Wednesday, January 11th, 2017 / The Statement
4B
Wednesday, January 11th, 201 / The Statement 
 
5B

City Reckons with the
Decline of Newspapers

W

ashtenaw County Commissioner 

Conan Smith resigned his elected 

post in August of 2016, after 

accusations that he engaged in a self-serving 

conflict of interest surfaced.

In a letter to the County Board, Mary Morgan, 

former opinion editor of the now-defunct Ann 

Arbor News, alleged Smith was unethically using 

his position as an elected official to secure a position 

as Washtenaw County’s director of community 

and economic development. The position likely 

would have carried a 6-figure salary.

“The board of commissioners is not responsible 

for hiring county employees, other than the county 

administrator,” Morgan wrote. “So there’s no 

reason for commissioners to be involved in the 

hiring process for other county staff, much less a 

single commissioner acting alone.”

Although acknowledging he had been pursuing 

the position, Smith denied any wrongdoing in an 

interview with the Daily.

In October, Smith announced his intention 

to run for re-election to the county commission 

seat he had resigned from just two months 

earlier, taking himself out of consideration for the 

economic development position.

Faced with only write-in opposition — several 

protest candidates and his board-appointed 

interim successor — some of Smith’s former 

constituents said few voters seemed to be aware 

of his conduct, which they attributed to lax local 

media coverage of the issue.

“It’s kind of sad how many people don’t know 

about this situation,” Ann Arbor resident Judy 

Foy said in an October interview. “He’ll just be the 

name on the ballot.”

When Ann Arborites turned out en masse 

for Hillary Clinton on November 8th — Clinton 

carried 68 percent of the county — Smith’s write-

in opponents secured only 9 percent of the vote. 

Ninety-one percent of voters on Ann Arbor’s west 

side were either unaware of Smith’s resignation 

and waffling, or they were content to overlook it.

Some of Smith’s critics would blame a variety of 

factors, from straight-ticket voting to civic apathy.

“He had the luxury of turning his back on the 

people he’s supposed to represent for a couple 

months... knowing that he’ll get re-elected in 

November because of straight-ticket voting,” local 

resident Jeff Hayner told the Daily in October. 

Others — such as Morgan — attributed the 

scandal and Smith’s reelection to a more systemic 

problem: The deterioration of local news coverage’s 

ability to ensure government transparency, 

beginning with the Ann Arbor News’ 2009 closure 

amid flagging revenue.

“If I had not reported on (Conan Smith), it 

wouldn’t have been daylighted,” Morgan said. 

“In terms of things that are happening in our 

government that aren’t getting covered, that is a 

good example.”

On the Monday morning of March 23, 2009, 

Ed Petykiewicz, then-Ann Arbor News editor in 

chief, was seen walking out of his office visibly 

distraught, according to former News copy editor 

Domenica Trevor.

“(Petykiewicz) looked like somebody had 

whacked him in the face with a two-by-four, he 

looked shocked,” Trevor said.

Several minutes later, a staff meeting — with 

almost 100 attendees despite recent waves of 

buyouts — was called with little explanation. 

Many thought a new wave of cuts was about to be 

announced.

Instead of announcing more staff cuts, Ann 

Arbor News publisher Laurel Champion, with a 

pained expression, informed them the newspaper, 

with 174 years of history and 45,000 daily 

subscribers, would cease production that July.

The staff was stunned, and most would be out of 

work in four months.

In a letter to the public later that day, Champion 

wrote the decision by its owners — New Jersey-

based Advance Publications — to close the paper 

was due to declining print advertising revenue. 

Champion also announced the shift of the 

publication’s remaining resources to a soon-to-be-

launched platform, AnnArbor.com.

“We have shared with you before in our pages 

the extreme challenges that our industry and 

our newspaper have faced over the last couple 

years,” Champion wrote. “Out of those challenges 

has come a new opportunity. Our new strategy 

reflects shifting media consumption habits and 

advertising revenue in the newspaper business, 

and particularly in Michigan.”

Though few, if any, Ann Arbor News staff 

expected an outright closure prior to the 

announcement, warning signs of the paper’s 

troubles had been present for years.

The size of the print edition was reduced in 

2007 to cut newsprint costs, according to several 

former staff members. In 2008, Advanced 

Publications announced the News’ copy desk and 

several of its other production functions would 

be downsized and centralized to a Grand 

Rapids office. The size of the staff — including 

newsroom, distribution and business — was 

whittled through attrition and concurrent 

waves of buyouts, from 400 to 272 by 2009. 

