The clock is ticking loudly on the future of The Quarterly Bark.

A woodlands information publication — in its 29th year — is in need of a new editor and business manager.

Business Manager John Westall has set a deadline of April 28 for someone to step forward and fill the volunteer positions.

Calls for a new editor have been ongoing for the past year as current Editor Rich Clark is retiring. He has served as editor for the past six years, coordinating communications for Oregon Small Woodlands Association chapters in Lane, Linn, Lincoln and Benton counties.

“A year ago we announced that the Bark’s editor would be retiring and solicited a replacement,” Westall and Clark said in a recent email. “In the intervening year, no one has expressed serious interest in the editorship, not even a nibble, as far as we know. So while it’s still possible that someone will step up, it’s now time to have a plan to terminate publication of the Bark in an orderly way,” they added.

“If the Bark is going to cease publication, the four chapters need time to decide what they want to do as an alternative to stay in touch with their members, and enough time to do whatever it is they decide to do by July 1, if that is the date they choose,” according to the email.

Friday, April 28 at 5 pm is the deadline for a new editor and business manager to take the reins.

Westall has previously served as editor and business manager. There is paid advertising in the publication so the deadline is designed to notify the advertisers and provide refunds as needed.

Linn County’s Sherm Sallee started the Bark. Linn County member Mary Brendle came up with the publication’s name.

Print publications — commercial newspapers — throughout the United States have been closing their doors at a rapid pace since the rise of the Internet.

The Covid pandemic may have intensified that downturn. Between the pre-pandemic months of late 2019 and the end of May 2022 more than 360 newspapers closed, according to a study from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications.