Connecticut paper to shutter due to financial constraints

The following excerpt was sent out from nbcconnecticut.com:

After trying to buck a national trend of media closures and downsizing, a small Connecticut newspaper founded earlier this year with Ralph Nader’s help has succumbed to financial problems and will be shutting down.

An oversight board voted Monday to close the Winsted Citizen, a broadsheet that served Nader’s hometown and surrounding area in the northwestern hills of the state since February.

Andy Thibault, a veteran journalist who led the paper as editor and publisher, announced the closure in a memo to staff.

“We beat the Grim Reaper every month for most of the year,” Thibault wrote. ”Our best month financially resulted in our lowest deficit. Now, our quest regrettably has become the impossible dream. It sure was great — despite numerous stumbles, obstacles and heartaches — while it lasted.”

The Citizen’s fate is similar to those of other newspapers that have been dying at an alarming rate because of declining ad and circulation revenue. The U.S. has lost nearly 2,900 newspapers since 2005, including more than 130 confirmed closings or mergers over the past year, according to a report released this month by the Northwestern/Medill Local News Initiative.

By the end of next year, it is expected that about a third of U.S. newspapers will have closed since 2005, the report said.