The Changing Paper - What Happened to The Register Guard

My grandfather wrote for The Register Guard for thirty-nine years. He retired well before I was born but I can remember countless classes in which my teachers would bring him up and ask if we had any relation. At the time I didn’t really care, I was in grade school and I didn’t read the newspaper—aside from the comics of course. Even though this was the case, I found some pride in knowing my grandfather was a local celebrity—you can even find a cutout of him displayed at the Eugene Airport. It wasn’t really until recently, early this year when helping move my grandparents into a retirement home that I really started to care and put much thought into it as I came across some of his old stuff.

As I dug deeper and looked into The Register Guard and newspapers in general, I began to notice the vast changes to newspaper stories and quality. This is in part due to two major reasons. The first of these has to do with progressing technology. Many people now get their news online, be it from social media or the online version of their paper. This can oftentimes lead into the other major reason for the decline, local papers being purchased by larger media conglomerates. This was very much the case for The Register Guard and something I would be looking into.

Don Bishoff at 2024 Register Guard Alumni Gathering

To understand more about the issue and The Register Guard, I spoke directly with my grandfather—Donald ‘Don’ Bishoff. He is what would be considered “Old Guard”, joining the newsroom in 1960. He moved from Virginia having previously worked at a paper in Richmond he found to be too restricting, “I came out here [to Oregon,] because I wanted to get out of Richmond… The Richmond paper was very conservative in its news coverage approach” says Bishoff. He found the guard to be the opposite of this stating in an interview from 2011 (Later republished in 2018) with KLCC “The managing editor once told me there was no budget for the news room. In other words, that we could spend whatever it took to do the job we needed to do” (Eckert). At this point in time The Register Guard was in its prime. With close to no budget, reporters were free to report on what they liked whether it was serious or silly, and oftentimes encouraged to report on the latter. My grandfather reflected fondly on a story he was encouraged to write in 1961 by the then city editor Donn Bonham. He was sent out in a rabbit costume the night before Halloween. “What would you do if a 6-foot-1, 180-pound white rabbit carrying a burlap bag came to your door trick or treating on the night before Halloween?” (Bishoff, 1961) the article started clearly not taking itself all too seriously. There were some people who didn’t love articles like this as my grandfather recalls, “one of our readers, wrote a sarcastic letter to the editor saying it was interesting that all the issues… going on in the community, they chose to send me out in a bunny rabbit costume”. It was felt however, by both my grandfather and Donn Bonham that articles like this were a good thing to help the readers laugh and more than likely draw in new readers. When I spoke to my grandfather about this he remarked that with Bonham, “we would come up with ideas for stories… sort of off beat things that would maybe promote some readership”. Not everyone may want to read a story about the hard pressing issues in the city, but a story about a man in a rabbit costume trick or treating the day before halloween, who wouldn’t want to read a story like that. 

Unfortunately, the guard didn’t continue to bring in new readers, this wasn’t all the fault of the writers and editors though, a large part is due to the progression of technology. Much of the paper's revenue was from advertisements run in the paper. By the time my grandfather left the paper in 1999, some of these effects were already noticeable and part of his decision to leave. In the 2018 KLCC article he states “I felt that the paper had turned on its employees and developed an anti-employee, anti-union attitude in all of its dealings” (Eckert, 2018). As the paper struggled with staff and began new union arrangements, the paper also had to struggle with costs, cutting the size to 12.5 inches. The paper continued to struggle as more and more advertisements were found online. As David Pero—former chief operating officer for Guard Publishing—puts it, “We live in a world now where information, especially national and international news and sports is commoditized. You can get it just about anywhere” (The Associated Press). With less people coming to the paper for their national and international news, there was less need for the paper, ink and space. This comment came in 2009 when The Register Guard again cut its size from 12.5 inches down to 11 inches. Along with this cut in size, the paper also reduced its staffing by 5.9% or 16 full time positions. Furthermore, “ad revenue for may was nearly 16% below what was budgeted -- and the slump only got worse in the summer. From June through the first two weeks of August, [publisher Tony Baker] said, each month has been about 25% below budget” (E&P Staff). It was clear that the paper would not be able to last in its current place. This is what I feel was the beginning of the end for The Register Guard.

