Ann Arbor

[mustangj17]

No newspaper in Ann Arbor as of June ...

Himmmmm, when (if?) Michigan wins another national championship in football or basketball, how will the school get posters of a front page to display in their offices? And there'll be no more pictures of players holding up front pages of "instant editions" that say "UM Champs" ... course, there won't be any photogs to take those pictures anyway .... ah, screw this line of thought. Makes me wanna cry. (Maybe the sarcasm font isn't appropriate; do we have an irony font?

I believe the student newsaper is a daily. Plus, both Detroit papers cover the Wolverines.

The student newspaper IS the Daily. I wonder if they start running foreclosure notices and become the paper of record in AA.

 

[Starman]

No newspaper in Ann Arbor as of June ...

Himmmmm, when (if?) Michigan wins another national championship in football or basketball, how will the school get posters of a front page to display in their offices? And there'll be no more pictures of players holding up front pages of "instant editions" that say "UM Champs" ... course, there won't be any photogs to take those pictures anyway .... ah, screw this line of thought. Makes me wanna cry. (Maybe the sarcasm font isn't appropriate; do we have an irony font?

I believe the student newsaper is a daily. Plus, both Detroit papers cover the Wolverines.

One of the Detroit papers will be gone by fall.

 

[mustangj17]

No newspaper in Ann Arbor as of June ...

Himmmmm, when (if?) Michigan wins another national championship in football or basketball, how will the school get posters of a front page to display in their offices? And there'll be no more pictures of players holding up front pages of "instant editions" that say "UM Champs" ... course, there won't be any photogs to take those pictures anyway .... ah, screw this line of thought. Makes me wanna cry. (Maybe the sarcasm font isn't appropriate; do we have an irony font?

I believe the student newsaper is a daily. Plus, both Detroit papers cover the Wolverines.

One of the Detroit papers will be gone by fall.

Yeah but which one. Everyone always said it would be the news, but the Freep is the one already scaling back.

 

[Birdscribe]

I expect the majority of the staff will not come from the current paper.

Why is that, Jim?

And given what you put into that place, I'd of thought you would have passed anger days ago.

 

[mustangj17]

I expect the majority of the staff will not come from the current paper.

Why is that, Jim?

And given what you put into that place, I'd of thought you would have passed anger days ago.

Maybe Jim is right? He doesn't have to be angry, left on his own terms.

 

[Jim_Carty]

I expect the majority of the staff will not come from the current paper.

Why is that, Jim?

And given what you put into that place, I'd of thought you would have passed anger days ago.

There are 200 or so employees at the A2 News. I'd guess fewer than 30 have anything resembling the skills the new site is looking for, i.e. the ability to produce content for a website with an emphasis on new media skills.

Of those 30, some will have options, some won't want to work for the money they're offering, some will be too pissed off to sign up for another tour with this company, and some won't be desired by the new management for reasons other than skill.

I expect they'll skim off between 6 and 12 writers who they view as really fitting their needs and giving them local connections, and then fill a lot of spots with people who are either from a more edgy Internet background or are young and cheap. Or both.

As for anger ... I'm not usually an angry person, so I guess that's a big part of it.

Edited to add: Little second screen name misstep there, but not much of a secret to most folks on the site.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

No newspaper in Ann Arbor as of June ...

Himmmmm, when (if?) Michigan wins another national championship in football or basketball, how will the school get posters of a front page to display in their offices? And there'll be no more pictures of players holding up front pages of "instant editions" that say "UM Champs" ... course, there won't be any photogs to take those pictures anyway .... ah, screw this line of thought. Makes me wanna cry. (Maybe the sarcasm font isn't appropriate; do we have an irony font?

I believe the student newsaper is a daily. Plus, both Detroit papers cover the Wolverines.

The student newspaper IS the Daily. I wonder if they start running foreclosure notices and become the paper of record in AA.

Some cities are required to run ads for various things (like bankruptcies, meetings, bids for construction work) in the local paper. If there's not a paper, what does the town do then?

