On the heels of the closure of the century-old Medford Mail Tribune, EO Media Group announced Friday the company’s plans to open a new publication in the city.

The paper, which will be called The Tribune, will focus on publishing news online that will be curated for print editions three times a week. EO Media Group COO Heidi Wright said the company plans to launch the publication in the next two weeks.

“I know that the market is vibrant, it is a community, it is a strong community, and I think it fits very well with the purpose that EO Media has with community journalism,” Wright said Friday.

The Mail Tribune, one of the state’s oldest newspapers and the state’s first to win a Pulitzer Prize, ceased online publication permanently on Jan. 13 after ending its print product in the fall. The closure left the Medford area without a local news outlet and was followed by the closure.

An editor has yet to be identified for the new publication, though Wright said the company hopes to bring someone on board to lead the team who is familiar with the Medford and Jackson County communities.

In addition to core advertising and publishing staff, the company plans to hire a newsroom of 14 people to start the newspaper, including seven reporters.

“That’s what it means to be a community newspaper,” Wright said.

EO made a similar move into a new community in 2019 when the company purchased The Bend Bulletin in a bankruptcy auction with the help of $1.4 million from local investors.

Plans for opening The Tribune don’t currently involve outside investors, according to Wright, who is also the publisher of The Bulletin.

“We’ve done it, we know how to do it, and the family is in this for the right reasons,” Wright said of expanding into new communities, referring to the Forrester-Brown family that owns the company.

Though EO Media isn’t purchasing or taking over the now-closed Mail Tribune, Wright said the company hopes to attract subscribers who are now without a local newspaper.

Subscriptions will be available in two ways, with a base fee covering the cost of newsgathering and content production, and an additional fee for printing and delivery for subscribers who wish to receive printed editions.

EO Media’s expansion into Southern Oregon could also include a partnership with Ashland News, a nonprofit news organization that launched last year to cover the Ashland and Talent communities.

The start-up came in the wake of Rosebud Media closing the Ashland Tidings, the sister publication of the Medford Mail Tribune.

“Medford will have a distribution and support network on the business side that would improve our distribution and logistical support,” said Bert Etling, executive editor of Ashland News. “It could be a good compliment, and I look forward to having further discussions.”

Etling said the Mail Tribune’s closure was a surprise to many in Southern Oregon.

“When that announcement went out (last week), it was kind of like all the air went out of the room,” Etling told The Bend Bulletin. “It was kind of breathtaking, literally.”

He said Ashland News has seen a 10% increase in newsletter subscribers in the days since the paper’s closure.

“People are hungry for news and people are hungry for nonpartisan, well-reported, contextual journalism,” Etling said.

The Medford Mail-Tribune was the first of two Oregon newspapers to announce they were shutting down. The Lebanon Express weekly shut down this week. It is owned by Lee Enterprises, the Iowa-based newspaper group that publishes over 75 newspapers in 26 states.

In Oregon, Lee owns the Corvallis Gazette Times and Albany Democrat Herald. Staff at the two Oregon newspapers reported layoffs this week of some staff.

Oregon’s largest newspaper, the Oregonian, based in Portland, is owned by Advance Publications, the newspaper wing of the publishing operation run by the Newhouse family of New York.

Newhouse’s magazine arm includes Conde Nast, the high-end publisher of 24 titles including Vogue, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, GQ, Wired, and Conde Nast Traveler.

Oregon Capital Bureau reporter Gary A. Warner contributed to this report.