If you didn't see, Lee Enterprises sold The Southern to Paxton Media out of Paducah. It appears they are downsizing what is already a pretty bare bones operation.
I doubt the coverage will get much better with fewer people doing more work. SIU will end up with a new beat writer it appears as Bucky was one of those getting fired. Sad state of affairs right now for local journalism.
Paxton owns WPSD as well, essentially they just cut the entire staff and have WPSD reporters write the articles to the various newspapers they now own.
I called to cancel my digital subscription when they were going to raise it to $22 and they gave it to me for free for 3 months and $4.99 after that. There have been several times that there is no local news at all. Today's issue had a few local stories and rather than naming who wrote them it just says "By Southern Staff". I'm taking my 3 months free but likely won't pay the 4.99 when that comes around.
I'm canceling my subscription as well. If/when Bucky or someone else starts something like Paul Oren did for Valpo athletics, I'll subscribe to that. Half the reason I subscribed to the newspaper was for SIU coverage...the other half was staying up to date on local news. Both of those appear to be gone now.
