PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon weekly that was forced to lay off its entire staff after its funds were embezzled by a former employee will relaunch its print edition next month, its editor said, a move made possible largely by fundraising campaigns and community contributions.
The Eugene Weekly will return to newsstands on Feb. 8 with about 25,000 copies, about six weeks after the blackout forced the decades-old publication to discontinue its print edition, editor Camilla Mortensen said Saturday.
“It was both terrifying and wonderful,” Mortensen told The Associated Press, describing the emotional rollercoaster of the past few weeks. “I thought it was difficult to write a newspaper. It is much more difficult to bring a newspaper back to life.”
The alternative weekly, founded in 1982 and distributed free in Eugene, one of Oregon’s largest cities, had to lay off its entire 10-person staff just before Christmas. It was around that time that the newspaper became aware of at least $100,000 in unpaid bills and discovered that a now-former employee who had been involved in the newspaper’s finances had used his bank account to pay himself about $90,000, Mortensen said .
Additionally, several employees, including Mortensen, realized that money from their paychecks that was supposed to go into their retirement accounts was never deposited.
The suspect was fired after the embezzlement came to light.
The news was a devastating blow to a publication that serves as an important source of information in a community that, like many others across the country, is struggling with growing gaps in local reporting.
The Eugene Police Department’s investigation is still ongoing, and forensic accountants hired by the newspaper continue to piece together what happened.
Local Eugene news channels KEZI and KLCC were among the first to report the weekly back in print.
Since the layoffs, some former staff members have continued to volunteer their time to keep the newspaper’s website up and running. Much of the online content published in recent weeks has come from journalism students at the University of Oregon, based in Eugene, and from freelancers who offered to submit stories for free — “the journalism equivalent of pro bono,” said Mortensen.
Some former employees had to find other work to make ends meet. But Mortensen hopes to eventually rehire her staff once the newspaper pays its outstanding bills and becomes more financially sustainable.
The newspaper has raised about $150,000 since December, Mortensen said. Most of the money came from an online GoFundMe campaign, but financial support also came from local businesses, artists and readers. The newspaper even received checks from people living as far away as Iowa and New York after news outlets across the country picked up the story.
“People were so committed to helping us that it really gives me hope for journalism at a time when I think a lot of people have no hope,” she told the AP. “When we saw how many people contributed and how many people continue to offer to help, you can’t try to print the paper. You have to try it.’
The newspaper aims to continue printing weekly after February 8.