Lawrence community members are reacting after the Lawrence Journal-World’s sale to a West Virginia company was announced early last week.
The local Simons family has owned the paper for 126 years as part of The World Company.
“Just the loss of that community connection is probably the biggest thing that people are talking about,” said University of Kansas journalism professor Scott Reinardy. “Not being able to see the people who own your newspaper. Not running into them in the street. Not bending their ear when you have an issue.”
The Journal-World was sold to Ogden Newspapers, Inc., which is based in West Virginia. The company owns 40 daily newspapers across the U.S.
Journal-World columnist Michael Hoeflich called into KCUR’s Central Standard, cautioning readers to view the sale in a more positive light.
“We ought to be happy it was sold as opposed to being closed down,” Hoeflich said. “People who’ve been involved with the Journal-World know that they’ve been selling off divisions of The World Company now for quite a while.”
The World Company also parted with multiple websites and its publishing division, as well as newspapers in Shawnee and Tonganoxie.
The sale comes at a volatile time for community newspapers across the U.S. Another caller brought up how Harris Enterprises had announced that it would sell its five Kansas newspapers on the same day as the Journal-World sale. The caller, identified as Cliff from Kansas City, asked “what effect that will have on the entire state of Kansas.”
Anna Sturla is an intern at KCUR 89.3.