Baker Downtown Center, the former press room of The Register Guard

When talking to my grandfather the other week about the guard at this time, there was little he remembered. At this point, he would have been retired for over a decade, and now at the age of 88 (89 later this month) with a failing memory, I wasn’t too surprised. Fortunately in the KLCC article by Tiffany Eckert he had already spoken on the topic. Both my grandfather and another former writer for The Register Guard agreed, “understand[ing] the complex choices the Baker family faces.  Expenses are up for ink, paper, trucks, press parts - line items for the print product.  And Baker confirms newspaper advertising is at an all time low.  To fold or stay alive: that is the question” (Eckert, 2018). The paper would stay alive, though this is where we would face the second issue facing newspaper decline today—media conglomerates. 

In 2018, facing continued struggles with costs, the Baker Family sold The Register Guard to GateHouse Media, a newspaper conglomerate. Shortly after, GateHouse Media bought Gannet, retaining their name during the merge. This merge was a “$1.9 billion deal that would create the largest print media name in the country” reports Jeff Manning from Oregon Live. This deal, and The Register Guards sale, would destroy the paper. Gannet would continue to cut staff, necessary to an extent with the rise in iPhones and media technology, but the way Gannet did it was “‘Beyond comprehension,’ [according to] Bob Welch, a longtime columnist and editor for the paper. ‘When some selective thinning would have worked, Gannett clear-cut The Register-Guard, laying off staff and drastically reducing the size of the paper in the name of profit’” Manning writes in his article. It was clear that Gannet wasn’t doing this for the local population, they were doing it for the profit. 

The Register Guard Building after moving locations in 1998

The paper continued to decline as segments were cut and the staff thinned. According to Manning in 2023 “The Eugene Register-Guard, once one of the best newspapers in the region, today has no local editor, no publisher, no physical newsroom and little love from a dismayed citizenry. The news staff that once exceeded 80 now stands at six” (Manning). As I read this article, I found this information to be appalling. How could a paper that was once so big fall so low(at one point the paper had well over 300 full time positions). It seems as though with so few positions, news could not be accurately presented, especially local news. My grandfather felt much the same way, for him it was important to keep that community aspect. As he told me “I just think that the local paper, ought to be edited by… local people who know the territory… you lose local knowledge… Which is really important, I think, for local papers to have people who understand the community, editing it, running it, and reporting on it… reporting for it”. This I think is the part that is often overlooked. 

When getting ready to do research for, and look into how newspapers have changed, I was ready to blame the media conglomerates. I thought I already knew the reason for newspaper decline—media conglomerates were buying up local papers, cutting large sections and trying to turn them over for profit. This is still very true, but it didn’t answer the question of why the papers were selling to these conglomerates. That I found out was due to the changing media landscape, changing technology. Nobody is going to read their local newspapers when they can get that information from their phone. This was the issue with The Register Guard and many other papers, they couldn’t keep up with the changing times. I think this alone wouldn’t have been an issue, but in combination with media conglomerates buying them for a profit, and not for their communities, I think that is what has killed the local daily paper. 

Citations

Bishoff, Donald. “Our Rabbit Raises No Hair, Only Stammers, Laughs, Police.” Newspapers.com, 31 

Oct. 1961, https://www.newspapers.com/image-view/154067751/?match=1&terms=Don%20Bishoff%20rabbit. Accessed 8 Dec. 2025.

Eckert, Tiffany. “From the Archives: “the Future of the Newspaper” 2011 Story on the Register-Guard.” 

KLCC | NPR for Oregonians, KLCC, 12 June 2018, www.klcc.org/economy-business/2018-06-12/from-the-archives-the-future-of-the-newspaper-2011-story-on-the-register-guard.

Manning, Jeff. “Eugene Register-Guard Languishes under Gannett, Nation’s Largest Newspaper Chain.” 

Oregonlive, 21 May 2023, www.oregonlive.com/business/2023/05/eugene-register-guard-languishes-under-gannett-nations-largest-newspaper-chain.html.

Press, The Associated. “Eugene Paper Trims Size.” Oregonlive, June 2009, 

www.oregonlive.com/news/2009/05/eugene_paper_trims_size.html. Accessed 8 Dec. 2025.

Staff, E&P. “Eugene “Register-Guard” Cuts Staff by Nearly 6%.” Archive.org, 2025, 

web.archive.org/web/20090820222900/www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004004105. Accessed 8 Dec. 2025.