The Mobile Press-Register, long recognized as the oldest daily newspaper in Alabama, is preparing to end print publication after roughly 200 years, its parent company announced this week. The shift marks the close of a print tradition in Mobile that dates back to the early 19th century.
Alabama Media Group, which owns the Press-Register along with the Birmingham News and the Huntsville Times, said all three papers will stop publishing their print editions, which had already been reduced to three times a week, after Feb. 26. Following that date, the outlets will operate entirely online.
Alabama Media Group said it will keep an office presence in Mobile, but the newspaper’s longtime production plant in downtown Mobile, home to a press that cost an estimated $20 million, will be shut down as part of the transition away from print.
The Press-Register’s roots trace back to 1813, when it began as the Mobile Gazette, making it one of the oldest continuously operating newspaper brands in the Southeast. Over the following two centuries, the paper went through numerous changes. Its afternoon edition, the Mobile Press, stopped publishing in 1997. The paper’s run as a true daily ended in 2012, when owner Advance Publications scaled back staffing and cut the publication schedule amid broader financial pressure on the newspaper industry.
The Press-Register also changed addresses during its long history, relocating from its longtime home on Government Street to a new building on Water Street in 2002.
The move to end print reflects a trend playing out across the newspaper industry nationally, as outlets increasingly shift resources toward digital publishing in response to changing reader habits and advertising revenue. For a region where the Press-Register has been a fixture of daily life for generations, the change represents a significant break from a print tradition that predates the state’s modern history.
Alabama Media Group has not detailed specific changes to subscription pricing or staffing beyond the shift to all-digital publishing. The company’s decision affects three of Alabama’s most established newspaper brands, all of which trace their roots back well over a century.