Two historic Mississippi newspapers close their doors. See where they are

Two century-old weekly newspapers in Mississippi closed their doors in late June.

The Jasper County News and the Smith County Reformer, owned by Buckley Newspapers Inc., closed for financial reasons. The company also owned a publication called Impact, which was also shuttered.

The company also was forced to lay off 11 full-time employees.

"I'm just kind of taking it day by day," said Kevan Lindsey, former general manager for Buckley Newspapers. "I got a call from our H.R. that we weren't projected to make payroll. I went and talked to our company lawyer and he advised that we close immediately."

He said he took that information to their owner, Carolyn Buckley. Buckley was not available for comment.

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"We just decided the best thing to do was to close it down," said Lindsey, who is already in the process of signing on with another newspaper in southwest Mississippi. "There have been problems for a few years, to be frank. I have never dealt with closing (a newspaper) before, so I am learning something new it seems like every hour."

According the Lindsey, the Smith County paper was originally established in 1897 while Jasper County paper dated as far back as 1891 under a couple of different titles.

"It's a sad day. Both of these papers had been a part of the community for more than 100 years," said Lindsey, 34. "It was just a combination of things including the economy and other things. When I took over my position in 2022, we were looking around $700,000 in debt. There was Covid and other things too."

Lindsey said two of the three publications were profitable in 2022 and 2023, but it wasn't enough to close the financial gap.

"It was just a ticking time bomb," Lindsey said. "We tried to get it close, we just never could catch up."

Lindsey went on to say he believes the area is in need of publications.

"These folks deserve papers and I think there is still a way to make money here," he said. "It's all just too bad right now. I hate it. I do need to say I absolutely loved my time at Buckley Newspapers and appreciate ownership. Unfortunately, the changing economy and the way media is changing and is absorbed was too much to overcome for our papers."

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1 .

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Two historic Mississippi newspapers close their doors. See where they are