An Oregon weekly newspaper has had to lay off its entire staff and halt print after 40 years because its funds were embezzled by a former employee, its editor said, in a devastating blow to a publication that serves as an important source of information in a community that, like many others nationwide, is struggling with growing gaps in local news coverage.
About a week before Christmas, the Eugene Weekly found inaccuracies in its bookkeeping, editor Camilla Mortensen said. It discovered that a former employee who was “heavily involved” with the paper’s finances had used its bank account to pay themselves $90,000 since at least 2022, she said.
The paper also became aware of at least $100,000 in unpaid bills — including to the paper’s printer — stretching back several months, she said.
How is 90k enough to kill a company? Payroll likely dwarfs that number. And creditors will usually work with you if there’s an issue like that and you can show them what happened and how it’s fixed.
While I have no idea of specifics, 90K missing plus 100K in debt to several places, including to the paper’s printer, might be the real issue. The debt stretches back months, and it’s possible companies were threatening to stop doing business with the paper. If the printer cuts you off, you can’t print the paper that would make up lost revenue. And it’s going to be hard to get financing for a new printer when you have outstanding unpaid debt.
I feel like many of those vendors would be willing to setup payment plans or forgive some of the debt outright if the lapsed can prove they were victims of embezzlement (theft) and criminal negligence (not paying the bills of the company as the one responsible for such)
I’m sure many of my vendors would work with me, several of them I approve paying this entire debt amount to them monthly.
I feel like many of those vendors would be willing to setup payment plans or forgive some of the debt outright if the lapsed can prove they were victims of embezzlement (theft) and criminal negligence (not paying the bills of the company as the one responsible for such)
Many companies are not that cash rich, if that was most of their bank balance, and they have $100k debt, suppliers may refuse to any more service until debts have been repaid. Can’t acquire what you need, can’t produce what you need to sell to raise the cash, so you go under.
Maybe 90k is all they can prove at the moment, but it’s really a larger number.
Eugene isn’t big, and paper is dying. They probably operated on a very tight budget.