SOUTHBURY – Voices newspaper is no longer publishing, according to a column from the publication’s executive editor posted Wednesday (Nov. 4).
“Sadly, following dramatic cost increases in recent years for printing, trucking, postage and other operating expenses, coupled with a steady decline of advertising revenue that pays the bills, providing a free weekly community newspaper by mail has become untenable,” according to the column by Kurt Mazurosky.
Voices was published by Prime Publishers, based in Southbury. The paper covered 11 communities, including Oxford and Seymour.
It’s been publishing since 1968, according to an article in the Southbury Record.
The Nov. 4 edition was the paper’s last, according to Mazurosky.
The publication’s website will be online for the foreseeable future, according to the column. The public can still send in press releases, community announcements, photos, and sports stories.
However, “reporter news coverage will be suspended,” according to the column.
“The entire Voices staff and Prime Publishers family would like to thank the many readers who sent in support donations in recent years, some of you frequently. Your donations kept Voices going through the pandemic to the present. We could not be more grateful. It breaks our hearts to stop the presses,” Mazurosky wrote.
About 20 years ago the newspaper had a Wednesday circulation of about 28,000 copies, according to a 2001 lawsuit Voices filed against The Republican-American of Waterbury. It published a Sunday edition at the time with another 22,500 readers.
Print newspapers have been on the decline for decades.
Advertising revenue for the newspaper industry as a whole fell 80 percent between 2006 and 2022, according to the Pew Research Center.
Weekly community newspapers were hit especially hard by the collapse in advertising, as many traditional weeklies relied primarily on advertising for revenue, as opposed to subscriptions.
And, as the Voices editor wrote, cost increases continue to hammer what’s left of the community newspaper industry.
In a September 2025 column explaining why his newspaper’s subscription price was going up, Kyle Troutman, the owner and publisher of the Cassville Democrat in Montana, pointed out the paper faced nearly 30 percent cost increases for both printing and postage.
Since 2009, the lower Naugatuck Valley has lost several non-daily publications, including The Oxford Gazette, The Valley Gazette, and The Valley Times.