There are a number of reasons that printed newspapers have been failing across the United States and in Alabama.
The cost of newsprint and printing, increased delivery costs, including postal hikes, competition from online news services, difficulty in selling ads to local businesses, legacy owners and editors dying or retiring, out-of-town corporations buying local papers with no connections to the area, all come to mind.
When an out-of-state couple bought four Alabama local papers this spring, local folks wondered and worried about whether the local papers could remain in business. One part of that answer came last week when one of the four papers announced it had closed.
The Demopolis Times ended with its last issue on June 4. It had been in business under different names and ownerships since 1887.
In its June 4 edition, the Times ran its own obituary, saying as follows:
Founded in 1887 by C.A. Berbeck, The Demopolis Times has been owned by reputable newspeople for more than a century. Owners include Edward S. Cornish, Ben and Libba George, Hollis Curl and Jim McKay. In 1979, Boone Newspapers Inc., founded by James B. Boone, Jr., the son of Pulitzer Prize winner and former publisher of the Tuscaloosa News, Buford Boone, purchased the newspaper. The Boone family, via Boone Newsmedia, Inc., owned and operated the paper until May 1, 2025, when it sold the Demopolis Times and three other Alabama newspapers to JM Media Group, LLC, owned by Jeff and Michelle Schumacher. The Schumachers have a combined 45 years of experience in the newspaper industry. The Demopolis Times and its staff have traditionally been involved in numerous civic projects and have taken on leadership roles with the arts in the community. It has also been a consistent winner in the Alabama Press Association Better Newspaper Contest. Though the Demopolis Times began as a daily paper, following the decline of printed newspapers over the last twenty years, it has been printed weekly only on Wednesdays for the last several years. As the rise of digital news and ease of access to news on smartphones began to take over, local media companies have fallen in droves, with even many of the larger publications, such as the Birmingham News, transforming in nature or shuttering entirely since 2010. Email newsletter signup Sign up for our daily email newsletter After evaluating the status and business outlook of the Demopolis Times, JM Media Group has decided to close down the publication. This issue, June 4, 2025, will be the last.
There is no word on the status of the other three Alabama local papers bought by JM Media Group, LLC, owned by Jeff and Michelle Schumacher. Those papers are The Andalusia Star-News, The Brewton Standard and the Atmore Advance. These papers are a major source of local news in Covington County and Escambia County. They are continuing to publish at the time of this report.
As they vanish, local newspapers are taking on a halo of everything that used to be good about America. They’ve come to symbolize not just halcyon days of neighborly virtues — imagine “It’s a Wonderful Life” if Jimmy Stewart played the editor of the Bedford Falls paper — but the very “bedrock of American democracy.”
- - NiemanLab.org
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler’s beat is the colorful and positive about Alabama -- her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
Don’t miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
