News Media Corp., the Rochelle, Ill.-based company that owned The Pajaronian from 1995 to 2019, abruptly ceased operations Wednesday, informing employees at its remaining 11 publications in five states in an email that they no longer have jobs, effective immediately.
The company had been in business for 43 years and claimed 600,000 subscribers, with publications in Arizona, Illinois, South Dakota, Nebraska and Wyoming, according to its website.
At one point they had several papers in California and Oregon.
“It is with a heavy heart that I write to inform you that NMC will be closing its doors permanently, effective August 6, 2025,” CEO JJ Tompkins wrote.
“This decision was not made lightly. Over the past months and years, we have explored every possible avenue to sustain our operations and preserve our team. Unfortunately, due to financial challenges, a significant economic downturn impacting our industry, revenue losses and increasing expenses, and the recent failure of an attempt to sell the company as a going concern, we have reached a point where continuing business is no longer feasible.”
Tompkins said that the employees’ health coverage was also terminated on Aug. 6, and added that the company would “make all reasonable efforts to pay you all remaining compensation you have earned as soon as possible, to the extent permitted by the company’s secured lenders.”
Tompkins did not respond to a request for additional comment.
NMC purchased The Pajaronian in 1995, and ran it until Santa Cruz-based Nuz Inc., the company that also owns Good Times, purchased it in 2019. Nuz operations are unaffected by the closure.
Nuz is part of the California-based Weeklys media group, which publishes 15 weekly community publications and is one of the last remaining independent publishers in Northern California.
“We are saddened to see communities in other states lose local news coverage,” Weeklys CEO Dan Pulcrano said. “Communities like Watsonville and King City luckily were unaffected by this unfortunate business situation because News Media Corp. sold its Northern California properties to us in 2019.”
“We were able to continue employing the entire staffs of both operations and save a newspaper that has been published since 1868 while improving digital operations and reducing costs such as rents and overhead,” he said.
The Weeklys group has redesigned its print publications, including the Pajaronian, while expanding electronic editions, websites, e-commerce and newsletters, as part of its reinvention strategy.
