Stewardship in a Changing Landscape

Dear Reader,

Seventy-two years is a long time in any business. In the newspaper industry, it’s practically an eternity.

While media giants with seemingly unlimited resources have crumbled under the weight of debt and misguided strategies, and countless small publishers have shuttered their doors, Multi Media Channels continues to serve the communities of Wisconsin. We’ve outlasted corporate chains, survived technological revolutions, and weathered economic storms that decimated our industry.

Family and employee ownership has given us something the corporate chains never had: the freedom to prioritize mission over quarterly returns. We don’t answer to distant shareholders or service crushing debt loads. We answer to our communities, our employees, and a 72-year legacy of service that we’re determined to extend.

We’ve never forgotten what community newspapers are supposed to do: tell the stories that matter to the people who live in the places we serve. While others chased scale and efficiency, we doubled down on hyperlocal coverage in medium and small Wisconsin communities that would otherwise have no journalistic voice. These aren’t afterthoughts or secondary markets to us. They’re our entire mission. Survival and stewardship are different things. Stewardship means recognizing that our continued existence carries responsibility beyond our balance sheet.

That’s why we’ve made combating homelessness a core company mission. The crisis of homelessness didn’t stay confined to major cities; it reached the small communities we serve, and we decided our platforms and resources could be part of the solution. Through comprehensive partnerships and sustained coverage, we’re working to address one of our society’s most pressing challenges, right here in our corner of Wisconsin.

It’s also why we’ve committed to being a training ground for the next generation of journalists. Our internship programs with UW-Green Bay, St. Norbert College, and other institutions are meaningful investments in an industry that needs talented young people who understand that journalism matters. We’ve partnered with similar community-minded organizations like the Green Bay Packers and Nicolet National Bank to provide students with experiences they can’t get anywhere else.

Some might call this idealistic. I call it essential. The newspaper business has always been about more than newspapers.

It’s been about civic infrastructure, community connection, and institutional memory. When a community loses its local news source, it doesn’t just lose headlines—it loses the connective tissue that helps people understand their neighbors, hold institutions accountable, and participate in local democracy.

The irony isn’t lost on me that we’ve outlasted so many larger, better-funded competitors. But I don’t think it’s actually ironic at all. We’re still here because we never stopped believing that hyperlocal news matters, that communities deserve dedicated coverage, and that this business—done right—serves noble purposes far beyond profit.