URANUS, MO (RNN) – Newspapers across the country have fallen on hard times and the one in Uranus is no exception.
The Uranus Examiner, a short-lived newspaper in based in unincorporated Pulaski County, MO, has ended weekly publication after just five editions.
The editors blamed judgmental people and the “Fuddy Duddy Patrol” for the paper’s demise.
It had a difficult time getting funding after several banks declined to loan it money and many businesses refuse to buy advertisement in it.
“I don’t hold that against them, I know of a few businesses that had idiots call them and complain about them advertising in our paper,” Examiner owner Louie Keen wrote in his final column. “However, those ‘idiots’ were few and far between as the majority of the citizens loved what we were doing.
Keen claimed the paper was being shunned because he used to own a strip club.
“We were committed to trying to help the community with a great newspaper. The problem was, a few fools in the community couldn’t allow that to happen because I used to own a strip club,” Keen wrote. “The only people they punished were the vast majority of citizens who appreciated what we were trying to do for the community.”
Waynesville, a city just 10 minutes away from Uranus, used to be serviced by the Waynesville Daily Guide. Editors hoped the Examiner would fill the void left behind when the Daily Guide shut down in September.
Natalie Sanders, who once worked for the Waynesville paper, announced the paper’s name a chamber of commerce luncheon in September. When she did, Waynesville Mayor Luge Hardman asked for the microphone and made it known his town would have nothing to do with it, KYTV reported.
“No. I'm sorry. But, the innuendo of that title puts my city up for public ridicule, and I will not be a part of it," Hardman said.
Even so, Keen insists his previous ownership of a strip club was the issue, not the paper’s name.
“It was NEVER about the name, it was about the fact that I used to own a strip club,” Keen wrote.
Keen said the Examiner will live on as a bi-annual publication with the next issue expected in Spring 2019.
“Instead of 50,000 copies, we will be sending out 150,000-200,000 copies and cover a HUGE swath of Mid-Missouri,” Keen said.
Copyright 2018 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved.