Some left of their own accord in the period 

immediately before the closure. Morgan left 

as opinion editor in 2008, after 12 years at the 

News.

“At the time, you could see they were not 

investing in the newsroom and that when 

people left, they weren’t being replaced,” 

Morgan said. “Generally, it did not seem like 

there was a vision from the leadership.”

Trevor, seeing poor future prospects for her 

role as a copy editor at the News, accepted a 

buyout offer in late 2008, though she continued 

working through July 2009. She now works as 

a paralegal and freelance copy editor in Ann 

Arbor.

“A bunch of people were offered buyouts,” 

Trevor said. “Any copy editor with any sense 

took it because there was an ‘opportunity’ for 

employment in Grand Rapids, but we were 

being told it’s just not going to happen.”

The Ann Arbor News staff was promised an 

opportunity to apply for positions at the new 

publication, AnnArbor.com and about a dozen 

employees were retained, according to several 

former staff members. The rest moved to other 

publications, freelance positions or entirely 

new careers.

The market trends ending The Ann Arbor 

News were hardly confined to Ann Arbor. Until 

the advent of the Internet, most medium-sized 

cities could support at least one independent 

daily print publication that could reap healthy 

profit margins by holding a de-facto monopoly 

on local classified ad sales.

Although the Internet would begin eroding 

newspapers’ competitive advantage as a one-

stop shop for local advertisers in the 1990s 

and early 2000s, newspapers were largely able 

to weather the changing market. Total U.S. 

newspaper ad revenue would peak in 2005 at 

$49.4 billion — even when daily subscriptions 

had been in decline for years — according to 

Pew Research.

Freefall ensued during the 2007 financial 

crisis and the subsequent recession. Newspaper 

ad sales plummeted 60 percent below their pre-

recession peak to $19.9 billion by 2014 (the last 

year the Newspaper Association of America 

published figures), as advertisers realized they 

could target audiences more effectively online 

and slashed their print spending.

The employment prospects of newsroom 

staff have followed their employers’ tanking 

earnings. The number of U.S. newspaper 

employees plunged by 40 percent from a pre-

recession peak of 55,000 to 32,900 in 2014.

In the decade between 2004 and 2014 at 

least 126 daily papers closed, according to 

industry publication Editor and Publisher, 

and the approximate 1,300 that remained 

increasingly had to make do with less. The 

same year The Ann Arbor News ceased 

production, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 

moved solely online, and both The Detroit 

News and The Detroit Free Press cut their 

print schedules to three times per week. With 

its stock price slipping below $5, the New York 

Times Co. was only dissuaded from shutting 

The Boston Globe — one of its properties — 

when the Globe’s employees agreed to $20 

million in concessions.

AnnArbor.com — which fully merged into 

the Mlive brand in 2013 — is a leaner operation 

than its predecessor. The print schedule was 

cut to twice a week and its copy desk, sales, 

production, circulation and sports coverage 

were consolidated into its parent company’s 

statewide operation alongside seven other 

local papers.

Individual reporters are saddled with greater 

responsibilities than their forerunners: They 

cover multiple beats, take their own photos 

and run their own social media, according to 

Jenn McKee, a former entertainment reporter 

at the Ann Arbor News and MLive .

“Really focusing on your writing and 

having that be your calling card isn’t enough; 

you really need to be a more well-rounded 

journalist and be able to offer all those things,” 

Mckee said. “That’s a pretty sharp shift for 

people who have been doing this for a while to 

make.”

John Hiner, vice president of content at 

MLive, said the economic realities of the news 

industry make the scale of old local newspapers 

financially unrealistic, and traditional media 

companies must increasingly explore alternate 

sources of revenue.

“We don’t dream about putting everything 

back the way it was,” Hiner said. “But I think 

you can find continued growth in digital 

revenue.”

Hiner further said MLive has prioritized 

preserving its reporting capacity, explaining 

that while about 25 staff members work in the 

Ann Arbor office — less than 10 percent of the 

272 who were in 2009 — most cuts have been to 

non-editorial positions, like those consolidated 

under 
MLive’s 
statewide 
functions. 
He 

estimated this means the reporting staff is 

The Twilight of 
Newspapers in Ann 
Arbor:

b y B r i a n K u a n g, D a i l y S t a f f R e p o r t e r

between 
one-third 
and 
half 
of its pre-

2009 headcount.

