Los Alamos loses local paper and radio station on Aug. 30 - Entrepreneur Generations

Los Alamos, N.M. (Wikipedia map)

Los Alamos, a community of 12,000 in New Mexico, will lose its only paid print newspaper and its major community radio station on Sunday. The coincidental announcements draw attention to not only the economic pain the pandemic has caused local businesses, but the increasing importance of public-notice ads to newspapers.

After nearly 60 years in print, the Los Alamos Monitor announced on Monday that it will close at the end of the week. Landmark Community Newspapers, which has owned the now twice-weekly paper since 1979, told the staff on Friday, The Associated Press reports.

"Landmark President Mike Abernathy said the staff has worked hard to produce a quality newspaper but that their efforts weren’t enough to overcome economic challenges that have worsened in the face of the coronavirus pandemic," The AP reports. "Officials also pointed to diminishing community support for the newspaper, noting a decision by local government officials to send their legal advertising to a free newspaper competitor."

The Monitor's shuttering adds to the more than 50 small newsrooms in the U.S. that have closed or merged in 2020, mostly rural weeklies, Kristen Hare reports for Poynter, drawing on research by the University of North Carolina's Penny Abernathy.

Meanwhile, Los Alamos AM/FM radio station KRSN announced on Aug. 11 that it will close its doors on Aug. 30 along with the Monitor. 

KRSN started as part of the Manhattan Project in 1945 and has become a community staple over the past 70 years, announcing local news, weather, sports and other programming, the Los Alamos Reporter reports. David and Gillian Sutton, who have owned and operated the station for the past 15 years, said the pandemic is to blame: "With the cancellation of high school sports, events, the closure of small businesses and the struggles of those remaining, KRSN can no longer raise the advertising revenues it takes to run your free to you community radio station."

Both the Monitor and KRSN are for sale, so it's possible that buyers may resurrect them. In the meantime, the community's main source of local news will come from two free online-only publications, the Los Alamos Reporter and the Los Alamos Daily Post.

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