editor said. The Eugene police are investigating and the paper’s owners
have hired forensic accountants to piece together what happened. (Todd
Cooper via AP)
From The Asian Reporter, V34, #01 (January 1, 2024), pages 10
& 12.
Embezzlement of Oregon weekly newspaper’s funds
forces it to layoff entire staff and halt print
By Claire Rush
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon weekly newspaper has had to lay off its
entire staff and halt print after 40 years because its funds were
embezzled by a former employee, its editor said, in a devastating blow
to a publication that serves as an important source of information in a
community that, like many others nationwide, is struggling with growing
gaps in local news coverage.
About a week before Christmas, the Eugene Weekly found
inaccuracies in its bookkeeping, editor Camilla Mortensen said. It
discovered that a former employee who was "heavily involved" with the
paper’s finances had used its bank account to pay themselves $90,000
since at least 2022, she said.
The paper also became aware of at least $100,000 in unpaid bills —
including to the paper’s printer — stretching back several months, she
said.
Additionally, multiple employees, including Mortensen, realized that
money from their paychecks that was supposed to be going into retirement
accounts was never deposited.
When the paper realized it couldn’t make the next payroll, it was
forced to lay off all of its 10 staff members and stop its print
edition, Mortensen said. The alternative weekly, founded in 1982,
printed 30,000 copies each week to distribute for free in Eugene, the
third-largest city in the state and home to the University of Oregon.
"To lay off a whole family’s income three days before Christmas is
the absolute worst," Mortensen said, expressing her sense of
devastation. "It was not on my radar that anything like this could have
happened or was happening."
The suspected employee had worked for the paper for about four years
and has since been fired, Mortensen said.
The Eugene police department’s financial crimes unit is
investigating, and the paper’s owners have hired forensic accountants to
piece together what happened, she said.
Brent Walth, a journalism professor at the University of Oregon, said
he was concerned about the loss of a paper that has had "an outsized
impact in filling the widening gaps in news coverage" in Eugene. He
described the paper as an independent watchdog and a compassionate voice
for the community, citing its obituaries of homeless people as an
example of how the paper has helped put a human face on some of the
city’s biggest issues.
He also noted how the paper has made "an enormous difference" for
journalism students seeking internships or launching their career. He
said there were feature and investigative stories that "the community
would not have had if not for the weekly’s commitment to make sure that
journalism students have a place to publish in a professional outlet."
A tidal wave of closures of local news outlets across the country in
recent decades has left many Americans without access to vital
information about their local governments and communities and has
contributed to increasing polarization, said Tim Gleason, the former
dean of the University of Oregon’s journalism school.
"The loss of local news across the country is profound," he said.
"Instead of having the healthy kind of community connections that local
journalism helps create, we’re losing that and becoming communities of
strangers. And the result of that is that we fall into these partisan
camps."
An average of 2.5 newspapers closed per week in the U.S. in 2023,
according to researchers at Northwestern University. More than 200
counties have no local news outlet at all, they found, and more than
half of all U.S. counties have either no local news source or only one
remaining outlet, typically a weekly newspaper.
Despite being officially unemployed, Eugene Weekly staff have
continued to work without pay to help update the website and figure out
next steps, said Todd Cooper, the paper’s art director. He described his
colleagues as dedicated, creative, hardworking people.
"This paper is definitely an integral part of the community, and we
really want to bring it back and bounce back bigger and better if we
can," he said.
The paper has launched a fundraising effort that included the
creation of a GoFundMe page. Just one day after the paper announced its
financial troubles — the GoFundMe had raised more than $11,000.
Now that the former employee suspected of embezzlement has been
fired, "we have a lot of hope that this paper is going to come back and
be self-sustaining and go forward," he said.
"Hell, it’ll hopefully last another 40 years."
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