Today is the last day the Ann Arbor News will print a daily edition. It's one of the early casualties of the war between pixels and paper.
Pixels are definitely on the attack and the print media are circling the wagons and playing defense.
What the print folks need to do is to reinvent themselves, toss out the 200-year-old business model and come up with a newspaper that people want to buy and want to read and want to buy advertising in.
I hear over and over again from people who love to read the paper and love to hold a newspaper in their hands and fear that all papers will go the way of the AA News. I don't think that is the inevitable fate of the entire industry but it could be leaning that way if we don't get the right people in the right places to make key strategic decisions and to have a vision of what the future of newspapers must look like.
It's a lot like having a good general in a time of war. We can win this thing and survive, or we can lose the war and be wiped out. We need visionary and competent leadership.
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The story reprinted below, with photos and sidebars, can be read online here.
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Farewell Ann Arbor:
News closing ends decades-long tradition of daily newspaper publishing
by Geoff Larcom | The Ann Arbor News
July 23, 2009 08:00AM
A publishing tradition that began in 1835, when an optimistic pioneer printer named Earl P. Gardiner started the Michigan Argus, enters a dramatic new era today.
The Ann Arbor News is closing. Today is our final edition. A corporate decision announced exactly four months ago has ticked down to its last moment.
Farewell, Ann Arbor. Hugs all around.
For some, this day is tinged with sadness and shock over the loss of an Ann Arbor institution, the city's only daily newspaper. But others are curious about what the future holds in a time of rapid media change.
AnnArbor.com, a Web-driven successor to The News that will also print a Thursday and Sunday paper, plans to unveil its new site Friday. The first newspaper will come out Sunday.
They are drastically different events, both in tone and substance, yet both the closure and the launch underscore the sense of transience and humility that comes in researching the 174-year history of newspaper publishing in Ann Arbor.
You realize, as then-publisher Timothy White remarked in 1985, when The News celebrated its 150th birthday, that we are but temporary caretakers in chronicling events in our town. Today is the latest link in a chain of inevitable change.
Ann Arbor's main newspaper has also been called The Ann Arbor Courier, The True Democrat, The Daily Times, The Daily Argus, The Daily Times News and The Ann Arbor Daily News. The paper finally became The Ann Arbor News in 1937, several months after it moved into its present building at 340 E. Huron St.
Throughout the city's history, the papers operated from nearby locations in downtown Ann Arbor. A nearly month-long printers' strike in 1958 and a three-day closure after a blizzard buried the town in 1978 are the only reported breaks in our publication.
That is, until today.
As Ann Arbor grew from a hamlet of about 1,000 in 1835 to today's city of more than 110,000, the paper was there almost every step of the way.
Among the nation's best
Unlike today's mixed package of news, features and columns, the 19th-century Ann Arbor papers had a political mission. Gardiner was an unabashed Democrat and used the paper to promote his views, as did his successors.
The 20th century offered a more objective brand of coverage, although until the 1970s the paper emphasized national news out front before becoming more local on its cover page.
Recent years have brought state and national distinction to The News as it became more proactive and aggressive. A 1989 study by the American Society of Newspaper Editors named The News one of the top 14 smaller-sized papers in the country, citing the papers' reporting, content and display. The News was selected out of a field of about 1,350 papers with daily circulations of 50,000 or less, about 85 percent of all daily papers in America.
Such papers "refuse to be intimidated by their size," said Jeanne Abbott, a professor of journalism at the University of Missouri who helped select the honorees. "Their visions are ambitious and uncompromising ...
Brian Reynolds, The Ann Arbor NewsAnn Arbor News copy editor Domenica Trevor laughs Wednesday at photos of staff members taken by photographer Leisa Thompson in the newsroom. Today is the last day of publication for The News.
"In these newspapers, there is a great deal of joy in the product, an awareness of the possibilities and a healthy skepticism of limitations."
Ed Petykiewicz, who has served as editor of The News from the summer of 1988 to today's closing, said then that quality begins with the publisher's commitment to excellence "and is reinforced by planning and a staff that knows how to handle any unforeseen event with imagination and professionalism."
