Bowie Blade-News Mails Final Publication Thursday

BOWIE, MD — The Bowie Blade-News era has officially come to an end as the last publication was sent out to residents this Thursday.

The city newspaper began its publication in February 1980 when The Bowie Blade and The Bowie News newspapers came together.

For 41 years, the paper covered local stories, city government, education, crime and more for the city of Bowie.

The paper’s final edition contained its usual Bowie coverage, but it also included an opinion piece from Una Cooper titled “Bowie community is losing something important today.”

The city’s communications director wrote, “Our community is losing something important today. The online version of the Annapolis Capital Gazette will carry some Bowie stories moving forward, and there are other online sources for local news, but we will no longer have a community paper connecting us together.”

The newspaper’s termination was announced on July 12 by Al Lott, Bowie city manager. Lott was notified of the paper’s end by Timothy Thomas, senior vice president of business development at Baltimore Sun Media Group.

The decision to end the newspaper was made within two months of Alden Global Capital for $633 million purchasing Tribune Publishing, the parent company of The Baltimore Sun Media Group.

The New York City-based hedge fund was granted majority ownership for all of the Tribune newspapers, including The Baltimore Sun, Bowie Blade-News, Capital Gazette, Carroll County Times and The Aegis.

Alden Global Capital owns nearly 200 newspapers across the country, and has a history of cutting newspaper budgets and laying off journalists.

While the Bowie Blade-News’ time has come to an end, the Capital-Gazette will continue to keep a Bowie news section on its website.

See Also:

• Bowie Blade-News Ceases Publication After 41 Years
• Tribune Publishing Agrees To Purchase By Alden