The Centerville Daily Iowegian, Pella Chronicle, and Knoxville News-Sentinel, all of which have been around for about a century and a half, have become victims of the coronavirus.
The first, which stopped publishing a Monday paper 14 months ago and stopped publishing a Thursday paper six weeks ago, will be folded into the Ottumwa Courier, a daily. The other two will go to the Oskaloosa Herald, which became a twice-weekly paper after also cutting Thursdays at the beginning of April. At the same time, the Herald’s publisher is retiring.
This means that Iowa’s 39th, 57th, and 69th-largest communities (based on 2018 estimates), and two county seats, will not have their own newspaper.
Since the beginning of 1989, the Iowegian billed itself as “the newspaper that cares about Appanoose County.” Sadly, caring doesn’t keep the lights on.
UPDATE: I have been told that the Ottumwa Courier isn’t a daily newspaper anymore. The most recent circulation I can find for it is just above 6000. The Iowegian was down to 1000.