Back in January, when the Athens News went entirely online, owner Adams MultiMedia said the publication was waiting “for further direction on its future format.”
Sometime here in recent weeks, we found out what that direction and format were: extinction.
Like Terry Smith, I found out when I tried to look up a story on www.athensnews.com — and was redirected to a page on the Athens Messenger website titled “Athens News Archive.” Where Terry seems resigned, though, I am furious.
He’s right that the News’ death was only a matter of time once it stopped printing, and that Adams MultiMedia, the company that owns both newspapers, made a logical business choice that is typical of modern corporate-owned news outlets. And that’s what makes me so angry.
A dozen companies produce just about anything you buy on a trip to Kroger — food, deodorant, laundry detergent, makeup, toothpaste, skincare, cleaning products and so on. A handful of companies control the movies and TV shows you watch — as well as how those movies and shows reach you and the devices you watch them on.
Over half of American newspapers are owned by 10 companies. The third-largest of those companies in 2025 was Adams MultiMedia.
Consolidation of corporate ownership eliminates competition, reduces our choices, and generally leads to higher prices. It feeds the ever-widening gap between increasingly wealthier executives and investors and increasingly poorer workers and consumers. And it allows companies to make decisions hundreds or thousands of miles away from the people affected by those decisions … whose needs and interests are rarely even considered in the equation.
Mark Adams, the founder and CEO of Adams MultiMedia, doesn’t care that more than two decades of Athens County history that were always free to read are no longer available. He doesn’t have to face us in the aisles at Kroger or in line at the bank. We are nothing to him except a source of revenue that is not and never will be reinvested in Athens County.
Adams owns the Athens News, and has the legal right to do with it whatever the company pleases. But like Mom always said, legal and moral are two different things.
It cost Adams next to nothing to keep the ANews website up — just the domain registration fee and the cost for a portion of its servers. It could have won community good will by leaving that information readily available. But they didn’t, because they don’t care about getting you information if you aren’t willing or able to pony up for that access. THAT’s what makes me mad.
I’ve lived in Athens County off and on since 1984, and permanently since 1996. I remember stories I read in the Athens News, and I’ve often checked the ANews’ site to refresh my memory as I’m editing a story for the Independent.
Well, I used to, at least.
Like Terry, I hope that Adams will donate its archive of e-editions to the public library, the Southeast Ohio History Center, or Ohio University — or all of the above.
I also hope that the Independent will be around in 20-odd years. You can bet that if we are, everything we publish will remain free to all to read … and remember.
