Two Champaign County Weekly Papers Announce Final Editions
Front pages of the Aug. 16 Leader and County Star carry articles announcing plans to end publication. Jim Meadows/Illinois Public Media
Champaign County will lose two of its weekly newspapers at the end of this month, when the Leader and the County Star put out their final editions. Both papers announced in their August 16 issues that they would be ending publication.
Together, the two papers serve eastern and southern Champaign County. But their publisher, News-Gazette Media, says that despite recent increases in the depth of community coverage, the newspapers have suffered drops in subscription and ad revenue. According to the two papers, News-Gazette Media CEO John Reed says that the revenue loss, coupled with an increase in production costs, makes continuing the Leader and County Star “an unprofitable prospect”.
The Leader was founded in 1979, the same year that the Tolono-based South Side Journal changed its name to the County Star. That paper, founded in 1957, was purchased by the News-Gazette in 1996.
The two weeklies have been part of the News-Gazette’s fleet of weekly newspapers serving communities in the Champaign-Urbana area. They are the Mahomet Citizen, the Piatt County Journal-Republican, the Ford County Record, the Rantoul Press and the Independent News (serving Vermilion County). News-Gazette Media says those publications will continue.
News-Gazette Media says it will continue to cover the communities served by the Leader and the County Star through its daily paper and three radio stations. In addition, another weekly paper, Southern Champaign County Today (published by Arthur Publishing, which produces the Arthur Graphic-Clarion and other area weeklies), serves some of the towns served by the County Star and the Leader.