Such honors have continued through this year, when a four-day series by The News on the intersection of academics and athletics at the University of Michigan won first place for investigative reporting in a statewide Michigan Associated Press editorial contest for papers of all sizes.
The News' editorial pages have also ranked among the best in the state. A first place honor in the 2007 Michigan Press Associaton contest cited writing that presented "local issues with a solid flow that wasn't weighed down by numbers or forced facts."
In addition, The News' sports section and reporting efforts have consistently been judged in the nation's top 10 in an annual contest conducted by the Associated Press Sports Editors.
The awards are recent examples in a string of honors over the last 30 years that have stamped The News as a consistent producer of public-service oriented stories that hold officials accountable.
Petykiewicz credits the Ann Arbor News' staff for such sustained excellence. People who could work in larger markets often came to Ann Arbor, where they enjoyed the quality of life and nature of the job. "We've always had better journalists than you would expect for the size of the paper," Petykiewicz said this month.
Laurel Champion, who has served as publisher of The News since March 2005, says working with a talented group of employees was the top satisfaction of serving in the top spot.
"I've always felt that from our news coverage to our printing quality to our sales effort, we have put out a top-notch quality newspaper that would rival any other," Champion said this month.
Throughout the years, amid the varying approaches to gathering news, came the thousands of stories, headlines and editorials that knit together the triumph, tragedy and excitement that tell the history of a fascinating city.
Lon Horwedel, The Ann Arbor NewsAnn Arbor News editor Ed Petykiewicz packs up his belongings in his office Wednesday morning.
"It's a great newspaper town," says Dave Bishop, who served in a variety of positions, including managing editor, ombudsman and columnist, during a 35-year career at The Ann Arbor News that ended with his retirement in the fall of 1999. "People are intensely interested in local affairs. Readers have high expectations. That made us better."
Yet even such a vibrant and affluent town could not guarantee The News ' survival, as Ann Arbor today becomes the first city in the country to lose its only daily newspaper.
Advocacy, then balance
The early descendants of The Ann Arbor News engaged in a century of boisterous opinion before moderation set in during the middle of the twentieth century.
Through the prism of history, many of the editorial statements are confounding and even absurd.
Abraham Lincoln was "not a scholar" and "has no reputation as a statesman" said The Weekly Michigan Argus in 1860.
Alf Landon was the perfect antidote to the Marxism of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, said The Ann Arbor Daily News in 1936.
And in the late 1850s, The Argus covered the trial of a man who killed a long-time friend for seducing his wife. The paper clucked approvingly, noting that shooting your wife's lover "should set many a seducer to thinking."
But such wild flourishes of opinion, usually arising from the whims of a highly political editor/owner, evolved into more responsible comment in the 20th century.
In 1954, during his first months of a 22-year tenure as editor, Art Gallagher greatly expanded the letters to the editor feature, leading to decades of lively exchange between readers and their paper.
That dialogue intensified during what Gallagher refers to as the "Sizzling Sixties." As former U-M student Judy Rakowsky noted during an interview with Gallagher in 1978: "Issues that rumbled below the surface in other Michigan towns erupted into demonstrations and public outcry in Ann Arbor."
During the Vietnam War, The News endured sharp criticism from both liberals and conservatives. One night, someone painted "One News is bad news" in big black letters on the white stone Ann Arbor News building, recalls Gallagher in personal papers on file in U-M's Bentley Historical Library.
The paper was picketed by anti-war groups, yet also fell victim to an unsuccessful boycott by a veterans group that advocated the war. Gallagher even faced pressure from colleagues around the newspaper chain for what some considered excessive coverage of civil rights events and issues.
Throughout the turbulent times, Gallagher said he tried to set a balanced tone that didn't turn away from injustices minorities faced in Ann Arbor.
"We couldn't have gotten away with being a crusading type of newspaper in this town," Gallagher told Rakowsky in 1978. "It's too intelligent."
Lon Horwedel, The Ann Arbor NewsAnn Arbor News receptionist Dawn Tobias sorts through the last week's worth of papers Wednesday morning, the day before the closing of The News.
