When an important community business and local institution announces its filing for bankruptcy protection, you’d think that would be news enough. But when the Reading Eagle did so in March, The Philadelphia Inquirer headline read, “The Pennsylvania newspaper where novelist John Updike interned files for bankruptcy.”

“The Reading Eagle, partly owned by two of the richest families in America, filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday afternoon as the local-news industry continues to be battered,” reporter Bob Fernandez wrote.

“The Eagle was founded by Jesse G. Hawley and William S. Ritter in 1868 and has been owned by Hawley’s descendants since then. In the 1950s, author John Updike worked several summers as a copyboy at the Eagle and also wrote several feature articles.”