He also admitted not as much coverage is 

possible with fewer staff members, but argued 

that the web-based platform of MLive makes 

news more immediate to its audience.

“The Ann Arbor News used to be at every 

school board meeting, every city zoning 

meeting, every library meeting,” Hiner said. 

“We still go to those things when they’re 

newsworthy and important to the community, 

but we don’t babysit boards and council to 

the degree we used to when we had more 

resources.”

Jen 
Eyer, 
who 
held 
various 
editorial 

leadership roles at MLive’s Ann Arbor office 

until 2016 and is now communications director 

for gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer 

(D), described maintaining Ann Arbor coverage 

as a “constant struggle,” but expressed 

admiration for the dedication of the remaining 

staff in the face of challenges.

“It pains me to hear the criticism they 

sometimes get,” Eyer said. “That newsroom 

and the whole organization is still filled with 

journalists who believe in the mission of 

journalism.”

While acknowledging the efforts of MLive’s 

staff, many local residents say the consequences 

of large staff cuts and the reduction of printing 

to twice a week are difficult to ignore.

Vivienne 
Armentrout, 
former 
county 

commissioner 
and 
long-time 
Ann 
Arbor 

resident who actively blogs about city issues, 

said the loss of daily print distribution has 

steeply affected public awareness of local news.

“I was here when we actually had an 

afternoon paper … we could be sure that 

virtually every resident of Ann Arbor was 

reading the same news as you were reading,” 

Armentrout said. “There was sort of a common 

community memory, and now a lot of people are 

pretty ignorant of what’s going on.”

These sentiments were echoed by City 

Councilmember Jack Eaton (D–Ward 4).

“I have to tell you that (MLive reporter) Ryan 

Stanton covers City Council very well,” Eaton said. 

“But the public doesn’t necessarily read everything 

he writes because it’s only published twice a week 

and not very many people bother to subscribe to it.”

Both Eaton and Armentrout added that they 

see less long-form investigative reporting, and it is 

evident the smaller staff is spread thinner than its 

predecessors.

“A local person who’s involved, such as myself, 

kind of has to piece together the news,” Eaton said. 

“You need to listen to WEMU, because they do 

fairly good local coverage, you need to hunt down a 

copy of The Ann magazine.”

A year after the News’ closing, The Ann 

magazine, a monthly glossy magazine featuring 

long-form pieces on local news, was launched.

Jim McBee, creative director of The Ann, has 

worked at a variety of local papers in California, 

the Carolinas and Wyoming. However, he found 

himself increasingly disillusioned as long-term 

prospects soured.

“While I was still in newspapers, I just felt 

like I was just riding it out,” McBee said.

As The Ann Arbor News was closing shop, 

McBee’s former co-worker Kyle Poplin was in 

Ann Arbor on a Knight-Wallace Fellowship, an 

award for mid-career journalists to study at 

the University of Michigan for a year. Poplin 

saw an editorial void left by the News’ closure 

— a lack of in-depth longform reporting — and 

reached out to McBee, ultimately conceiving 

the magazine.

“Our desire editorially is to do the big 

projects newspapers used to do,” McBee said. 

“That’s the idea, to do the big in-depth story … 

that newspapers have a really hard time doing 

now because they’ve fired all their experienced 

reporters.”

In the past year, The Ann has featured 

stories on topics such as the local startup scene, 

emotionally heavy profiles of homelessness in 

Washtenaw County and a piece from Morgan 

outlining 
the 
circumstances 
surrounding 

Conan Smith’s resignation. A large portion of 

content comes from freelance writers, while a 

core team of four manages editing, production 

and advertising sales.

Each month, 18,000 copies are printed and 

distributed through direct subscriptions and 

a distribution partnership with The New York 

Times and The Wall Street Journal, which 

include The Ann as an insert in local deliveries 

to respective papers.

McBee readily admits, however, that no 

monthly publication can fully substitute the 

day-to-day 
and 
breaking 
news 
reporting 

capacity of a daily newspaper. By relying 

heavily on freelancers, the Ann cannot readily 

do follow-up coverage on recurring issues, 

particularly local government.

