Current Newspapers folds after 52 years

A 2016 print edition of The Northwest Current

The May 8th edition of The Current, the weekly newspaper that covered Northwest DC for five decades, was its last. The newspaper is heading for liquidation.

The Washington Post’s Eric Wemple was first to report the news that longtime (and former) publisher Davis Kennedy had petitioned to change the Current’s bankruptcy from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7. DCist reports that the paper’s editorial director broke the news to the staff on May 10th, and goes on to describe the background in great detail.

When Forest Hills Connection was just starting out, the Current allowed us to republish some of its invaluable in-depth reporting in the neighborhood. We are grateful for them for giving us that opportunity. And we miss, already, the Current’s more robust news coverage of that time.

The newspaper was “hyperlocal” before the term became an online buzzword. The version that landed on doorsteps and in apartment building lobbies in this corner of DC was the Northwest Current. Often, it was the only local news outlet covering advisory neighborhood commissions and other neighborhood-level meetings, and the concerns – large and small – of local residents and businesses. Local news blogs arrived later to fill that role, but they can come and go. The Current seemed like it would be a constant presence. It had been for 52 years, after all.