Michigan's Ann Arbor News to close and be replaced by AnnArbor.com

Posted by Helena Deards on March 23, 2009 at 4:08 PM

The Ann Arbor News today became the latest American newspaper to announce its closure. Editor Laurel Champion explained that the publication has been dealing with "steep losses", but that there was nothing that staff "did or didn't do that would have sustained our seven-day print business model".

Daily print editions will continue throughout July, after which point the publication will move online and become AnnArbour.com, with print editions produced twice weekly. As well as local reporting the site will contain social networking and reader input features, and all journalists will be equipped and trained to report news as it happens.

Champion explained that the newspaper has gone through "very difficult times", like many financially strained American newspapers. She also said that despite the decision demand for local news has never been stronger and that the News' closure is "by no means the end of local journalism in Ann Arbor".

The Ann Arbor News announcement comes hot on the heels of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Rocky Mountain News closures. These closures, amongst others, have prompted much discussion on how such events affect local democracy, as well as speculation over which American towns could potentially lose both their main newspapers.

Source: MLive.com