What Is the Status/Health of Print Media in Las Vegas?

What is the status/health of print media in Las Vegas, including the daily papers, alternative weeklies, city magazines, etc.?

[Editor's Note: This answer is written by our own Stiffs & Georges blogger, David McKee, who has long experience in the Las Vegas print-media business.]

Due in part to the pandemic, it’s not what it used to be.

The COVID shutdown was particularly hard on the weeklies, which were heavily reliant on ads for nightclubs, pool parties, and bars (all perfect feeding grounds for COVID). When those went away, however temporarily, so did a primary revenue source for the likes of Vegas Seven.

Being basically the only game in town (and having a more diversified advertising stream, as well as the Adelson family’s deep pockets) was beneficial for the Las Vegas Review-Journal (more on the R-J below).

The Las Vegas Sun rode out the pandemic on the back of its joint operating agreement with the R-J. As long as the Greenspun family is willing to pour money into the Sun, it's likely to subsist. Of course, the fact that it's wrapped, both in the print and digital editions, in the far more conservative R-J is an irony that can amuse neither of the ideologically opposed ownership groups involved.

“Desert Companion and Las Vegas Weekly took slight hits over COVID in either page count or publishing frequency (in the case of Desert Companion),” says former Las Vegas CityLife Arts Editor Mike Prevatt, now a producer with KNPR-FM, which publishes Desert Companion. “I’m not sure how the tourist and community publications are doing, but I’m seeing fewer of them than ever. In short: [The print-media situation in Las Vegas] isn't great, but also not dire. It’s been on a slow decline since the Great Recession,” which claimed the alt-weekly CityLife among its victims.

Adds former publisher Geoff Schumacher, now vice president of exhibits and programs for the Mob Museum, “We're down to one alt-weekly [Las Vegas Weekly] and it isn’t really an alt-weekly at all. It's almost completely focused on entertainment and food. We still have Desert Companion. As for the daily newspapers, the R-J’s print circulation has dropped substantially in recent years. I don’t have the numbers, but I know they would be alarming to people who remember the glory days of print distribution.”

Small wonder that the R-J now relies on email news blasts and aggressively promotes its own online news broadcast.

“The Sun is a daily insert section in the R-J, but it is mostly syndicated content from the New York Times,” Schumacher says. “Very small editorial staff at the Sun these days.”

So it would appear that the daily newspaper, an endangered species for some years now, could be one of the next victims on the Las Vegas media scene.

TV news, for better or worse, will continue to thrive. And the Internet will undoubtedly continue to grow as a source of information for those who want a Sin City fix. This would come as consternating news to former R-J publisher Sherman Frederick, whose obliviousness to the importance of the Net helped cost him his job.

Finally, as readers of this website know, the Las Vegas Advisor's print edition was discontinued last month in favor of the online edition only.

In sum, media evolutionary — or devolutionary — forces continue to erode Las Vegas, hastened along somewhat and secondarily by the COVID hiatus.

No part of this answer may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher.

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Comments

Kevin Lewis Feb-05-2023

A print version of Fox News

The R-J is very, very, very far-right; and it doesn't confine its gross bias to the editorial pages. Now, doubtless, that pleases some people to no end; but anyone who wants actual news shouldn't read the R-J. They make no bones about their ideological tilt; even the letters to the editor that are published are 4-1 conservative.

The situation of the Sun is curious; it's like a mouse that was swallowed by a snake and is being slowly digested. I wonder if it could actually survive on its own. I buy the R-J to read the comics, the bridge column, and the Sun. I use the front section and the editorial pages for litter box liner. That may be an insult to my cat, though.

Tim Soldan Feb-05-2023

LVA Digital Edition

I find the new digital only hard to use. Lets go back to the old format. I don't care for the digital magazine with the flipping pages. Its hard to use, and I can't zoom in and out like the old digital format. I am sure others find similar experiences.

kennethross Feb-05-2023

There is little question…

that the R-J has a political stance.
Nonetheless, I continue to value the R-J’s high-quality investigative reporting.
The R-J frequently stands alone in calling out political hijinks and wrongdoing in law enforcement in the valley and throughout our state.
I respect integrity, wherever I encounter it.

