This is really disappointing to hear.  The Lake Paper was such a great source for news and information for the LKN community.  It seems a lot of a papers have been shutting down recently due to economy.  It's too bad The Lake Norman Times was one of the papers affected.

The Lake Norman Times will cease publication later this month, a victim of the nation's declining economy and a stagnant advertising market in the Lake Norman area.

 

Officials of Womack Publishing Co. Inc., which founded the weekly newspaper 17 years ago, informed the Times' staff of its decision during a meeting March 25.
The Times' last edition will be published April 15, according to Womack Publishing president and chief operating officer Diane White.

 

Subscribers will receive prorated refunds, and advertisers who have multi-week contracts will also receive a prorated refund.

 

"Closing the Lake Norman Times was a difficult decision, especially considering our 17-year commitment to the newspaper and Lake Norman community," White said.

 

"Our vision from the beginning was to publish a great newspaper that tied together the entire Lake Norman community - giving readers a single source for news, events and advertising. We remained true to that vision to the end."

 

The Lake Norman Times was founded in 1993, with its mission to cover the events and decisions that affect North Carolina's biggest lake, the residents who live along its 520 miles of shoreline and the communities that surround it.

 

It recently had its best year on the editorial side, garnering a paper-record five awards from the N.C. Press Association's 2008 News, Editorial and Photojournalism Contest. That included the paper's first-ever first place award, and its first General Excellence award.

 

The Times received second place in General Excellence for small community newspapers, and earned first place in general news reporting for its coverage of the fatal explosion and fire aboard the Championship II charter boat in June 2008.

The newspaper also received second place in sports photography and Use of Photos, and third place for Appearance and Design.

 

The five awards were the most that the Times has earned since it began publication, and was its first NCPA journalism award since former editor Mary Katherine Creel took third place in Profile Feature in 2005.

 

However, the success of the Times' editorial coverage was not matched by growth in circulation or advertising revenues, both of which - hampered by the downturn in the economy and a soft real estate market in the Lake Norman area - slipped dramatically over the last 12 months.

 

Womack Publishing, based in Chatham, Va., owns and operates 15 community newspapers in two states. In addition to the Times, the company has newspapers in Hillsborough, Littleton, Mebane, Troy, Warrenton and Yanceyville in North Carolina; and Altavista, Appomattox, Brookneal, Chatham, Emporia, Lawrenceville, Moneta and South Hill in Virginia.

I just found this http://www2.statesville.com/content/2009/mar/30/lake-norman-times-close/

In the email, President and Chief Operating Officer Diane White of owner Womack Publishing in Chatham, Va., said the company has "not been able to make it a profitable newspaper. There are many reasons for this, but suffice it to say that the staff in place now worked hard and gave it a good try. The economy and depressed real estate market at Lake Norman contributed to the final decision."