(Cell Phone Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
KENOSHA, Wis. — The Kenosha News, once a dominant force in local journalism, announced Friday through its editor, John Sloca, that it will eliminate its Monday edition beginning Nov. 3. The move marks yet another sign of the paper’s continuing decline, as it struggles with shrinking readership and dwindling influence.
The decision did not surprise many longtime observers. Once a robust, community-centered publication with a strong newsroom, the Kenosha News has gradually morphed into what critics describe as little more than a vehicle for Associated Press wire stories. A vivid example came during the nationally watched Kyle Rittenhouse trial: despite having an assigned seat in the courthouse, the Kenosha News often opted to run AP coverage instead of its own reporter’s work.
(Cell Phone Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
The Kenosha News has also drawn sharp criticism for its unapologetically liberal slant. Once considered a balanced community paper, it now reads more like an activist rag for the far left. Its remaining reporters are openly partisan, with many identifying as staunch Democrats. Among them is longtime reporter Terry Flores, who is currently preparing what insiders describe as a politically motivated hit piece aimed at the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office.
This downsizing underscores a larger shift in Kenosha’s media landscape. While the Kenosha News contracts, Kenosha County Eye continues to surge. Over the past five years, the digital outlet has become the go-to source for original reporting on courts, politics, and local government, growing its audience at the very moment the city’s legacy paper is losing ground. The numbers speak for themselves — as Kenosha News readership erodes, Kenosha County Eye’s traffic climbs at nearly the same rate.
(Cell Phone Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
The cultural image of readers with a fresh newspaper, cup of coffee, and morning cigarette is fading into history. In its place, readers increasingly turn to their phones and computers for timely, original, and hard-hitting reporting. Kenosha County Eye has filled that void, providing accountability journalism and detailed reporting that many say the Kenosha News has abandoned.
The Nov. 3 change serves as a symbolic moment in Kenosha media history: the decline of a century-old daily newspaper and the rise of a modern, independent news platform that residents now rely on for the stories that matter most.
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57 Responses
It has been 6 long years since I was the only person on my block getting a kenosha newspaper delivered. Kenosha News essentially gave up. The name itself is now a misnomer
Hopefully, it’ll shut-down completely.
Good call regarding their dependence on AP-wire material.
I cancelled my longtime subscription to ‘the News’ after multiple subscription-rate increases…but especially due to the unbearably biased writings of one Scott Bauer of the Madison AP bureau.
A despicable purveyor of yellow journalism.
The Racine Journal Times is just as bad.
Same owners, Lee Enterprises, and they are just terrible! You are correct to mention yellow journalism, as that is precisely how it is.
Kevin, what source should be used to determine the bias of a given news source?
I chose to reply to you, as you are one of the first commenters I found that actually used a name in their comment.
Thanks,
Rick
The day this rag folds I’ll be reading about it on Kenosha County Eye…
Ever changing times. Nothing in history is permanent. The Kenosha News slow but sure evaporation is consistent with what is happening with the entire legacy newspaper business.
Not as much as the fading legacy of one-sided liberal newspapers
But change is.
Terry Flores is a crap reporter and I can’t wait for when she gets the boot.
defnitely!
The proof on how terrible Flores is, is that she has been with the “news” for what, 10-20 years. There is absolutely no one who would dare hire her away. She is a radical illegal alien proponent who can’t hide her liberal rantings.
Maybe she can “learn to code” before she becomes dependent on SSI and Badgercare.
Good lord, what a jerk you are.
Facts over feelings…
Oh, and “bless your heart”…
High school sports coverage has become non existent. No rosters, no box scores, no game photos.
Kenosha news is no longer a hometown newspaper.
Agreed, yesterday was the County Cross Country Race…nothing in the paper about it. Very little about volleyball, girls golf and tennis as well. But wait they selectively cover Football.
…sport reporters at High School basketball games. Taking pictures. Keeping their own stats. Hanging around and Interviewing star players of that particular game.
But then it took a couple of days for that story to come out.
Kenosha News used to have a deadline of 11 pm for stories to make the morning edition.
