Our community needs the Eugene Weekly.

For those unaware, on Dec. 28, the Weekly — Eugene’s alternative weekly newspaper — announced that it would not send an issue to print, for the first time in over 20 years, after discovering years of embezzlement from a former employee that forced the paper to lay off its entire staff just before Christmas.

Under any circumstances, the news would be shocking and devastating. For Eugene, the end of the Weekly would be a death blow to high-quality local news. 

In the wake of the announcement, the community’s response has been substantial. Its GoFundMe page has raised well over $80,000 as of this writing. Yet it may not be enough. 

That’s why we are urging the UO community to donate to the Weekly — either via their website or their GoFundMe — because we need all hands on deck to save a beloved local institution. 

The troubles at other Eugene-area publications, like the Register-Guard, have been well-documented in recent years. But high-quality local reporting has survived, in large part thanks to the Weekly.

In 2021, the Weekly set out to write obituaries for people who died homeless in Lane County. The practice has continued ever since.

Last year, the Weekly’s top story was an in-depth profile of a local restaurant owner, Sang Joo “Joy” Knudtson of Basil’s Restaurant, who passed away in 2022.
Eugene Weekly is the only local news outlet that provides election endorsements, particularly for niche local races and ballot measures that many voters haven’t tuned into. And they do it every year — even off-years like 2023. 

There has been no greater supporter of Emerald student journalists than the Weekly. Numerous staff members — including several writing this letter — have published their first professional articles in the paper; countless former alumni can recall the Weekly being their first job out of college, or a Weekly staff member taking a chance on an inexperienced student. 

The Weekly also regularly publishes investigative reporting from the student-driven Catalyst Journalism Project, including reporting on the city’s lackluster response to homelessness, behind-the-scenes changes at the 4J School District and more. 

These are just a handful of the resources and articles that the community would lose should the Weekly shutter. There is more where that came from. These projects aren’t just anecdotal — they’re a testament to how much the Weekly uniquely cares for the community it serves. 

The Emerald now finds itself in a strange position. While we are a student publication, whose goal first and foremost is to serve the UO community, we also recognize we are among a dying breed of local news publications. In coming weeks, we will be considering our responsibility to the Eugene community — and how events like this might influence our coverage of the city moving forward.

Make no mistake, though — any increased city coverage by the Emerald will not fill the void the Weekly would leave behind. That’s why we urge the community to support the Weekly however they can, in ways big or small. The city needs it. The Emerald needs it. And UO students need it, too.