On April 11, after 50 years of service to its city, the Columbus Messenger ceased publication. The Columbus Messenger wasn’t just a single newspaper, but rather a collection of publications across the city, such as the Grove City Messenger, Groveport Messenger, Madison County Messenger, South/Canal Winchester Messenger, and the Westside Messenger.
According to Phil Daubel, owner of Columbus Messenger Newspapers, the shutdown resulted from a decrease in advertising revenue and an increase in operating expenses. It simply just wasn’t possible to continue operating the newspaper.
When I first heard about this, I’d be lying if I said I took immediate concern. After all, Columbus is home to several newspaper publications, right? There’s The Columbus Dispatch and…
And that’s it. The Columbus Dispatch is the last standing newspaper publication in the city of Columbus. The Columbus Post, a newspaper dedicated to the African American community, stopped printing newspapers in 2015, a few months after the death of its founder, Amos Lynch. Columbus Alive, a newspaper that focused on the music, art and culture of Columbus, released its final print in 2019 after it was reported that only 32,000 copies were circulated.
Even The Other Paper, a publication that was once the second-largest newspaper distribution after The Columbus Dispatch, was shut down in 2013. In addition to ending their print editions, they would also cease their online publications. While that doesn’t hold for the Columbus Free Press, they haven’t published any print issues since 2020.
I’ve never been a newspaper reader. I remember running across the street to my best friend’s house as a child, jumping over the paper that was rolled up in plastic on our porch. I received all my news, what little I could pay attention to, from the TV. Even as I’ve gotten older, I’m more likely to visit a local station’s website for news than open up a newspaper. At the end of the day, it’s just more convenient to have all my news a few searches away on a phone than to peruse a massive newspaper daily.
Still, that doesn’t mean I’m incapable of seeing how great of a loss this is. Taking away an entire newspaper means that readers who rely on those prints must gather their news from different sources. This source will likely be The Columbus Dispatch, but what if it’s not? Or what happens if/when The Columbus Dispatch ceases its print? If they can’t read it physically, people will start to listen to it via radio or watch their local news stations more often. Some will even become digital readers to keep up with the times.
As a graduating journalism major, I never thought much about how my work would look in a printed newspaper. Still, I wish for print’s prosperity. We live in a world that is constantly changing, giving everyone a reason to keep on their toes. I believe it’s important for news to be shared in as many media as possible, because losing a medium is like losing access to knowledge. Even if there are other ways of receiving that same knowledge, the thought of even one way being lost is unsettling.
Some may simply see it as times changing and I agree that a future without print is certainly possible. Still, even if it’s not what I personally use, I appreciate the printed newspaper and how it has served as civilization’s primary news medium for hundreds of years. Times may change, but the service of publications that continued this tradition should never be forgotten.
Dion Johnson, Multimedia Specialist/Intern
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