David Feb-05-2023

I submitted this question

Thank you for taking the time to answer this question. It is truly sad what has happened to print media (newspapers and magazines) in this country. The ignorance resulting from people not reading coupled with the stories no longer being published are creating a huge vacuum in this country. It is truly a shame what is happening. Most people my age find digital newspapers and magazines to be a very disappointing experience, and most of the younger generation don’t like to read anything longer than a Twitter post.

Lotel Feb-05-2023

What ?

So when you are at the Harry Reid Airport or at the hotel what Las Vegas paper, magazine or print media  is available  to pick up? Just RJ.

Bob Nelson Feb-05-2023

Tim Soldan

Try scrolling down to the bottom of the page and click on the “download” button.  I find the simple PDF version much easier to read.

VegasVic Feb-05-2023

Bob

And you can just print the PDF version.  I don't know why anyone cares that you don't get mailed LVA any longer when you can just print it yourself.  Easy.

Dorothy Kahhan Feb-05-2023

I agree with Bob Nelson

Downloading the newsletter lets me read it exactly as before in the Adobe Reader. Also, I keep a personal archive of all the newsletters, so downloading the file makes sense in my case.

Llew Feb-05-2023

Digital LVA

I’ve been downloading the digital/pdf LVA and printing it out for years. I like to make notes on the newsletter itself, so a printed copy is a must for me. The digital version used to cost less than the printed version and I didn’t have to wait to get it in the mail.

David Miller Feb-05-2023

Las Vegas Review Journal

 I read the online version of the Review journal daily. I find it to be a great source of Vegas information. There are times I feel that the "Opinions" shown are actually too leftist and complete nonsense - but these negative opinions are becoming less leftist as Americans are waking up to the ongoing anti American governing of the DemocRats.Most of the cartoons in the RJ are way out of line with reality. The Las Vegas Sun is a waste of time to read as it definitely is leftist.

Kevin Lewis Feb-05-2023

Typical

David Miller's little screed, saying that opinions that differ from his are "nonsense" and "anti-American," illustrates why the R-J gets away with, and even thrives on, being a propaganda rag as opposed to an actual newspaper. There are lots of people who would rather be told what they want to hear than the actual news.

Anyone contemplating moving to Vegas should consider that there's only one newspaper, and it's biased, and what that implies for the overall tenor of the place.

Bud Ackley Feb-05-2023

Ralston for a Pulitzer

The most serious consequence of fewer local media outlets is the loss of reporters on the City Hall or Statehouse beats acting as watchdogs in exposing corruption by local government officials and others. It's only local media that can devote resources to ferreting out public corruption and making the community aware of the malfeasance it uncovers.

Fortunately, there are new online news sites that have sprung-up that, at least partially, fill the gap left by print media's decline. The best example of that for Las Vegans has been  the creation of "The Nevada Independent" by Jon Ralston. Ralston deserves tremendous credit for starting the non-profit "NV Indy" from scratch, a major accomplishment and a major contribution to keeping the electorate informed on what its elected officials are up to.

Anthony Curtis Feb-05-2023

Printed

Thanks to these posts explaining how you can get to the PDF that's the same as the online version has been for years, as well as print it out. Once everyone understands the options, I think we'll all be mostly satisfied.

gaattc2001 Feb-06-2023

It's not just Las Vegas, not just the Review-Journal,

and not all due to COVID...

Newspapers and magazines in the United States have been on the decline for years. It's due partly to competition from television and later from the internet; partly to economics--having to buy, handle, and distribute all that ink and paper; and partly to the obvious partisan bias (in whatever direction) of many of the publishers, editors, and reporters.
 
Kevin may be right about the right-wing bias of the R-J; but there are plenty of other examples on both sides.

In the classic movie "Citizen Kane," the great yellow journalist (still in his "idealistic" period) promises to "provide...a newspaper that will tell all the news honestly." In the end, he failed to keep that promise; and look what happened to him.

I think that has some significance for our problem.

Question of the Day - 05 February 2023

Comments