The Ann Arbor News is Latest Industry Casualty
End of 174-Year-Old Daily Newspaper Opens Door to a New Experiment
Jul 24, 2009
The Ann Arbor News has gone out of business, closed its doors, and said its 'good-byes.' After 174 years of delivering a daily printed paper seven days a week, The News closed up shop for good on Thursday, July 23, 2009. Its large, two-story granite and limestone newspaper building will be put up for sale. All but a couple dozen of its 272 former employees are searching for work.
Newspaper Casualties are Adding Up
Perhaps that piece of news seems trivial, given that it is the same fate that has been happening to much bigger names in the newspaper business. For example, since the beginning of 2009, bankruptcy has been declared by the parent companies of these newspapers:
- Chicago Tribune
- Los Angeles Times
- Baltimore Sun
- Philadelphia Inquirer
- Philadelphia Daily News
- Minneapolis Star Tribune
The Seattle Post Intelligencer (146 years old) closed down its presses in March, and became a digital only operation, and the 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News shut down completely in February.
Yet, Ann Arbor represents another milestone in this march of the printed newspaper into history. While the Denver Post and the Seattle Times continue to print daily in their respective cities, Ann Arbor becomes the first American city to lose its only daily newspaper. Rick Edmonds at the Poynter Institute calls it a dubious honor.
New Start-up AnnArbor.com is Launched
The Ann Arbor News was a Newhouse Newspaper, a divisin of Advance Publications. With the end of the paper, Advance is experimenting in Ann Arbor with a brand new start-up online news business.
Making clear that AnnArbor.Com will be an entirely new company, the Director of Content at that site, Tony Dearing, said: "..... the conscious decision was we're starting something completely new here - we're not transitioning, we're not reorganizing, we're going to start from the ground up and build a news organization for today."
Dearing had been serving Advance as editor of the Flint (MI) Journal when he was tapped for this new job. He had also worked in Ann Arbor at the News in the 1990's.
Laurel Champion, who has been the most recent publisher of the News, will become executive vice president of the new AnnArbor.com. She also affirmed that this will be "more than a Web site with articles," saying the site will achieve this with:
- social networking features that will allow real-time conversations
- reporters who will be equipped to report news as it happens
- reader input that will drive the features on the site
Plans for AnnArbor.com also include producing a Thursday and Sunday print product with ad supplements.
Community Worries About News Coverage
People in the community have expressed dismay, and worry that real news coverage will diminish. Ann Arbor Councilman Stephen Rapundalo said, "My biggest worry is - is there going to be an adequate amount of news that will get out to the community. It is a serious concern of mine."
Kristen Roberts, 38, told the Washington Post that she will subscribe to the print edition offered by AnnArbor.com. She noted that she has lived in Ann Arbor for 20 years, and finds it "mindboggling" that the city will be without a 7-day-a-week newspaper.
In answer to the community's concerns, Dearing said: "We're dead serious about journalism. Traditional newspapers are contracting. What we're seeking to do here is get out of that model and get into a growth model. "
They are also getting into some competition, according to Rick Edmonds at The Biz Blog which he writes at Poynter Online. Edmonds cites a small, but nationally recognized online start-up by a former News opinion editor. And he notes the daily paper at the University of Michigan (and its Web site), a monthly print journal, Ann Arbor Observer (and its Web site), an Arbor Wiki, and others will be working to replace the daily newspaper that had been part of Ann Arbor since 1835.
More Sources:
Washington Post.com
Mlive.com
PaperTigerNoMore.blogspot.com
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