No sacred cows
In recent years, the news and editorial pages pushed hard for openness by public officials, covering the gap between what is said publicly and what it is reality.
The News' recent stories often cast a sharp eye on behind-the-scenes activity of public officials. Among the topics were heavy payouts of pension funds to Ann Arbor city officials who manipulated the system, golden parachutes to cabinet members of former U-M president James Duderstadt and the deteriorating relationship between former U-M president Lee Bollinger and the Board of Regents.
The News focused its investigative efforts on a variety of topics. Special projects included in-depth reporting on Ann Arbor's schools, on local growth and development, the Huron River and the complex relationship between U-M and Ann Arbor.
Petykiewicz says the coverage transcended politics. "There were no sacred cows ..." he said. "We didn't genuflect to political ideology - either conservative or liberal. That was unsettling to people who wanted a homogenous approach that was shaped through a lens of political correctness.
"No one got a pass on the issues of openness and public disclosure."
Sometimes, in recent years, The News' actions drew fire from segments of the community while others praised the paper's sense of independence.
In the early 1990s, The News became one of the first newspapers in the country to publish news of commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples. Dissenting portions of the community refused any discussion on the issue.
Alan Warren, The Ann Arbor NewsPapers roll off the presses at The Ann Arbor News printing plant on State Road.
Many residents also criticized The News when it endorsed George W. Bush over Al Gore in the 2004 presidential election, and then declined to endorse any candidate in the most recent campaign. Several hundred subscribers canceled their subscriptions after the Bush endorsement, but nearly all quietly restarted.
As the editorial voice of The News grew in strength and impact, so did its charitable footprint, as The News became an active corporate partner around town.
The News' "Warm The Children" clothing program became a staple of the Christmas giving season, raising more than $1 million to purchase new clothes for needy youngsters.
The paper helped sponsor many community events and became a central player in the annual United Way campaign. Ann Arbor News executives served in top leadership roles, yet the paper wrote stories exposing financial irregularities in the local United Way, a noteworthy dichotomy between service and function.
Business decline
Yet despite years of solid journalism and community involvement, business conditions began to chip away at The News. Over the last 10 years, The New experienced a sharp decline in advertising revenue set against rising fixed costs.
The slide began with classified advertising, with losses significantly increasing in the last few years with the advent of online alternatives. Display advertising also declined in 2007 on the heels of Pfizer's announcement to pull out of Ann Arbor. As revenues shrank, expenses rose, most notably newsprint, which increased 30 percent in the last year alone.
Brian Reynolds, The Ann Arbor NewsAnn Arbor News reporter Art Aisner leaves the Ann Arbor News building with a carrier's bag to deliver old Ann Arbor News photos to the fire department on Wednesday.
News management began to offer buyouts and decreased the size of the paper in a dramatic effort to trim costs. In May of 2008, the paper had 321 full and part time employees, compared to 258 a year later. Finally came the March 23 announcement that Advance Publications, which owns The News and seven other Michigan papers, had decided to shut down its Ann Arbor property and start over. No longer would Advance struggle with the means of "managing decline," in the words of said Matt Kraner, president of AnnArbor.com.
In the online world, AnnArbor.com will minimize the most costly expenses associated with publishing a daily newspaper - newsprint, printing and distribution - while functioning with a smaller staff.
"Putting out a daily print newspaper in this market is not a sustainable business," Champion says. "Over the last couple of years, we've made a lot of tough decisions to reduce our costs carefully and appropriately, even as we continued to suffer severe advertising losses.
"Unfortunately those cuts could not turn the course for us."
In summing up his 21-year run as editor, Petykiewicz echoes the thoughts of hundreds of colleagues in conveying the excitement imbedded in 174 years of newspaper history.
"I love our profession and what we do," he says. "We have front-row seats to history as it unfolds. It is wonderfully exciting, and the unpredictability of life gives us opportunity after opportunity to write about new events that have the potential to explain issues or trigger emotional responses from readers ...
"I'm grateful for the opportunity to be the editor of a daily newspaper that has done very good work and is widely respected in our industry.
"I wish it didn't have to end this way."
Geoff Larcom can be reached at 734-417-9658 or glarcom@gmail.com.
