# The New Castle News > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The New Castle News," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-newcastle-news/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The Pennsylvania local paper John Kiriakou says he tries to scan every day and can no longer afford — $250 a year for a sixteen-page paper with no Wednesday or Sunday edition, edited by a 28-year-old, in a region he describes as a news desert.* The paper comes up as Kiriakou's own instance of a general collapse. He and his co-host had been discussing AI summaries cutting news-site traffic by as much as half, the long decline of newspapers since circulation peaked in 1960, and the emergence of whole regions with no local reporting — "a golden age for political corruption," as Rall puts it. [1] ## The price Kiriakou describes the New Castle News as "my own little local newspaper," one he tries to scan every day, and says it "became so expensive." [1] He gives the comparison that makes the figure sting. He spends something like fifty dollars a year on the New York Post and sixty on the Times, just for access. The New Castle News — which, he notes, does not have a Wednesday edition or a Sunday edition — is $250 a year. "I can't afford $250 a year for a sixteen-page local newspaper." [1] ## The consequence Kiriakou states the loop plainly: "And as a result, they can't afford to hire journalists." [2] He describes what is left. The editor is about 28 years old. The paper covers the local county fair, the farm show, who grew the biggest pumpkin, and what the local churches are doing. [2] Kiriakou does not present this as contemptible — it is simply the whole of what a paper can still do at that size. His verdict on the region is unqualified: "you're right, it's a news desert. There's no other way to describe it." [2] ## The regional papers Asked implicitly what the alternative is, Kiriakou walks through it and finds it exhausted. For regional news one can subscribe to one of the Pittsburgh papers. But the Youngstown Vindicator is gone — and he stresses that Youngstown "was a big city," 110,000 or 120,000 people. "It's done. Its paper's done." [3] He has already noted, in the same exchange, that Canton, Ohio lost its newspaper a couple of years earlier. [1] The area Kiriakou is describing is the one he comes from, and the papers he is counting are the ones that covered it. ## See also - [The Greek community of Warren, Ohio](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/greek-community-of-warren-ohio) - [The Guardian smear series](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-guardian-smear-series) - [Gary Webb and Kill the Messenger](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/gary-webb-kill-the-messenger) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-21), at 55:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUtq-Dx0LGo&t=3314s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-21-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-21), at 55:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUtq-Dx0LGo&t=3345s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-21-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-21), at 56:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUtq-Dx0LGo&t=3376s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-21-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-newcastle-news/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt