SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – A newspaper company that owns four newspapers in South Dakota shut down abruptly on Wednesday.
An editor with the Huron Plainsman posted on Facebook he was one of “hundreds of employees across five states” that was laid off effective on Wednesday.
“The Plainsman shut its doors today as part of the entire 25-paper collection of News Media Corporation shutting its doors,” Benjamin Chase, who has been an editor for the Huron Plainsman since December 2024, said in a post.
News Media Corporation, based in Illinois, shut down the Huron Plainsman, Brookings Register, Moody County Enterprise and the Redfield Press on Wednesday, along with newspapers in Arizona, Wyoming, Nebraska and Illinois.
An email to News Media Corporation couldn’t be sent and the phone number listed on the website went to voicemail which had a full inbox. Any statement from the company will be added to this story.
“No one in Huron, nor any of the other papers, knew this was coming today. We’re all in shock and attempting to figure out how to move forward,” Chase wrote on social media.
He also pointed out the Huron newspaper covered eight different South Dakota counties and local governments and schools are required by state law to print meeting notices with a legal newspaper.
“That will immediately affect many government and school organizations in the area,” Chase said.
In a post on The Brookings Register Facebook page, managing editor Josh Linehan said “it’s no secret that it’s tough times out there for all print media, and we’re no exception. But make no mistake — we’re closed for now as a result of poor corporate management.”
“We were not officially told until today at 1 p.m. — long after many of you found out. Just another sad little twist along a path I don’t want to recount right now. I hope it’s not the end for The Brookings Register, but it’s the end for this version of it, anyway,” Linehan wrote on social media Thursday.
A Brookings City Council member posted on Facebook about the “sudden closure of The Brookings Register.”
“It’s shocking that South Dakota’s fourth largest city, home to the state’s largest university, no longer has a newspaper,” Nick Wendell posted.
South Dakota News Media Association executive director David Bordewyk said his first thoughts are with the staff members and families that are affected.
“Something this abrupt is unprecedented,” Bordewyk told KELOLAND News. “This is certainly a gut punch for community, local print journalism in South Dakota.”
This is a developing story. Stay with KELOLAND News for more coverage online and on-air.
