In the News

Ann Arbor, America's first no newspaper town

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

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New Media

Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor is venturing into a brave new world, and without it's traditional newspaper. Are web-based publications ready to fill the gap?

Excerpt:

Ann Arbor will become the nation's first city to lose its daily newspaper next month when the Ann Arbor News ceases publication. Advance, which also owns Portland's Oregonian, is replacing the newspaper with an online news site called AnnArbor.com. This will be not be The News online. AnnArbor.com will not retain staff from The News unless they apply for jobs at the Web site.

No doubt, this is a bold experiment. One I plan on tracking. Rick Edmonds from Poynter has an interesting take on the demise of The News and the rise of AnnArbor.com. He points out that Ann Arbor's seemingly desirable demographics might have worked against the newspaper. He points out that newspapers in other cities with similar populations have struggling newspapers. You guessed it, he mentions Seattle. He cites reporting in other publications that suggests a young, literate, tech savvy city might not be the best market for traditional newspapers.

Read the rest of the story here.