 

[Fredrick]

who owns ann arbor?
there has to be a market for the printed word there. There's no way people will subscribe to it online or they'll sell enough ads to make it viable online.

 

[RickStain]

who owns ann arbor?
there has to be a market for the printed word there. There's no way people will subscribe to it online or they'll sell enough ads to make it viable online.

It doesn't matter whether there's a market. It matters whether there's anyone willing to supply at the prices people are willing to pay.

 

[Desk_dude]

It's a way for Newhouse to go to cheap salaries in Ann Arbor. They are asking people to do more things and paid less. And doesn't Newhouse guarantee no layoffs? But it doesn't apply if the paper stops publishing.

And this is a privately held company that I don't think has much debt.

 

[Hank_Scorpio]

Fairly recently the Ann Arbor Chronicle was started as an online-only type newspaper. I haven't really read it much or heard how received or well known it was, though. Hell, it may really only be nothing more than a glorified blog.


Anyway, Like a couple of others who have posted on here, I got my start at this paper. Some good memories and people were/are there.

 

[Magic In The Night]

No newspaper in Ann Arbor as of June ...

Himmmmm, when (if?) Michigan wins another national championship in football or basketball, how will the school get posters of a front page to display in their offices? And there'll be no more pictures of players holding up front pages of "instant editions" that say "UM Champs" ... course, there won't be any photogs to take those pictures anyway .... ah, screw this line of thought. Makes me wanna cry. (Maybe the sarcasm font isn't appropriate; do we have an irony font?

I believe the student newsaper is a daily. Plus, both Detroit papers cover the Wolverines.

One of the Detroit papers will be gone by fall.

Yeah but which one. Everyone always said it would be the news, but the Freep is the one already scaling back.

Seriously? Do you ever read anything? Gannett owns 95% of the JOA now. Do you really think after dumping the News to take the Free Press instead three years ago it would now keep open the paper it didn't want? Also, what do you mean about scaling back? Both papers are doing the three-day home delivery plan if that's what you're talking about. The News' circulation has been dropping way faster than the Free Press and I'm sure that'll continue to be the case.

 

[Magic In The Night]

I expect the majority of the staff will not come from the current paper.

Why is that, Jim?

And given what you put into that place, I'd of thought you would have passed anger days ago.

There are 200 or so employees at the A2 News. I'd guess fewer than 30 have anything resembling the skills the new site is looking for, i.e. the ability to produce content for a website with an emphasis on new media skills.

OK, this one always makes me laugh. As if people who have writing, reporting and editing experience can't master the function of learning how to "post" their stuff on a Web site after 30 years of learning all manner of different computer and software systems at newspapers. Trust me, the people we have hired as Web "producers" can't write and/or edit and/or report their way out of a paper bag. But they're very, very cheap, which is the most important part. But if publishers think they're getting the same quality of reporter, they're definitely fooling themselves.

 

[Magic In The Night]

So... let me get this straight. They're going online only and hiring actual reporters to do some of the work for less pay. But the main thing for this site will be "community bloggers" who don't get paid.
So here's my thing: These people aren't stupid. At some point, community bloggers are going to be like actual people and want to, ya know, get paid for their work. What then? It all shuts down? New "community bloggers?"

There is an unlimited stream of people out there who fancy themselves as writers/reporters who are quite willing to do it for free or very low pay. Have you ever been in a position where you deal with freelancers? There are lots of trust fund babies and others who don't really need the income but would love the "prestige" of having an actual writing gig. The quality, however, is much, much worse than using trained journalists who have worked in the business. The ones I feel sorry for are the trained editors left behind who are going to have to clean up this slop to avoid lawsuits and make it into English.

 

[mustangj17]

No newspaper in Ann Arbor as of June ...

Himmmmm, when (if?) Michigan wins another national championship in football or basketball, how will the school get posters of a front page to display in their offices? And there'll be no more pictures of players holding up front pages of "instant editions" that say "UM Champs" ... course, there won't be any photogs to take those pictures anyway .... ah, screw this line of thought. Makes me wanna cry. (Maybe the sarcasm font isn't appropriate; do we have an irony font?

