Mississippi Newspaper Closing Over Loss Of Ad Revenue

Lee Walls, president and CEO of Walls Newspapers and owner announced this week that The Bolivar Commercial in Cleveland, Mississippi would cease publication and operations at the end of April.

“It is a sad thing to have to announce, and it is something I’ve spent years and a great deal of money, trying to avoid,” Walls said.

“Facebook, and social media in general, have done more to harm community newspapers than the Internet as a whole. With social media, a user can choose to have a ‘news’ feed of legitimate stories, incorrect stories, hateful rhetoric, harmful gossip and defamatory commentary. As if that’s not enough, they can have all of that in the form of video or text. You get all of that by simply giving up your personal data and privacy, no money required,” Walls said.

“We don’t have the option to compete against that business model because we are held to a higher standard. Based on very objective statistics, it is clear that people are choosing social media and to give up their privacy, over community journalism.

Walls said adding to these multiple headwinds, Bolivar County and Cleveland have had a declining population for decades. The change for Cleveland since 2000 is minus 15 percent, and both the city and the county have poverty rates over 25 percent.

“The closing of this newspaper has nothing to do with the performance or leadership of the staff. My publisher, Diane Makamson, has been with us for 42 years, first as a bookkeeper when my father, Lee Walls Sr., bought this paper in the early ’80s, and then I promoted her to publisher in 2012. She has been a wonderful employee and leader through all that time.

“I have nothing but respect and pride for all of my employees and their hard work, which is why I have personally covered the losses for many years now to keep the paper running,” said Walls.

“This is a heartbreaking situation for all of us,” said Makamson. “The remaining employees — nine full-time and one part-time — have a combined 222 years working with the paper. I would like to thank them for their dedicated service to The Bolivar Commercial and to the community. I could not have had a better, more hard working staff. We are like family.”

The Bolivar Commercial has served the community for 104 years and publishes three days a week.