Yet none of those game stories made it that next day.
Ok. It’s is about money. But they do have an online presence. But it’s still not good reporting. If it was I would still be a subscriber.
Evolution. Sometimes self inflicted
No birth announcements, engagements or weddings, no real estate sales, divorce announcements, court reports, nothing local…
Daily photos of Samantha Kerkman, though.
Obituaries though. They still run them because they charge through the nose for that.
They rape the mourning
It is mourning in the morning!
Amen. Everyday, the sports “section” has more stories about the Chicago Blackhawks/Bears/Cubs than any sports team from Wisconsin besides the Badgers. Hardly any coverage of the Packers/Brewers/Bucks.
There have been zero stories on Marquette basketball, the premier CBB team in the state. How can a team ranked in the top 15-20 for years not have any articles? Yet, there will be a long article daily on the Bulls.
It’s supposedly is a Wisconsin paper, yet has more than 50% of it daily articles about Illinois.
I would get a subscription to the Kenosha News however my parakeet died.
What if…… what if YOU became editor-in-chief!!!???? Call it Kenosha News-Eye or something like that!
Filled with old news ….Overpriced ….i have toilet tissue that was thicker and made for better reading than the one sided reporting …….once was a good paper but, that was lost years ago ….
Kenosha snooze is owned by Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 72 daily newspapers in 25 states,and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is based in Davenport, Iowa
They own these rags in Wisconsin
Chippewa Falls The Chippewa Herald
Kenosha Kenosha News
La Crosse La Crosse Tribune
Madison Wisconsin State Journal
Racine Racine Journal Times
I have read the kenosha news everyday with my Grandpa for the past 20+ years. It used to be good, now we make jokes about it. It’s all advertising & bullshit. I told him you want the real news check the kenosha county eye & so he does. Much respect to that. Keep it comin.
What a super nice memory for you and your Grandpa to have!
It is just too expensive,
Call Kenosha News and tell them you want to cancel your paper.
They’ll give you the offer of 6 months for $1.00.
By then they’ll probably be out of business
Don’t hurt yourself there, Kevin.
That makes no sense, elaborate?
Kenosha News last headline
“Stop the presses”
For good auction next week
LOL
Really sad < considering they use to have all that downtown, News /printing / distribution, I remember as a kid going down there on Saturday mornings to take care of my paper Route fees after Friday night collections, so sad that they just let it all go down the Drain. Glad Kenosha County eye and Kevin are picking up the slack and keeping Kenosha up to date with the news of Kenosha , Thank you Kevin
I canceled my subscription in 2016, after months of biased political news (propaganda).
Go woke, go broke.
The Kenosha News used to be decent when Howard Brown ran it–since his departure and passing, it is too awful to even use as bedding for a rodent. THe paper is so liberal that there is no room for any conservative viewpoint. I wrote for them for 20 years and was so glad to leave as they continued to go downhill and I did not want to be part of a sinking ship.
I enjoy reading local news. I subscribed to the Kenosha news a couple of years ago and soon found out that they don’t report on anything of substance. KCE calls it like it is. I get reporting, not just a bait click headline at the Kenosha News. Great job Kevin.
Terry Flores is in fact biased with somers. I know Kevin remembers the ordeal I with through with stoner and Morris.
Cracks me up when mfrs call it “liberal” it basically is a nothing newspaper anymore. Used to be a good paper back in the day but newspapers are dying. And it has nothing to do with being “liberal”
I was subscriber for decades. Wrote many letters to the VOP section . Always from a conservative point of view . Harold Brown would be embarrassed by what they put out now. The Monday edition was alway the most scant. Want to read about local sports that happened 3 days ago ? This is your place. Every now and then I’ll stop at the library and read The Kenosha News.
It’s 10 minutes well spent because it reminds me that I made the right decision to pull the plug on it.
I cancelled several years ago. By then, anything not local was AP and too many stories of local happenings were just plain inaccurate. They still send the morning paper to my email box and sometimes they don’t even bother with the paywall!
