~be 1id Igan hI4 INEEEN YEARS OF ED Tuesday, March 24, 2009 .hE Ann Arbor, Michigan michigandaily.com PRINT INDUSTRY WOES HIT HOME A2 News to close after 174 years Newspaper will move online in July Museum of Art Director James Steward's 'town hall for the arts' opens to students tonight. By BEN VANWAGONER Daily Fine Arts Editor After two-and-a-half years and $41.9 million worth of renovation and expansion, University stu- dents will finally get a glimpse of the University of Michigan Muse- um of Art's long-awaited make- over tonight. The length of construction means that for many students on campus, this evening's preview will be their first chance to expe- rience the museum, which houses more than 18,000 works of art and is now more than double its previ- ous size. During a walkthrough of the museum yesterday, UMMA Director.James Steward's rueful grimace made it clear that he real- ized this all too well. "How many of you were in the museum before (the expansion)?" he asked Daily staff on a tour yes- terday. "Probably not many." The Museum's doors will be open tonight from 8 p.m. until midnight. Planned exclusively with students in mind, the pre- view features two DJs and Ann Arbor band The Great Divide, who will perform amid the oil paint- ings and sculpture of the Europe- an and American art gallery. Most events will be occurring in the Apse - a wide-open, col- umned space in the middle of the old wing - butevery gallery in the newly expanded museum is open for exploration. UMMA PREVIEW WHAT: A free preview of the Art Museum open to all University of, Michigan students. WHEN: Tonight from 8 p.m. until midnight. WHY: Live entertainment, free food and a chance to explore the building before it opens. Steward emphasized that con- necting with students is one of the. Museum's major goals, and many of the features of the new section - officially the Frankel Wing - are designed to enable that. The purpose of the expansion is to create what Steward calls a . "town hall for the arts" by bring- ing students, faculty and com- munity into direct, unmediated contact with art and with each other. "We want it to be like the Diag," Steward said. He places the Museum among older traditions of collaboration and exchange with suitably high hopes. "Think of the marketplace in Athens," Steward said. "It wasn't just a marketplace - it was also whereSocratic dialoguetook place, where ideas were exchanged." The space in the old wing has been vastly modified to bring visi- tors closer to the art. Whole ceilings have been redone, and new skylights See UMMA, Page 7 - I CHANELV00N H'ABSOURG-LOTHRiNGEN/DaO ~ TOP An installatiun piece using litht bulbs sits on a wall in the top huorstf the museum's "Vertical Gallery." BOTTOM Museum at Att Director James Steward stands in the museum's old wise. Thn ceilint in this recently renoaed part ot the museum was made In allom natral light inside. MUSEUM MULTIMEDIA HeartDirerlorlJames Stewatd discuss hisnvisionlforthe museam and his plans to connect Sm ith students' lines, as he goides wrilers from The Michigan Oaily through an exdlusise tour oflthe museum. Gob o michigandailycom By LINDY STEVENS Daily News Editor In an announcement made at a staff meeting yesterday morning, Laurel Champion, publisher of The Ann Arbor News, told employees that the newspaper plans to close its doors and stop publishing in July. In an interview yesterday, Cham- pion said she and a few key execu- tives learned of the newspaper's decision to close about one month ago, but that most Ann Arbor News employees heard the announce- ment for the first time yesterday. Champion said a marked decline in advertising revenue - with Jan- pary advertising sales figures down 20 percent from last year - largely contributed to the newspaper's financial challenges. "We had very serious losses last year and those losses declined even more in the past months," she said. The Ann Arbor News - owned by parent company Booth Newspa- pers - will be replaced by AnnAr- bor.com, a website that will publish local news online. The News will continue to pub- lish its daily content on Mlive.com in the interim. AnnArbor.com, owned by Web- based media company AnnArbor. com LLC, is expected to begin operations later this year and has plans to circulate a print edition on Sundays and Thursdays. Champion, who will be executive vice president of the new company, See NEWSPAPER, Page 7 The hole in Ann Arbor's local news By MATT AARONSON Daily StaffReporter Yesterday's announcement of the end of The Ann Arbor News is yet another dark cloud in the ever- worsening landscape of print jour- nalism in this country. All across the country, news- papers are