Posted 2025-04-01
Look out, Eugene! The eug is here!
Again and again, readers in Lane County have made it clear — they want local news by local writers and they want it on the printed page.
So in the early hours of April 1, the eug became the latest rebranding of the paper you have loved — once What’s Happening, then Eugene Weekly and now, just eug.
Why? Because eug is shorter and doesn’t require the oppressive hierarchy of capital letters!
And newsperts, who don’t live around here, say they know what you really want, and we’re listening. More digital news, more AI-based reporting, and more journalism supplied by other people who also aren’t from this area using all the latest mod cons.
The eug is the answer to that.
Editor Camilla Mortensen says the fact that University of Oregon students refer to the area as “the Dirty Eug” just shows how “hip” the new, shorter name is. “eug doubles down on who we are,” she says, “while making very little sense to anyone who doesn’t live here and know what the airport code is — meaning we can expand our brand anywhere!”
eug will still feature the mix of old hippies, half-retired reporters, bleeding heart liberal queers and journalists fresh out of undergrad as it always has.
One “eug” difference is the exciting new addition of a digital paywall to the eug website. For $2 a month, readers can access all the stories they once read for free.
Bentley Freeman, former reporter for Eugene Weekly, now a classified ads sales person for the eug, explains the change, saying, “We’ve seen such enthusiasm for paywalled news sites that it was a no-brainer to charge a nominal fee just to make the point we are eugly worth it.”
Print papers will still be free, because it’s too expensive to update the red boxes.
Eugene Weekly was here for more than 40 years, but now it’s time to get eug!