The Marion Press has been publishing the news, sports, obituaries, and opinions of the Marion and McBain area, since 1889. But starting next week, that will unfortunately no longer be the case.
After 135 years of operation, and over 7000 issues, this is the last issue of the Marion Press.
The closure was announced to the newspaper staff on Wednesday, by Editor, Publisher, and Owner, Mike Wilcox.
“The decision to continue or not continue this historic publication was not an easy one,” Wilcox said. “It is a decision we have been struggling with for several years, and the last thing we ever wanted to do.”
“However, our current financial situation brought the decision to a head. “The reality became that we could not generate enough revenue to remain viable. We do not have enough regular advertisers who use our products to promote their businesses. The prominence of social media has changed the whole dynamic of information sharing, of news and news reporting. And like many small businesses, the current economic state is not helping. So, unfortunately, it is just our time.”
The Marion Press has been published every week for 135 years. Its lineage can be traced back to the founding of the Marion Dispatch in 1889, and later, the founding of the Marion Leader in 1899. Both papers were consolidated into the Marion Dispatch-Leader in 1900, which through a series of name changes, finally became the Marion Press.
Wilcox has owned the Press since 2012. He also owns the Clare County Review, which will continue to publish new issues every Friday.
EDITOR’S NOTE
I know it’s not proper journalistic practice to write in first person, but before we close the curtain on this newspaper’s 135 years of history, I’d like to personally thank everyone who was involved in creating it.
Thanks to those who came before my tenure with the Press and helped create its first 123 years of history.
Thanks to Sherry, Carol, Trish, Val, and the countless other former employees, who devoted so much to the Press.
Thanks to Genine, John, Julie, Steve, Liz, Shyann, Kieley, and Jordan, our current staff, for helping publish such a great paper, week after week.
Thanks to our loyal advertisers who have stuck with us, through thick and thin, and helped financially support this publication.
And most importantly, thanks to our valued readers, who have enjoyed our paper for years, maybe even decades, and taken time out of their busy lives to read our small-town publication.
– Mike
I think the move to requiring subscriptions and mailing the paper rather than a free download was a bad move. While the paper is valuable and worth the subscription price, the life of a paper is the readership numbers and advertising. Subscriptions are a drop in the bucket compared to circulation.
Many of us were more than willing to pay for our papers ..our kids from out of state even had subscriptions.Then the paper was free but no longer mailed to the homes ..Just do not understand why if it was a financial issue they didn’t keep charging for weekly subscriptions
Very disappointing
I’m the assistant publisher, and I agree, Dee. It is very disappointing… and unfortunately we’ve seen the writing on the wall for years.
One indicator was the discontinuation of mailed subscriptions, which you’re absolutely right about it being linked to our bad financial situation. However, we discontinued them not because we wanted to, but because we had to. And there’s two reasons why.
The first was that we no longer met the minimum subscriber count needed to mail at periodical prices. In 2022, when we stopped, we had around 130 paying subscribers. The minimum is 200.
USPS had been alerting us for a while of this issue, and had we continued, our cost of mail would’ve went from 2.5c per paper, to $2.50 per paper. Obviously, that would’ve been an issue.
Secondly, we were also losing our behinds on the whole situation. On average, the total cost of labor, supplies, and postage was about 30% higher each week, than what we were bringing in from renewals and new subscriptions. It no longer made sense.
I truly believe that had we of not made this change, the Marion Press wouldn’t have lasted another two years.
IM RELLY DIDSPPIONTED.Im originally from Clare County andI enjoy getting a little news from my home area. I also loved the old time news of this town of Marion.
I agree..