Posted 2025-04-01

By spring 2026, eug plans to launch affiliate papers in two alt-weekly news deserts: Portland, Oregon, and Santa Cruz, California. The affiliate papers, port and cruz respectively, will feature the same level of snark that eug is known for while filling a widening gap in local coverage. 

While Portland is well-covered in terms of daily and even monthly reporting, eug publisher Jody Rolnick says, “The city is in desperate need of a comprehensive weekly.” So keep an eye out for some red boxes on the streets of Portland in the coming months, as well as copies in your local markets, as port hits the shelves.

Rolnick describes eug’s Santa Cruz-based project as “experimental,” being a print-only product of AI-generated weekly newsletter read aloud in “the fashion of a town crier.” 

“Santa Cruz has some digital coverage,” she says. “We hope to draw people in with the ringing of a bell and the yell of an ‘Extra extra!’”

An anonymous source working with eug says the organization has already begun looking at locations in California to create cruz offices, but Rolnick refuses to comment. 

Much is changing at the eug office, and you can look out for timely updates on all things new at EugeneWeekly.com (URL subject to change).