Feder: Citing coronavirus impact, 22nd Century Media goes out of business

The coronavirus pandemic and its calamitous effect on advertising revenue has put a suburban Chicago news organization out of business after 15 years, Robert Feder writes.

22nd Century Media, publisher of 14 community newspapers and websites covering the North Shore and southwest suburbs, abruptly shut down operations Tuesday, resulting in the loss of more than 40 jobs - including 20 newsroom positions.

"Due to the economic impact of the coronavirus on all small businesses, from which we earn a large majority of our advertising base, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations for the time being," the company said a statement. "We hope to be able to resurrect in the not too distant future, but in order to make that a possibility, we were compelled to make this decision."

The announcement came just days after 22nd Century Media suspended publication of its 14 print editions and issued an urgent plea for digital subscribers. Print and digital subscribers are expected to receive refunds.

Get the full report, and more Chicago media news, at robertfeder.com.