Dear readers,
It is with a heavy heart that I share that the Chico News & Review will publish its last print issue on Jan. 11, 2024. It will mark the end of an era. Since 1977, the CN&R has distilled this community to newsprint and delivered the stories to racks and boxes across Butte County. We will now continue as a strictly digital publication.
For the past three-and-a-half years, the newspaper has persevered, publishing monthly with the hope that ad sales would bounce back post-COVID pandemic. Unfortunately, they haven’t, and we find ourselves at a crossroads. We will now try to forge a new path. The CN&R’s mission will persist online, where we will channel our resources toward enhancing coverage of local government and continuing as the go-to resource for local arts information.
At this time of transition, we want to express our deepest gratitude for your steadfast support—especially to those who donated, advertised and picked up the paper in the past few years. Your partnership has been invaluable, and everyone at the News & Review is sincerely thankful for your contributions.
To continue our work, we’ll need even more support—by joining us in this online conversation; and by donating to the CN&R as we endeavor to keep community journalism alive.
More details on the CN&R’s future will be shared online in the weeks following the release of the final print issue—a special edition that will feature voices from across the newspaper’s history saying goodbye to one era as we enter a new one.
Jason Cassidy, Editor, CN&R
This is tragic. Hopefully you will get the support to make the on-line presence robust, Jason. Best of luck to you .
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Todd, Why must you write a nasty comment? If you don’t like a periodical, you don’t have to read it. Some people have no purpose in life, other than to be mean.
The Chico News & Review has been a journalistic asset to the Chico community for many decades. I wish it good luck in making the transition to digital.
I was moved to write a short paean to the CN&R.
https://michaeljfitzgerald.substack.com/p/a-newspaper-falls-to-covid
Thank you, Michael.
-Jason Cassidy (editor)
In high school, I was part of a program called upward bound, where I got to be the boss for the day, my job, editor at the cn&r, I got to write an article about my experience, my only and only piece ever published. Then went to Madison Bear and played street fighter after getting burgers. One of the best days of my senior year. Sad to see you go to just digital form.
Since 1977, CNR has been the standout independent print medium for Northern California. The paper has put fire beneath the charlatan politicians of this area, and for that alone, I am thankful. No other had the courage to do so. As the times change, CNR can continue to survive with community support.
I’m in.
Well said Danny!
I would do anything in the world to pay for a regular subscription, six times a year. I would pay for a full color edition. tragic.
“But at the laste, as every thing hath ende, She took hir leve, and nedes wolde wende.” – Chaucer
Ours is a world in relentless transition. Our tapestry of yesterdays continually fades within this hastening dance of passing days. Though we may hold dear the essence of pastoral memories, we can but celebrate with bittersweet tears our regrets for this seeming soliloquy of a past now surrendered to a less hopeful present. And yet by this means, we are taught life’s lesson: that time is but a mosaic of remembrances, best experienced as a test of adaptation, if not resilience.
Peter Berkow’s letter is spot-on. It is tragic to lose another newsstand publication, especially the CN&R. Newspapers rock, especially with coffee and breakfast in the morning. I remember taking one of Peter’s classes in journalism. That was back when Off The Record was still trying to put a dent in the popularity of the News & Review.
When I returned to Iowa, I tried to start an alternative weekly of my own (I even had the support of the local Chamber of Commerce), and it almost happened. I bought a movie review from a journalist at the SN&R for the prototype issue and got permission to use a lot of the graphics. I was in conversation with both the CN&R and Sacramento. Unfortunately, the Chamber’s grant money disappeared when the daily newspaper came out with a weekly of its own, still in print.
The decision to end the newsstand issues had to be gut-wrenching. Seeing what is happening to news and local coverage breaks my heart. It is a serious concern, and I am glad the CN&R is not going out of business. But please keep your print edition as it appears online. Nothing beats opening the pages to a world of print journalism, even if it’s only online.
Chico and Butte County NEED the CN&R, especially to cover county and city politics. I hope you will go all out in seeking funding from subscribers, advertisers and anyone else that will help out, and can keep an eye on this. Arts in Chico also needs eyes on it and people talking about it to live, and the CN&R is so important for this. Newspapers are struggling everywhere, but I believe there is a way to do it, and I believe in the CN&R.
Well, it will be one less hard copy paper endorsing a tax increase on poor people. (This paper endorsed Chico’s sales tax increase in 2022.)
But I am sure Jason and his digital publication will endorse the County’s tax increase on poor people coming in the 2024 November election.