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Midwest newspaper finds success going offline, spurning Facebook | The Free Press Initiative
The paper says going offline helps protect reporting from online copying and AI scraping while keeping more readers buying print copies.
- Jeff Egbert, co-owner of the Perry County Weekly-Press, shut down the publication's website to prioritize print sales and protect original journalism from online theft in the rural Illinois county.
- Egbert's decision follows a decade-old realization that digital operations undermined newspaper sales, compounded by "Facebook vultures" who steal original reporting and republish it as their own.
- The paper remains profitable in Perry County with 20,160 residents, selling around 2,600 copies weekly; only 122 subscribers chose the electronic edition by mid-September, favoring hard copy instead.
- Michael Silberman, executive vice president at Piano, noted publishers are reevaluating relationships with Meta, suggesting some might walk away from platforms to force better policy negotiations.
- Egbert emphasized that local ownership is essential for survival, warning that corporate chains often fail and running papers from New York or Chicago is "not feasible.
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Midwest newspaper finds success going offline, spurning Facebook | The Free Press Initiative
The Weekly-Press is profitable and surviving in a state that saw more newspaper closures than any other in recent years.
·Vashon, United States
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