We won’t have the AAN to kick around here anymore: The Ann Arbor News is publishing its last issue today. Follow that link and you’ll get a boatload of articles about all that was at the News.
I guess I’ll mention four things for now:
- I might be the kind of AAN reader who is an example of the problem that has lead to the paper’s demise: even though we’ve subscribed for quite a while, I probably have only even looked at the paper once or twice a week in the last year or so. I’ll typically read the headlines as my RSS Feed, but that’s about it. If they weren’t going out of business, I probably would have canceled my subscription this summer. I mostly get local news from WEMU, Michigan Public Radio, and Detroit TV. Is this because I’ve changed or because the newspaper changed? I don’t know; I guess both.
- I’m going to go out on a not very long limb and predict that annarbor.com is going to fail. These people didn’t manage to stick to their launch deadline, they point to mistakes on wikipedia as being a justification for their “real journalism,” I believe they’ve said they want to focus only on Ann Arbor (e.g., nothing about Ypsi, for example), and they want reader input but they also want to heavily regulate commenting. Maybe they’ll pull it off; I’m not holding my breath.
- I don’t know what the future of newspaper-styled journalism is in this country. Perhaps more news (web-based, print, whatever) will be supported by grants, foundations, and donations, like public radio. I’d be okay with that. Perhaps it’s dead and we’ll have a lot local sites like the various blogs/publishers I list here under “Ypsi-Arbor.” Maybe it’s like the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which is accessible online only to readers who subscribe to the print version (or the online only version), and which publishes classified ads for free (thus mitigating the Craig’s List factor). Here’s a kind of interesting analysis of all that by Mark Potts, btw.
Finally, we might not have the AAN, but we might still have Geoff Larcom. According to the article “As Ann Arbor News operations come to a close, former employees face employment challenges:”
Geoff Larcom, who worked a total of 24 years in the paper’s editorial department, said he was pursuing a job with Eastern Michigan University or with the University of Michigan to support his family. He plans to pen a column as a freelancer with AnnArbor.com.
Well Geoff, if you want an (unpaid, unfortunately) column here….
If you read Geoff’s onanistic tribute on the mlive site, you’ll read about the 2004 election controversy when the Snooze endorsed Duhbya over Gore.
Geoff don’t need no factchecking to prevent an embarrassing little fact like KERRY ran against Duhbya in 2005. Geoff writes truthiness. Also. Too.
I’m kinda surprised we dodged the bullet of him being on our payroll.
As far as Ypsi coverage, I’ll be on the Ypsi history beat over there. There are a couple of stories of mine up; here’s a list:
http://www.annarbor.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=1&id=105
Hope you enjoy them.
George,
Anyone can err with a date or name and not be fundamentally wrong on more important points. You take Larcom to task for referencing Gore as the Democratic candidate in 2004, when he meant to say Kerry. You’re right, he goofed. But then you goof in your next sentence, saying “KERRY ran against Duhbya in 2005.” I am sure you know the election was in 2004. Two little errors, not a big deal, though each regrettable, eh?
May we all avoid typos and other simple writing errors of the serious sort — ones that create real difficulties in understanding. And may American culture soon reinvent respect (and employment opportunities!) for the well trained proof reader and capable copy editor!
Mark, I need you to explain something to me because me not all brainiac and edjimacated.
Is it: Geoff’s professional obligations as a self-described “journalist” regarding accuracy, objectivity, and fact checking are exactly equal to standards exemplified by the near stream-of-consciousness-with-two-kinds-of-narcotic-painkillers off-the-cuff text I produce?
Or:
My near stream-of-consciousness-with-two-kinds-of-narcotic-painkillers off-the-cuff text is on a par with the journalistic standards so aptly and repeatedly modeled and demonstrated by Geoff?
And now, I have some text so that I can bury my correction: Yes, I typed 2005 instead of 2004. I regret the error.
Ah, George, I reject the duality implied in your question, but I’d say we’re all human and prone to mistakes. Why harp on the little mistakes? Reserve criticism for the big issues, and then boldly offer the criticism, and the world will be improved as a result. Lobby criticism over minor, or trivial, matters, and one looks petty and nothing has been gained for anyone.
Peace.
I will not miss the Ann Arbor News and its bias against anything Ypsi and EMU. Perhaps we can now have a story about EMU without referencing “the house.” I suggest the Ypsilanti Citizen at http://www.ypsiciti.com and Steve Pierce’s blog.
Fear not for Ypsi news coverage! Our very own Eastern Echo is pairing with the new and robust online newspaper, the Ypsilanti Citizen (www.ypsiciti.com) to provide local news in print on Mondays beginning in September. While the Echo regularly carries campus and community news and distributes papers to more than 50 off-campus racks and sites, the paper’s board and staff felt now would be a great time to make a concerted effort to present more local news on a consistent basis — thus the YpsiCiti pairing. Echo staffers, all current EMU students, will still be covering campus and community news, but Monday’s Echo will feature community news from the editors and staff at the Citizen, many of whom are Echo alums and all of whom are passionate about the life of the community.
Watch for the Echo’s print edition back on the racks in September.