I believe the student newsaper is a daily. Plus, both Detroit papers cover the Wolverines.

One of the Detroit papers will be gone by fall.

Yeah but which one. Everyone always said it would be the news, but the Freep is the one already scaling back.

Seriously? Do you ever read anything? Gannett owns 95% of the JOA now. Do you really think after dumping the News to take the Free Press instead three years ago it would now keep open the paper it didn't want? Also, what do you mean about scaling back? Both papers are doing the three-day home delivery plan if that's what you're talking about. The News' circulation has been dropping way faster than the Free Press and I'm sure that'll continue to be the case.

For some reason, I forgot the News was scaling back. Carry on.

 

[Jim_Carty]

To cover a couple of things ... no, I don't think most reporters and editors have new media skills, if by "new media skills", you mean an ability to write an interesting and technically competent blog, to take and edit video and photos, and to use Twitter and other tools (although I think Twitter is moronic and won't last).

There are complexities in the Detroit News/Free Press relationship that make it unlikely either paper will fold any time soon. Singleton gets a guaranteed annual payment from Gannett, which basically greatly subsidizes the Detroit News, and is a fixed amount regardless of what the economy does. He's sitting pretty on that front.

Meanwhile, Gannett appears very committed to the Free Press (for instance, exempting it from furloughs).

I'd be surprised if either folded, but then I was surprised this week.

 

[Magic In The Night]

To cover a couple of things ... no, I don't think most reporters and editors have new media skills, if by "new media skills", you mean an ability to write an interesting and technically competent blog, to take and edit video and photos, and to use Twitter and other tools (although I think Twitter is moronic and won't last).

There are complexities in the Detroit News/Free Press relationship that make it unlikely either paper will fold any time soon. Singleton gets a guaranteed annual payment from Gannett, which basically greatly subsidizes the Detroit News, and is a fixed amount regardless of what the economy does. He's sitting pretty on that front.

Meanwhile, Gannett appears very committed to the Free Press (for instance, exempting it from furloughs).

I'd be surprised if either folded, but then I was surprised this week.

Most producers don't have the skills to write an interesting and technically competent blog. If you could see some of the stuff before it is posted, you would know this. Twitter is inane and people will tire of it. As for video and/or taking pics, many, many reporters have been doing this for years either at small papers or even just for personal use. Most trained journalists had to take at least one photo class to get their journalism degree so I'm betting with a modicum of training (most of which they don't get because there is no time to do it at papers), they could catch on to the pic/video posting. I'm sorry, I'm sticking with my original post that trained reporters/writers/editors have skills that most "producers" don't. Skills that aren't easily acquired. The other stuff is just training and can be accomplished easily.

 

[2underpar]

i have a question:
what if, in say three years, people decide newspapers are relevant again and the ad dollars start flowing (doubtful, but for the sake of argument, lets say they do). How do you bring all of these newspapers back to life?

 

[Jim_Carty]

2underpar, the simple answer is, you don't.

Magic, we're comparing apples and oranges. You're ranting against producers v. journalists (perhaps legitimately), while the original point was that I don't think a lot of the folks at the A2 News can do the things I listed, and because of that AnnArbor.com won't hire many of them.

 

[Mark2010]

i have a question:
what if, in say three years, people decide newspapers are relevant again and the ad dollars start flowing (doubtful, but for the sake of argument, lets say they do). How do you bring all of these newspapers back to life?

Buy up the physical assets (printing press, etc.) and start hiring. There are always going to be entry-level people willing to work for $25k or so. How much did we make at our first post-collegiate job? (Mine was under 20k, but that was in the 80s and stuff didn't cost near as much... had a NICE apartment for $250 per month and gas was 85 cents per gallon.)

What I wonder is if this business will eventually take on that model: a couple of old guys at the top and a BUNCH of young pups doing the work. The burn out after 3-4 years, decide they want to make real money and leave. So you replace them with another batch of rookies.