There’s one less way to get your local news in D.C.

The former publisher of The Current newspapers petitioned to change the company’s bankruptcy filing from a Chapter 11 to a Chapter 7 in late April, further eroding any hope that the 52-year-old publication would survive its financial crisis intact. While Chapter 11 bankruptcies allow for a debtor to retain control of their assets and continue business operations, under Chapter 7, companies have to liquidate all their assets to repay their debts.

Mid-Friday afternoon, the paper’s editorial director, Kate Michael, announced in an email to staff that the Current will stop publishing immediately.

“I’m sorry for the abrupt shock of this message. It is a difficult one for me send. I wish I had more specific information to share with you, but I was just told this afternoon that due to a Bankruptcy filing change from the former Publisher, The Current will cease editorial operations,” reads the email. “I am not sure if we will be able to resume in the future under any circumstances, but will be in touch with you should that be possible.”

Erik Wemple of the Washington Post broke the news on Twitter over the weekend.

The Current, which covers several affluent communities in Northwest D.C., including Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, and Dupont, owes massive amounts of money to its printers and other companies. At the time of its initial bankruptcy filing in January 2018, it owed nearly $1.3 million and had assets of less than $50,000. Its publications include The Northwest Current and The Georgetown Current, and it covers the kinds of hyperlocal news other outlets often ignore: detailed recaps of ANC meetings, zoning battles, business closures and openings, real estate deals, and the like.

The Current was founded in 1967 as The Potomac Current, covering an area then referred to as Potomac Heights. “This paper is published on the premise that many events of significant interest to area residents happen constantly but are too parochial to warrant proper reporting,” the paper wrote in 1968. That philosophy appeared to serve the paper well for many years, as it gained relevance and became a trustworthy source of news for the people it served. About two years ago, as the paper approached its 50th birthday, The Current launched a website with the intention of bringing its product into the 21st-century news landscape.

But the 21st century hasn’t been all that kind to newspapers, particularly not local ones like The Current. By the start of last year, reports were surfacing of serious financial problems at the paper. Employees were unable to pick up their prescriptions because the company’s insurance had lapsed; checks were late, and employees were told not to cash them for several days; the paper’s printer, Gannett, was suing it for unpaid bills. Nearly the entire editorial staff of the Current left in 2017, including Chris Kain, who’d been the managing editor of the paper for 26 years. Kain now runs the local news operation The DC Line.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2018. Since then, the paper has been operating on a bare-bones staff as onlookers waited to see what would happen in its bankruptcy restructuring.

Now, it appears the newspaper is at the end of the road. Kate Michael declined to comment further on the publication’s closure, referring DCist to chief operating officer David Ferrara. Ferrara did not return a call requesting comment.

Brady Holt, who started interning at the paper in 2009 and eventually became the assistant managing editor before leaving in 2017, tells DCist in an email that The Current’s closure is a loss for local news (Holt still contributed a weekly “On Autos” column).

“The Current has always stood out to me for the depth of its coverage and its meticulous quality control. If you told someone you were writing a story for The Current, no one would tell you ‘Oh, it’s biased’ or ‘Oh, it’s sloppy.’ They’d tell you how much they appreciate it,” Holt says. “We didn’t cover exciting stories, but they mattered, and our deep bench of institutional knowledge meant we covered them very well. It’s been a shame to see so much of that institutional knowledge lost in the last couple of years when the financial realities started to hit home.”

This post has been updated to reflect that the former publisher changed the bankruptcy filing in late April.