Oregon newspaper forced to lay off entire staff after discovering that an employee embezzled funds

An Oregon weekly newspaper has needed to lay off its total workers and halt print after 40 years as a result of its funds had been embezzled by a former worker, its editor mentioned, in a devastating blow to a publication that serves as an vital supply of knowledge in a group that, like many others nationwide, is battling rising gaps in native information protection.

A couple of week earlier than Christmas, the Eugene Weekly discovered inaccuracies in its bookkeeping, editor Camilla Mortensen mentioned. It found {that a} former worker who was “closely concerned” with the paper’s funds had used its checking account to pay themselves $90,000 since at the very least 2022, she mentioned.

The paper additionally turned conscious of at the very least $100,000 in unpaid payments — together with to the paper’s printer — stretching again a number of months, she mentioned.

Moreover, a number of workers, together with Mortensen, realized that cash from their paychecks that was imagined to be going into retirement accounts was by no means deposited.

When the paper realized it could not make the following payroll, it was pressured to put off all of its 10 workers members and cease its print version, Mortensen mentioned. The choice weekly, based in 1982, printed 30,000 copies every week to distribute without spending a dime in Eugene, the third-largest metropolis within the state and residential to the College of Oregon.

“To put off an entire household’s revenue three days earlier than Christmas is absolutely the worst,” Mortensen mentioned, expressing her sense of devastation. “It was not on my radar that something like this might have occurred or was occurring.”

The suspected worker had labored for the paper for about 4 years and has since been fired, Mortensen mentioned.

The Eugene police division’s monetary crimes unit is investigating, and the paper’s homeowners have employed forensic accountants to piece collectively what occurred, she mentioned.

Brent Walth, a journalism professor on the College of Oregon, mentioned he was involved concerning the lack of a paper that has had “an outsized influence in filling the widening gaps in information protection” in Eugene. He described the paper as an impartial watchdog and a compassionate voice for the group, citing its obituaries of homeless folks for instance of how the paper has helped put a human face on a number of the metropolis’s largest points.

He additionally famous how the paper has made “an infinite distinction” for journalism college students in search of internships or launching their profession. He mentioned there have been function and investigative tales that “the group wouldn’t have had if not for the weekly’s dedication to be sure that journalism college students have a spot to publish in knowledgeable outlet.”

A tidal wave of closures of native information shops throughout the nation in current a long time has left many Individuals with out entry to important details about their native governments and communities and has contributed to rising polarization, mentioned Tim Gleason, the previous dean of the College of Oregon’s journalism faculty.

“The lack of native information throughout the nation is profound,” he mentioned. “As a substitute of getting the wholesome form of group connections that native journalism helps create, we’re shedding that and turning into communities of strangers. And the results of that’s that we fall into these partisan camps.”

A median of two.5 newspapers closed per week within the U.S. in 2023, in response to researchers at Northwestern College. Over 200 counties haven’t any native information outlet in any respect, they discovered, and greater than half of all U.S. counties have both no native information supply or just one remaining outlet, sometimes a weekly newspaper.

Regardless of being formally unemployed, Eugene Weekly workers have continued to work with out pay to assist replace the web site and work out subsequent steps, mentioned Todd Cooper, the paper’s artwork director. He described his colleagues as devoted, artistic, hardworking folks.

“This paper is certainly an integral a part of the group, and we actually wish to convey it again and bounce again greater and higher if we will,” he mentioned.

The paper has launched a fundraising effort that included the creation of a GoFundMe web page. As of Friday afternoon — simply sooner or later after the paper introduced its monetary troubles — the GoFundMe had raised greater than $11,000.

Now that the previous worker suspected of embezzlement has been fired, “now we have loads of hope that this paper goes to return again and be self-sustaining and go ahead,” he mentioned.

“Hell, it’s going to hopefully final one other 40 years.”

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