I wrote my last column/VOP a couple of Sundays ago. I just got a notice from the Kenosha News that they are raising my monthly digital subscription from $30 to $40. That’s $120 a year and an inflationary increase that would even make Biden gag.
I will be canceling on Monday, after 27 years, watching the KN metaphorically dribbling down the wall of the men’s can in the Old Field House at the University of Wisconsin. I’ll miss Jim Polzin, but not the KN.
Huh? My monthly subscription just got raised to $19.99 and at that I’m thinking of canceling.
I’m really sorry for their photographers. As for the reporters, it has been their policy to inform about social, entertainment, and other superfluous aspects of our community instead of reporting, investigating, or addressing real issues. Their lack of commitment to the truth is partly what led our county to ignore what was happening in our public administration; and even worse, in our court system. Thank God KM came along and started doing what KN stopped doing about 15 years ago. Now we know what’s going on, often in real time. Thanks, Kevin.
I have first-hand knowledge that John Sloca is a retard
I remember back in the day when the Brown Family controlled Kenosha News and the area Marxist Labor Political Machine despised them and encouraged their membership not to patronize them. Over time, how things changed. Today Kenosha County Eye is the voice of reason and what’s left of KN and the equally toxic SE Wisconsin Labor Times still spew their Marxist viewpoints and ideology to anyone inflicted with a warped, twisted, and depraved mind that will listen.
The mailman mistakenly put that union rag in my mailbox one day. Before throwing it in the trash , I read it . Mary Modder and her husband are true communists . And she is the President of the school board ! You people that voted for her are morons , aka Democrats.
The Kenosha Snooze……nothing newspaper with terrible reporting……and needs to go away…..don’t let the door hit ya on the way out staff I mean stiffs
Are local, state, county government still required to post legal notices, and If so—-is the Kenosha News paid to do it?
Of course legal notices are paid for.
State statute requires that they be published in the county’s official newspaper.
I just checked their mast head. I remember when the daily paper cost 25 cents. Now it’s $3. Ouch.
Kenosha News went down hill ever since Lee Enterprise took over…It’s about all profit, not news…Pretty sad…
Cancel Netflix, cancel Keno News
The Kenosha Soviet isn’t even worthy of puppy training. It is 100% Communist Prada garbage! Has been for decades.
First of all, ALL news papers have always been out of date. Your team may have a west coast game and it will not be in the morning paper. Reading the Kenosha News on a Monday morning was all the stuff reported Sunday night on the late TV news. Gone are the days of true local stories, sports, calendar of events and Ads. I used to love the Wednesday paper before Thanksgiving-so thick with all the ads. Today we all want instant gratification and many of us check our phones several times a day for news updates, only to be disappointed that stories may only get updated a couple times a day. This is not just the Kenosha News…it’s everywhere!
And yes, the Kenosha News went to $#IT about 10 years ago.
I am not surprised to see the K-News reducing their circulation to six days a week. I have been a loyal subscriber well over 50+ years even having the paper sent to me when I lived in other states. The decision to now reduce the circulation to six days a week is just another example of “death by a thousand cuts” ultimately just prolonging its inevitable demise! What do you want to bet even with the reduced circulation by a day, when we receive our bill, the price will go up!!!
As written by others, the quality of the coverage has diminished. Most of the reporting is national news pickups with little local news. What local news is covered, the obits seems to be the greatest coverage…and of course, those postings are paid by the person submitting the obit!
If my bill does not decrease by the one day we no longer get the news, this will be my contribution to the “death by a thousand cuts” and will look for other ways to get the local news!
Very disappointing….but certainly not surprising!!!!
Mr. Brown has been rolling in his grave for many years…what a disgusting rag in comparison to what he worked so hard to achieve.
Except for the weather report and a smattering of local stories, the KN stories read the same as the Tulsa World.
Both are Associated Press papers.
I ended my KN digital years ago.
We stopped our KN subscription years ago as it drifted harder to the left and writers like Liz Snyder became more insufferable. What’s irritating at the moment is that the delivery service for the KN is also the delivery service for the WSJ, and for two weeks there has been no WSJ delivery on Monday.