Editor’s note: A previous caption for this photo incorrectly said Kahle and O’Meara were laid off.
The Eugene based newspaper, The Register-Guard, announced it would be cutting its opinion page due to a lack of finances and resources necessary to have the page, in a Nov. 2 piece written by former Register-Guard Editor Michelle Maxwell.
The decision by The Register-Guard did not come as a surprise to former opinion page editor Brendan O’Meara or former opinion writer Don Kahle. The opinion page had been steadily decreasing. Former Executive Editor Alison Bath was laid off in 2020 along with former publisher Shanna Cannon.
The opinion page was “eight pages seven days a week,” O’Meara said. “Earlier this year, it went to four pages three days a week. Not too long after that, it went to three pages two days a week. Not too long after that, I leave. Not too long after that, they shut the whole thing down.”
The media company Gannett, owner of USA TODAY and The Register-Guard, owns hundreds of local media outlets in 45 states in the United States, according to its website.
O’Meara said the opinion page gives a voice to the community and allows for community members to be involved in the newspaper through letters to the editor, which are edited and then published.
“This paper has always historically had a really strong voice for the community of the readers,” O’Meara said.
There are guidelines for what community members can write in an editorial, O’Meara said. “It’s not just a glorified Facebook post or like social media, where it’s just an unmitigated content splurge,” he said.
With social media, users can post unfiltered content and information, which can contain truthful information or not, he said.
Kahle said The Register-Guard is doing itself a disservice by taking out parts of the paper that readers enjoy. “I think they’re hurting themselves by taking some of those things out. But I also understand that they believe their first and foremost job is to tell the people of Eugene-Springfield, Lane County, what’s now and what’s going on,” he said.
Despite the current state of The Register-Guard, Kahle is optimistic and predicts there will be “surprises” ahead.
And there has been a surprise already. In a Eugene Weekly editorial on Nov. 17, SOJC professor Peter Laufer suggested that UO should buy The Register-Guard and incorporate it as part of its SOJC.
Later that day, SOJC Dean Juan-Carlos Molleda endorsed Laufer’s suggestion in a Tweet. “We have the capacity, knowledge and commitment to strengthen the local news and information ecosystem in Eugene and Lane County!” he wrote.
Molleda said the decline of The Register-Guard is concerning because it’s part of “a functional democracy” and “the fabric of the community.”
Molleda said the SOJC has many resources, capable faculty and students who could run The Register-Guard, should this idea come to fruition.
Without the robust number of reporters and other staff The Register-Guard used to have, not enough news is being covered, Molleda said. “There are many things the community needs to have information about, and we don’t have the information that we should have for the community to be informed,” he said.
Laufer said the merge would be a “win, win, win” for UO, the community and Gannett. “It would be a public relations move for Gannett,” he said. Looking at Gannett’s business model, Laufer said Gannett would benefit from giving the Register-Guard to UO. “For Gannett, there’s not a lot of dollars here anymore,” he said.
Some don’t think Gannett would be so eager to give away The Register-Guard. They might be willing to give it to UO after it’s “completely worthless, ” Kahle said. Kahle said Gannett can still make money off of The Register-Guard.
“It’s an idea, and that’s what we’re in the business of, ideas. But we’re also in the business of implementing ideas here at the SOJC,” Laufer said.
Steps are being taken to turn this idea into reality. Laufer requested a meeting with Mike Reed, CEO of Gannett Media, in Washington D.C. to discuss this proposition.
