News of the sale of St. Louis paper The Riverfront Times has spread through the grapevine and the internet. The Riverfront Times and their staff were a valued part of the Big Lou Holdings team, and as a sister paper, LEO Weekly valued our connection with them greatly. We are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of the outlet but that our fellow journalists are now reeling with how to find new jobs is a bigger blow.
Since the news of the sale has spread, I’ve received many questions about the state of LEO. As it stands, LEO is fine, for now — meaning only that the sale doesn’t affect us, but the financial struggles of the news industry continue to affect all news sources in this country — to the loss of the American people.
On Wednesday afternoon, our CEO Chris Keating called a meeting and informed us of the sale. Probably not long after The Riverfront Times staff found out.
What we know is that these sales are not usually made for any diabolical reasons, and not really for any financial gain, but the folks with the means to support news outlets are growing fewer and farther between.
Bringing the public independent news that serves to inform, protect and entertain them depends on having the money to do so. Owners committed to that independent voice that these outlets bring depend on advertising (print and digital), passive income from web traffic, and dreams, basically.
Keating has been forthright about his desire in keeping our news outlets going but that struggle gets tougher and tougher as the public seems less interested, or less informed about how these outlets function in their lives. This might continue to be the case until the very dark day that there is no one left to speak for public interests and report on political corruption or other imminent dangers to the American populace.
The landscape of independent journalism is scary for all news outlets and journalists who truly do the job as a service to their communities.
Support your local papers — all of them because that work, once gone, could really change your lives and not for the better.
This article appears in May 22 – Jun 4, 2024.
