Springfield News has ceased operations.

Springfield News--

The presses have stopped for a local newspaper that has been part of the community in Springfield for 110 years.
As I speculated back in January of this year{is the Springfield news lying off employees?} after it changed its format from a two-day delivery service to a one day a week free service, was to my knowledge the first public indication that the Springfield news was in trouble.

The Springfield news, formally owned by the Anderson group of Albany, which includes the Cottage Grove Sentinel, later sold to the Iowa based Lee Enterprises, which owns publications in 23 states.

The Springfield news was also known for printing smaller publications like the Cottage Grove's Sentinel, Oregon Daily Emerald, The Torch, and small tabloid publications for various schools within the school districts, in addition to other private publications.

As a former employee of the Springfield news, for me, it is the memory being part of the installation of the new seven-unit Goss Community Web press that replaced the old Web Leader press and learning about how the offset printing process worked.

I always used to joke at the time, "if it was not for the Springfield news, the residents of Springfield would not have anything to line their bird cages with, however, they have an excellent TV section."

Times change however. With the introduction of the Internet, the increased costs of living, newspapers are finding that these are very difficult times, and you have to find a way to adapt to the changes to survive.

The Springfield news in January tried one of these changes and failed.

Here's to a business that has been part of our community, and I'm sorry to see it go.