Shaw Media acquires 4 northern Illinois newspapers after abrupt shutdown

Shaw Media is set to buy four northern Illinois newspapers after their publisher abruptly shut down operations earlier this month.

The purchase is “a good fit,” Shaw Media’s President and Chief Executive Officer John Rung said.

News Media Corp. ended operations Aug. 6, the same day the company notified its employees in an email. The newspapers shut down include the Rochelle News-Leader, Ogle County LIFE, Ashton Gazette, Amboy News, Mendota Reporter, and three other northern Illinois newspapers, as well as newspapers in Arizona, South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming. In all, the company owned 34 newspaper offices in nine states, their website said.

Shaw Media is acquiring The Rochelle News-Leader, printed twice a week, and The Mendota Reporter and Ogle County Life, each printed weekly, as well as The Amboy News, Shaw Media’s Chief Administrative Officer & Corporate Secretary Don Bricker said. Shaw Media will also provide 24/7 local news coverage at ShawLocal.com.

“The sudden closure of well-established newspapers in Ogle, Lee, and La Salle counties came as a surprise,” Rung said. “These communities deserve credible local reporting. Because the communities are within the existing footprint of Shaw Media, we see it as a good fit for our company. No other publisher is as well suited as we are to resume operations of this particular group of publications.”

Shaw is currently interviewing many of NMC’s former employees and plans to hire back “at least several,” Bricker said.

The email News Media Corp.’s employees received Aug. 6, from Chief Executive Officer J.J. Tompkins, said: “It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you that NMC will be closing its doors permanently. ... Your employment with NMC and/or its affiliated companies will end permanently.”

In making “this very difficult decision” Tompkins wrote that “over the past months and years, we have explored every possible avenue to sustain our operations and preserve our team. Unfortunately, due to financial challenges, a significant economic downturn impacting our industry, revenue losses and increasing expenses, and the recent failure of an attempt to sell the company ... we have reached a point where continuing business is no longer feasible.”

Rochelle Mayor John Bearrows said he and others in town ”are extremely happy to hear Shaw is coming in as our local paper.”

“Having a local newspaper is going to be extremely beneficial to our residents … and it’s a source for our local businesses to promote special sales, hours and events,” the mayor said.

Shaw Media was founded in 1851 and is the owner of the third oldest, continuously owned and operated family newspaper in the nation. The company is the No.-1 source of independent local news and information in the communities it serves and one of the nation’s largest newspaper publishers. Shaw owns print and digital publications in Illinois and Iowa, as well as radio stations in Illinois.