'Sundowning' the Sandusky Register: Here's a prediction
Why the loss of a YouTube channel isn’t an IT glitch—it’s the end of a 200-year conversation
SANDUSKY — If you want to know what the future of the Sandusky Register looks like, don’t look at the front page. Look at the trash can.
When Ogden Newspapers deleted 20 years of our community’s video history this month, they weren’t just “migrating servers.” They were clearing the deck. After serving as the Register’s editor from 2006 to 2025, I’ve seen enough to know that when a corporate chain treats a community’s archives as “digital clutter,” the institution itself is entering its final act.
During my tenure, I worked closely with publishers like Doug Phares, Tim Parkinson, and Ron Waite. Our mission wasn’t just to sell ads; it was to identify local leaders and listen to their visions for the future of Sandusky and Erie County. Our goals were to understand them, always, to understand our community, better. We had a staff then—a real, robust newsroom—that cultivated deep relationships with our schools, our public agencies, and our neighbors. We shared a common bond: a bone-deep respect for this community and a desire to make it a better place to raise a family.
We were deeply embedded because we were the oldest operating business in the area. We had the resources to act as the community’s town square. When the 2008 recession hit, we produced a six-week series of public forums to help our readers cope. We hosted more than 100 political debates. We even launched a campaign demanding that presidential candidates come to Sandusky to earn our votes. And they did. In 2008, John McCain met with a Register reporter; in 2012, President Barack Obama arrived, and our own Andy Ouriel met Air Force One on the tarmac.
We were at the end of a 200-year run where the city (founded in 1818) and the newspaper (founded in 1822) were intertwined for eight generations. The level of self-knowledge we shared during that period—the understanding of who we were and where we were going—was a peak we may never see again. The chances that our community will ever know itself better than we did during those years is, frankly, nil.
But today, that legacy is being liquidated. According to the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University, we are watching a textbook case of a “Ghost Newspaper.” This is a publication that still prints a masthead but has had its soul—the newsroom—hollowed out.
Industry forecasts for 2026 predict that print advertising revenue will plunge another 45% this year. For a company like Ogden, which has already sold the iconic Register building where it was headquartered for 100 years and consolidated press operations in Findlay, the next move isn’t reinvestment—it’s retreat. They are “sundowning” the Register, turning a 200-year-old pillar of the community into a hollowed-out corporate shell managed from West Virginia.
The Register as a corporate entity is fading. We can’t stop that. But the news—and the community bond we built—doesn’t have to die. Independent, digital-only news is the only “bright spot” left in journalism because it belongs to the people, not a CEO’s bottom line.
That is why I am building StayTunedSandusky.com. The Register might be a ghost, but our history belongs to us.
30 days to act
We cannot let two decades of Sandusky’s history vanish because of a corporate IT migration. I am calling on the Erie County Historical Society and our local leaders to demand that Ogden Newspapers restore the Register’s YouTube channel before the 30-day recovery window closes.
How you can help:
Share this post: Let the community know what is being lost.
Contact the owner: Bob Nutting also owns the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball team. Write to him at
Ask Jeremy Speer (jspeer@advertiser-tribune.com) why our history was deleted and when it will be restored.Join the movement: Visit StayTunedSandusky.com to help keep local journalism—and our community’s memory—alive.
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