Newspapers in DeSmet and Lake Preston shut their doors permanently.
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DE SMET (AP) — Two longtime South Dakota weekly newspapers have folded under pressure from the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Lake Preston Times and The DeSmet News both printed their final editions Wednesday after over 100 years of continuous publication.
Publisher Dale Biegen, who publishes both papers, wrote in a front-page editorial that the newspaper never fully recovered from the Great Recession and the negative effects of the internet and social media, and that the COVID-19 outbreak “pushed us over the edge.”
The South Dakota Newspaper Association tweeted “Journalism will persevere these difficult times. Still, there will be newspaper casualties along the way.”
According to the SDNA’s 2018 newspaper directory, the Lake Preston Times had a circulation of 691 and The DeSmet News had a circulation of 1,046.
