[This story has been corrected to reflect that the Athens News was a twice-weekly publication for the vast majority of its existence.]
The website for The Athens News, the southeast Ohio city’s longtime alternative publication, is now defunct, months after the former regional president of Athens Multimedia shared “hopes to bring the publication to a more digital forward format.”
The former web address for the Athens News now redirects to the Athens Messenger site, a change that started as early as May 29, according to an archived version of the website. Many past stories from the twice-weekly Athens News appear to be unavailable on the Messenger website, and any with functional links are behind a paywall.
The Athens News, a free publication, had been a community staple for decades, with newsstands throughout the uptown area and the Ohio University campus until it stopped print publication after nearly 50 years on Jan. 14, 2026. An article about the change on the Messenger website says that the “continued lack of advertising support for the printed edition” led to switching to an online-only format, and that now is also closed.
Since the January announcement, the only articles in the Athens News archive available on the Messenger website have been restaurant reviews.
Adams Publishing Group, now known as Adams Multimedia, bought the Athens News as well as the Athens Messenger in 2014.
Anna Millar, editor of the Athens Messenger, referred The Dispatch to Clarice Touhey, the regional president of Adams Publishing Media of Ohio since March, when asked for comment. Touhey had not responded to a request as of late afternoon June 4.
Terry Smith, the former longtime editor of the Athens News from 1987 until his retirement in May 2020, wrote in a public Facebook post that thousands of Athens News articles that were previously free to the public are suddenly “locked in a cage” behind a paywall.
The alt-weekly had been publishing online since 2004, Smith said in a text message.
Smith also said that the termination of the Athens News website “was just a matter of time” after the print production stopped, because the publisher “couldn’t be expected” to keep offering the Athens News for free while the Athens Messenger has a paywall.
He added that he hopes Adams Multimedia will consider donating the Athens News archive to Ohio University Libraries, Athens County Public Libraries and/or to the Southeast Ohio History Center.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers regional/trending suburban news for The Columbus Dispatch. She can be reached at awinfrey@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Athens News website, like newspaper, now closed and most archives unavailable
Reporting by Anna Lynn Winfrey, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Anna Lynn Winfrey, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
