After five months, Register stops the presses

Severe funding shortfalls and mounting debt forced Craven County’s alternative biweekly newspaper to announce Wednesday, Jan. 25 that it will suspend publication for at least six months.

After printing the newspaper regularly since Sept. 27, 2005, Independent Register co-publishers Corey Friedman, William R. Toler and Eric Voliva said the gutsy newspaper with all-local content and few advertisements has become prohibitively expensive to produce.

"I don’t want to hear people say, ‘They ended this on their own terms,’" Friedman said. "That would be an insult, because this is a deplorable choice that I feel we have been forced to make. The money just isn’t there. We can’t afford to live or pay our electric bill, and we can’t afford to print the newspaper."

With publication of the twice-monthly broadsheet newspaper halted, the Independent Register will continue to operate a Web site, www.indieregister.com, and update the newspaper’s blog.

Co-publishers have tentatively scheduled an Independent Register summit for Aug. 22, after which they will announce whether the paper will resume publication in 2006.

Including the premiere issue, the Independent Register has published nine editions. In its pages, the newspaper tackled thorny and sometimes controversial local issues, including Craven Regional Medical Center’s lack of trauma center designation, a Bangert Elementary School student’s suspension on what her mother claims were religious grounds and radio self-censorship under threat of stiff Federal Communications Commission penalties.

"It has always been the mission of this newspaper to provide a voice to the voiceless citizen and to inspire honest and vigorous debate," Friedman, Toler and Voliva said in a joint statement. "We hope our departure will make residents see the dire need for an alternative publication in this community, and we hope we will have another opportunity to meet that need."