Coronavirus Forces Closure Of 22nd Century Media

HOMER GLEN, IL — 22nd Century Media, the parent company of several weekly community newspapers across the Chicago area, closed its doors permanently Tuesday, citing the economic downturn caused by the new coronavirus crisis.

The company, which employed about 50 people, operated 14 Chicago-area papers: The Frankfort Station, The Homer Horizon, The Lockport Legend, The Mokena Messenger, The New Lenox Patriot, The Orland Park Prairie, The Tinley Junction, The Lake Forest Leader, The Glencoe Anchor, The Highland Park Landmark, The Northbrook Tower, The Glenview Lantern, The Wilmette Beacon and The Winnetka Current. The company also acquired a California newspaper, Malibu Surfside News, in 2015.

Last Friday, 22nd Century Media Publisher Joe Coughlin announced suspension of the print papers and told readers the staff would continue to publish online. He asked readers to contribute $69 to the cause to keep the staff working.

"This month, amid the spread of the coronavirus, the bottom dropped out," Coughlin wrote on Twitter. "While we were (working) 16-hour days to bring our thousands of readers important and reliable news, advertising grinded to a halt and our clients (understandably) could not pay invoices. ...

"If you believe in the power and importance of journalism, especially at the local level, please subscribe, whether you want to read our content or not."

The situation had shifted abruptly by Tuesday, however, and staff were informed via teleconference that they were being let go.

The company, founded by millionaire investment banker Jack Ryan, began as a collection of free weeklies delivered to every address in town. Later, the papers sought paid subscriptions. The company's peak circulation was about 170,000 copies, making 22nd Century the third largest newspaper operator in Illinois.

Ryan, a former Goldman Sachs partner turned Catholic high school English teacher in Chicago, started the small newspaper company in 2005. His first newspaper, The Homer Horizon, was published in Homer Glen.

Readers may remember Ryan as the Republican who briefly faced Barack Obama in a race for the U.S. Senate.

In 2004, Ryan was forced to end his Senate campaign over a scandal involving sealed custody records and his ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan. The documents, pursued in court by the Chicago Tribune, revealed Ryan's penchant for sex clubs and how he forced his wife to accompany him to such places.

The scandal prompted Republican leaders to insist he bow out of the race. Ryan did, and Obama went on to easily win that U.S. Senate seat.

A year later, Ryan started his newspaper company. This seemed a curious business venture at a time when the print-publishing industry was facing a major contraction in advertising revenue.

But the Wilmette native and New Trier High School graduate who made a fortune as a partner at Goldman Sachs saw opportunity. The Tribune and other longtime publishers were vulnerable in the suburbs, he believed, and he went after their audience hard with his expanding collection of weeklies.

The battle was personal, too. Ryan felt stung and abused by the news media, the Chicago Tribune in particular, which hyped the sex-club story with particular zeal.

For a while, Ryan presided over the papers personally, working from a small south suburban office and dealing directly with the editorial staff, many of whom were recent college graduates in their first journalism jobs. They specialized in community features and photos, delivering more local information than anyone else in the market.

He left the papers in 2015, turning day-to-day operations over to Coughlin, who was among Ryan's first editorial staffers.

Years later, Ryan told Chicago media columnist Mike Miner that the Tribune was ready to be taken down by a "category killer" — a small operation that would relentlessly focus on community news in a way the Tribune couldn't. He'd seen the same thing happen with department stores as specialty stores sliced up their market.

"I looked at the Tribune and thought exactly the same thing will happen to traditional media companies," Ryan said in 2014, after his chain had spread across the southwest suburbs and the North Shore. "Every section will be taken out by category killers."

Sadly, 15 years later, his own publishing company would be taken out by a more powerful killer — the new coronavirus.

Several south suburban mayors expressed their thoughts about the closing of the newspapers, including Frankfort Mayor James Holland who said the weekly Frankfort Station will be missed.

"The people of Frankfort will miss the weekly printed local news from Frankfort Station. The Station organized their publication into sections for government news, sports news, school news, charitable organization news and other news," Holland said to Patch. "I enjoyed being able to page through the publication to find the sections of interest to me."

New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann also shared his thoughts on the closing of The New Lenox Patriot.

"In an era where journalism is under attack, we've been fortunate to have fair, unbiased, factual reporting from multiple press outlets that cover our community," Baldermann said. "The New Lenox Patriot, and 22nd Century Media in general, helped to provide readers with stories that truly mattered to them. Any time there's a loss of ethical journalism, we all lose. If social media continues to be the source of information for the masses, replacing credible journalism, the truth we all need to hear will be unrecognizable."

Local journalists from the newspapers, each of whom were profiled on the papers' websites this week, thanked readers for keeping up with coverage over the past decade and a half.

Thank you for reading The Patriot over the years! pic.twitter.com/WbDMwdzM9G
— New Lenox Patriot (@TheNLPatriot) March 31, 2020

I’m sad to let you all know that 22nd Century Media, our parent organization, has ceased operations as of today.

It’s been a pleasure to bring you news about your neighbors, your schools and your community throughout our existence.

Stay safe!
Erin Yarnall, Editor
— The Highland Park Landmark (@HParkLandmark) March 31, 2020

Patch editor-in-chief Dennis Robaugh contributed to this article.