switching to an online format, cutting down on staff and content, filing for bankruptcy and even going under. Though 15,704 people lost a job at a newspaper in 2008, and over 6,000 have already lost their jobs this year, accord-' ing to Paper Cuts, a website that tracks layoffs, buyouts and news in the U.S. newspaper industry, some local experts have begun to speculate that the Ann Arbor's tech-savvy community could make for a smooth transition to a strictly online news outlet. "Many people think that we're experiencing a slow but quicken- ing death spiral of the newspaper industry," said Michael Traugott, chair of the University's Commu- nications Department, in an inter- view yesterday. "So who is going to keep an eye from a news perspective on devel- opers, the University of Michigan, certain kinds of businesses as well as the political machinery in local government?" he said. Dave Askins,-editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle, a local, online news See JOURNALISM, Page 7 THE DIGITAL PRESS SU' will merge publishing operations with the library 0 Combined effort will update the way the University Press prints its books By KYLE SWANSON Daily StaffReporter University officials announced plans on Friday to merge the Uni- versity of Michigan Press with the University Library in an effort to reinforce the University's mission of efficiently publishing scholarly texts while transitioning into the digital age. The announcement came * approximately one month after the Association of American Uni- versities and the Association of Research Libraries issued a call to action urging universities to take a more active role in producing and sharing academic works through digital technologies. Under the new plan, Dean of Libraries Paul Courant will over- see the University of Michigan Press. Philip Pochoda, director of the University of Michigan Press, said the library is a natural partner for the University Press and that the change will place the publishing house at the center of the Univer- sity's digitization efforts. The move will signal a major change for the University of Mich- igan Press, Pochoda said. The Uni- versity of Michigan Press will now digitize scholarly books and only print them once an order has been placed. The conventional method of a publishing house involves print- ing a certain number of copies of a book and storing the copies in a warehouse until orders are placed, Pochoda said. The University of Michigan Press's new model will, therefore, avoid printing more copies than necessary and reduce physical storage costs. Pochodasaiddespitethis, some areas of the University of Michi- gan Press will not be affected. He said books published for the general reader, including books on the Great Lakes and issues of public concern like personal health or poverty will continue to be published under the cur- rent model. Pochoda said the reorganization will better align the University of Michigan Press with the'goals of the University asa whole. "(It will) allow us to connect to the central mission of the Uni- versity," he said. "(The move) puts us into being a part of the academic mission of the Univer- sity." The move, Pochoda said, will See PUBLISHING, Page 7 Local residents voice complaints over downtown rezoning plans A2D2 aims to bring more residential areas into city's reach By LARA ZADE Daily StaffReporter At last night's Ann Arbor Dis- covering Downtown (A2D2) public comment session, City Council gave the public a chance to voice their opinions about proposed changes to simplify current zoning ordinances to help foster increased population density in downtown Ann Arbor. A2D2, which was established in Sept. 2006, would condense about 12 current downtown zoning areas cHRIS DZOMBAK/Daily into two, known as Dl and D2. Ann Arbor's plans to rezone its downtown area could reshape where residents live. Dl is designated as the dens- Property included in the D1 zon- to increase the floor area ratio. er zoning designation, covering ing districts would be about twice Both zoning districts have a most of the downtown area, while as large in floor area ratios as those minimum height of two stories. D2 D2 applies to the transition area designated in D2 districts. Proper- designated properties would have between the downtown core and ties that include beneficial features a maximum height of four to six surrounding residential neighbor- like public parking or affordable stories. hoods. public housing would be permitted See DOWNTOWN, Page 7 WEATHER HI: 54 TOMORROW LO 35 GOT A NE WS TIP? Call 734-763-2459 or e-mail news@michigandaily.com andletus know. 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