YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The Vindicator, which recently marked its 150th publication anniversary and is Youngstown’s only daily newspaper, told employees Friday afternoon that it will close.

The news was first reported by 21 WFMJ-TV, a Youngstown television station that is owned by the same family as The Vindicator. The news was independently confirmed by The Plain Dealer.

WFMJ quoted a letter sent to station employees Friday by Mark Brown, the paper’s general manager. According to the station, a letter by Brown and Vindicator Publisher Betty J. H. Brown Jagnow explaining the decision will be published in Saturday’s Vindicator. A source confirmed to The Plain Dealer that The Vindicator’s owners had sought out buyers, but were unable to find one. The paper will stop printing at the end of August.

“It’s stunning news for us, internally, and it’s going to be stunning for the community over the next days and weeks, especially a community that’s endured as much as the Valley has, most recently with the [General Motors] Lordstown closure,” said Todd Franko, Vindicator editor-in-chief. “We’re as vintage a brand as GM, and it’s tough for all of us. Obviously my first concerns are for my coworkers and the people who have spent decades here, but I’m also sad for the Valley and what they’re going to lose. It’s a loss for thousands.”

In interviews, current and former Vindicator staff members expressed sadness, both for employees of the paper and for the Mahoning Valley community.

Bertram de Souza, The Vindicator’s editorial page editor and a columnist, recalled that when he joined the staff 40 years ago this month, the paper staffed multiple bureaus across the Valley and reached some 100,000 readers per day. “Unfortunately, the reality of our industry hit home – literally. It’s painful, for somebody like me, who has dedicated my life.”

De Souza initially planned to stay in the Valley for two years, but stayed on because of the close bond he formed with the paper’s owners and because they gave him the freedom to pursue the stories about organized crime and public corruption he wanted to tell.

“We have been at the forefront of fighting public corruption in the Valley,” he said. And on top of that, he noted, the paper has provided a daily record of weddings and deaths and club meetings – “all of the stuff that makes a local newspaper important to a community.”

Kalea Hall, who was a reporter at the paper for five years, recalled growing up reading The Vindicator with her grandmother. “It was the paper that first taught me the importance of journalism. It was always scrappy and going after corrupt officials. I was in awe of that,” she said. She noted the paper’s role in shedding light on systemic public corruption in the Valley.

“I can’t explain how difficult it is to see this happen, but I understand given the conditions of the newspaper industry. I beg people to support local journalism. It’s essential to democracy,” she said. “I only hope that someone, somewhere picks up the slack and continues to ask the hard questions like The Vindicator reporters did for years and get the news out there that people need to know.”

The closure of the paper will leave a community of hundreds of thousands without a daily newspaper. Mahoning County alone has more than 200,000 residents.

Just days ago, The Vindicator celebrated the 150th anniversary of its publication. As veteran politics and city hall reporter David Skolnick reported, the paper first launched as the weekly Mahoning Vindicator on June 25, 1869. It was first published by James H. Odell.

William F. Maag Sr. acquired the paper in 1887. Under his leadership, it became a daily newspaper. Under the leadership of his son, William F. Maag Jr., it became the only daily newspaper in Youngstown after Maag bought out a rival paper, The Vindicator reported.

The leadership of the paper passed from Maag to his nephew, William J. Brown, then in 1981 to Brown’s widow, Betty J. H. Brown Jagnow, who remains publisher and president.

The closure comes amid a challenging time for local newspapers. In the last decade and a half, nearly one in five newspapers has shuttered, according to research by the University of North Carolina’s Center for Innovation and Stability in Local Media. UNC research from last year calculated a net loss of almost 1,800 local newspapers since 2004. UNC notes that this does not count newsrooms whose resources have been so severely diminished that they are unable to adequately cover their communities.

The shuttering of the Vindicator comes on the heels of other recent economic blows to the Valley, most notably the closure of the Lordstown GM plant earlier this year.

The news is causing concern among community members, one of whom called De Souza on Friday. When the longtime reader asked what she would read now, all he could tell them was that he didn’t know.

But with 60 days left to print, journalists at The Vindicator say they plan to continue the work they’ve always done. “We have 60 days to continue putting out the best paper we can. And we will,” De Souza said.