McClatchy Bankruptcy Filing Won't Immediately Impact 'Mahoning Matters'

Newspaper publisher McClatchy filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Thursday. The company owns and operates newspapers and websites around the country, including Ohio-based Mahoning Matters.

The online news outlet will continue to operate as normal despite the bankruptcy filing, said the site’s publisher Mandy Jenkins.

“Down the road, a lot of things depend on what happens with McClatchy, but we do operate somewhat independently,” said Jenkins, who also serves as general manager for the company’s local-news focused Compass Experiment. “We have a completely separate editorial operation. Our finances are as separate as they can be when you’re still owned by a company.”

Mahoning Matters receives funding from Google through McClatchy, Jenkins said, and that allows it to be somewhat financially independent. Because of the unique funding stream and its digital-only status, she said, it is not connected financially to the print newspapers owned by McClatchy.

Launched in October 2019 as the first of three newsrooms in McClatchy’s Google-funded Compass Experiments, Mahoning Matters continued local news coverage after the 150-year-old Youngstown Vindicator newspaper folded.

While the intent to file for bankruptcy wasn’t communicated directly with the Youngstown staff, Jenkins said it didn’t come as a surprise.

“McClatchy’s situation is not a secret, and certainly nothing that’s new to anyone who’s been following the newspaper industry and other chains of local newspapers around the country,” she said.

Subscriptions and reader support are important for preventing the loss of local news coverage, Jenkins said.

"McClatchy and all 30 of our local newsrooms including Mahoning Matters will continue to operate as usual throughout this process – with the same unwavering commitment to delivering strong, independent journalism essential to our local communities," McClatchy said in a statement emailed to ideastream. "Our subscribers and readers will experience no disruption to their typical access to news from any of our local outlets."

The bankruptcy filing allows McClatchy to restructure and address financial issues without changing operations, the statement said. The company has been in active restructuring negotiations with stakeholders, the statement said, but "has maintained significant leverage and pension burdens that have prevented us from achieving the full potential of our digital strategy."