“I don’t know if I would structure beats the 

way a newspaper does, but the fact that I don’t 

have a staff of reporters … is a little frustrating,” 

McBee said. “Somebody needs to be keeping an 

eye on government officials, on businesses, on 

whatever. I think it’s a glorious golden age for 

graft and corruption.”

Some Ann Arborites were not daunted by 

the task of holding local government to task, 

though. When Morgan departed from The Ann 

Arbor News shortly before its demise, she and 

her husband, Dave Askins, launched The Ann 

Arbor Chronicle, a Web-based publication 

focused on local government, in September 

2008.

Aiming to increase civic awareness and 

participation, the couple sought to fill a 

vacuum left in local government coverage 

by the departure of the News. Their site 

primarily featured detailed chronicles of local 

government meetings and decisions, while 

also including original analysis of local policy 

issues, columns and cartoons from freelancers.

“By covering government the way we did, 

we could lower some of the barriers to entry,” 

Morgan said. “The idea was: If people want to 

know what’s happening so they can get more 

involved, we would provide them with that 

information.”

Raising revenue through advertising sales to 

local businesses and “voluntary” subscription 

fees — the Chronicle was a for-profit entity — 

Askins said their site drew between 30 and 40 

thousand unique users per month. The couple 

was adamant, though, that their success be 

measured not by their readership but by their 

impact on the functioning of civic life.

Though 
the 
Chronicle’s 
revenue 
was 

sufficient to cover its costs and the couple’s 

living expenses, Askins and Morgan found a 

fundamental challenge: Covering every public 

meeting could consume as much as 80 hours 

per week, even with freelancers’ help.

They determined it would not be possible to 

scale up the Chronicle’s revenue to hire full-

time staff without compromising key elements 

of their publication. In an August 2014 post, 

Askins announced the Chronicle would end 

publication.

“In past columns I’ve compared this kind 

of labor to running a marathon — with one 

key difference: There is no finish line,” Askins 

wrote. “You can never really finish. But as a 

practical matter you will quit running one day. 

And if you never decide to stop, then when you 

do stop, it will be because you are dead. So 

we’re setting an end date as a kind of artificial 

finish line.”

That September, a final post was made on the 

Chronicle: A heartfelt farewell from Morgan.

The Chronicle’s departure put residents 

in the same predicament they felt when the 

Ann Arbor News began downsizing — a lack 

of investigative city coverage. Many residents, 

including Eaton, still remember the Chronicle’s 

reporting fondly.

“The Chronicle wasn’t really traditional 

journalism, it was exhaustive journalism where 

you’d get 15,000 words on one meeting,” Eaton 

said. “It was a great resource for activists or 

board members like myself … and I don’t expect 

a daily newspaper like MLive or anybody else to 

do that kind of exhaustive meeting coverage.”

Now, Askins is on his way out of the city he 

has covered for so long. This week, he filled 

a U-Haul to move to Madison, South Dakota 

(pop: 7,258) to start again as a local journalist.

Despite having a population less than one-

tenth of Ann Arbor, Madison has maintained its 

daily print paper — the Madison Daily Leader — 

which he and Morgan credit to the publication’s 

ownership by the same local family for multiple 

generations.

Morgan plans to remain in Ann Arbor for 

the “medium term,” until she can transition the 

leadership of her civic engagement nonprofit 

— the CivCity Initiative — which she began 

after the Chronicle closed, before joining her 

husband in Madison.

While acknowledging he would miss Ann 

Arbor — which he has called home for the last 

two decades — Askins bristled with optimism 

for what new adventures would await him out 

west.

“The work of a local journalist, if you do it 

well … you make the place you live in better, 

because it allows more people to participate 

in the life of the community than otherwise 

would be able to,” Askins said. “That’s the work 

I want to do ... Ann Arbor’s clearly not the only 

place you can do it, and it’s not clear to me you 

can work as a local journalist in Ann Arbor 

anymore.”

In early 2016, the last two Ann Arbor News 

staff members to remain through the entire 

transition to MLive — McKee and Managing 

Producer Cindy Heflin — were laid off. Heflin 

is now a copy editor at the Detroit Free Press, 

while McKee works as a freelance reporter. 

Today, MLive continues to serve the Ann Arbor 

news market.

“I harbor no malice against MLive,” McKee 

wrote in a text message. “They’re just trying to 

make it through this era, as every news outlet 

is.”
Photo by Amelia Cacchione

