After 59 years of covering the small towns surrounding Gainesville, the North Florida Herald is closing.
Ron Dupont, the paper's owner, editor and publisher, announced the decision in a Sunday email addressed to UF journalism students who had applied for internships with the Herald, internships that will no longer be available.
He then wrote his paper's obituary Monday afternoon.
After two years of slowly losing advertisers as local businesses tightened their belts or went out of business, Dupont made the decision to close the paper Friday night after going through finances.
The award-winning weekly newspaper needs $120,000 to continue operations through December 2012. If Dupont does not get this soon, the "closed" sign will be hung on the Herald's doors for good Wednesday.
Dupont said he will try to maintain the paper's website for as long as possible, desperate not to lose eight years of the community's digital archives.Founded in 1952, the paper was formerly known as the High Springs Herald and covers Florida's "crescent communities": Alachua, Newberry, High Springs, Fort White, Gilchrist County and Jonesville.
"What bothers me the most is that people often say newspapers are the first rough draft of history. Out here, the Herald is often the only draft of history," he said. "I've been crying for three days about this decision."
A reader who called in to put an event in the paper burst into tears when Dupont told her the last issue of the weekly paper was already on the stands.
Past interns cried when they heard, remembering Dupont's dedication to his writers and his community.
"It was one of the best internships I've ever had," said Annie Quintana, a 21-year-old journalism senior who interned with the Herald in Spring 2010 and went on to internships with the Miami Herald and TMZ. "I learned everything from Ron."
Aside from reporting about birthday parties, block parties, anniversaries, local elections and businesses that will be lost, Dupont said he is also concerned about the businesses that will no longer be able to advertise.
"Where are they going to go now to tell people about their sales or specials?" he said. "I just don't have an easy answer for them."
The communities aren't the only ones who have suffered.
Dupont started taking pay cuts as the paper's outlook continued to deteriorate. He cut his salary in half, then stopped taking one all together.His house was tied into his purchase of the paper in 2009 - an asset that he will now likely lose.
Readers have started a "Save Our Herald" Facebook group in an effort to raise the $120,000 needed to keep the paper going for another year, the type of community support for which, Dupont said, he is very grateful.
"At this point we need a financial angel to save us," he said. "All we can do is hope."
