Another newspaper silenced, another request for emergency declaration

from The Chronicle and staff reports

The Chronicle’s last front page carried the headline: “Paper, founded in 1909, publishes final edition.”

Executive Editor Erin Tierney-Heggenstaller explained tersely: “Not enough residents subscribed, and not enough local businesses advertised… We are out of options, out of funds, and at the end of our timeline.”

The rest of the story described in detail how a government loan—meant to help small businesses through COVID—instead forced her out of business.

To save money, The Chronicle first chose homelessness—giving up its Springfield brick-and-mortar office to work out of public spaces, such as libraries, coffee shops, and bookstores.

Homelessness takes an estimated 15 to 30 years off an individual’s life expectancy, and homelessness surely also contributed to the passing of The Chronicle.

Tierney-Heggenstaller wrote: “When small businesses scrambled to survive 2020, federal disaster relief loans were dangled as a lifeline. We took what we believed was a bridge to stability – a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan meant to help us weather the storm.

“Instead, it became an anchor.

“When the federal government ended the COVID-19 EIDL Hardship Accommodation Plan in March 2025, our monthly payments snapped back to full principal and interest. Before the change, struggling borrowers could pay 10% to 50% of their regular payment. Suddenly, a staggering percentage of our revenue was swallowed up just servicing that debt.”

All of their savings from leaving the brick-and-mortar office were instantly wiped out by the new SBA loan payments, Tierney-Heggenstaller wrote.

“You cannot innovate, hire reporters, or keep the presses running when nearly everything you bring in goes straight back to the government for the privilege of surviving 2020.”

The Chronicle was not the only small business to be irreparably damaged by federal policy. The Hill reported in January 2026 that more than 1.3 million COVID-era SBA economic injury disaster loans were in default, liquidation, or write-off status.

In 2023, Whole Community News asked the state’s executive branch to declare a civic emergency in local news. We suggested that a standard emergency response framework could be used to produce news reporting as part of a local workforce program. The state has not yet responded.