Ann Arbor News: 272*

Ann Arbor, Mich.
Owner: Advance Publications
Effective: July 23, 2009
The paper will close in July; all employees will be laid off.
Sources: Kalamazoo Gazette; Ann Arbor News; Paper Cuts tips

* Updated March 26, 2009, with the number of employees who will be laid off.

Kalamazoo Gazette reduces wages, benefits to control costs

by Alex Nixon | Kalamazoo Gazette
Tuesday March 24, 2009, 10:31 AM

KALAMAZOO — The Kalamazoo Gazette will cut the wages and benefits of its employees later this year, part of several cost-cutting moves announced Monday by a chain of newspapers across the state to deal with shrinking advertising revenue and higher costs.

Booth Newspapers, a group of eight dailies owned by Advance Publications, of New York, will close The Ann Arbor News in July and cut daily publication to a three-day-a-week schedule at The Flint Journal, The Bay City Times and The Saginaw News in June.

Advance’s other Michigan papers — the Gazette, The Grand Rapids Press, the Muskegon Chronicle and the Jackson Citizen Patriot — will remain as seven-day-a-week publications, officials with those papers said. Those papers also will reduce their employees’ wages and benefits.

“The economic realities we face, particularly in Michigan, are requiring us to take some extraordinary actions to ensure that we will continue to serve our readers and advertisers well,” Kalamazoo Gazette Publisher Jim Stephanak said in a prepared statement.

All employees of The Ann Arbor News will lose their jobs but have the chance to be rehired by an online-only news operation, AnnArbor.com Inc.

A total of 272 people work for that newspaper, which has a daily circulation of nearly 45,000.

The number of employees in Flint, Saginaw and Bay City will be reduced. Those papers will continue to post news stories seven days a week to the group’s online affiliate, MLive.com. In an interview, Stephanak said he didn’t know how many employees statewide would lose their jobs.

There will be no layoffs at the Kalamazoo Gazette, Stephanak said.

Advance Publications, a privately held media company controlled by the Newhouse family of New York, owns more than 20 daily newspapers in the United States, including the eight in Michigan. Its larger publications include The Star-Ledger, in New Jersey; The Plain Dealer, in Cleveland; The Oregonian, in Portland; and The Times-Picayune, in New Orleans.

Employees of the company’s newspapers outside of Michigan will be required to take 10 days of unpaid leave before the end of the year. All Advance pension plans will be frozen, meaning benefits under those retirement plans won’t increase in the future, Stephanak said.

Effective June 1

The Gazette’s wage and benefit cuts — which include wage cuts, health-insurance-premium contributions by employees and the freeze on pension benefits — take effect June 1, Stephanak said.

A previously announced consolidation of editorial production in Grand Rapids will proceed but involve just the Booth papers in West Michigan, he said. In November, the eight newspapers announced voluntary buyout and early retirement offers, as well as the creation of a consolidated copy and production desk in Grand Rapids.

Stephanak declined to say how many Gazette employees took the buyout or early retirement offer. He said the Gazette employs about 225 workers.

Gazette Editor Rebecca Pierce said Monday that as production work — copy editing and page layout — moves to Grand Rapids this summer, the Gazette should have more resources to cover local news.

“There are a lot of things we can’t control about this economy,” Pierce said. “But we’re going to find ways to give our customers more. We’re hoping with the production consolidation we can have more content generation than before.”

Stephanak also said that the Gazette will continue to be printed at the paper’s downtown Kalamazoo press facility but is exploring the possibility of consolidating printing and packaging functions with its sister publication in Grand Rapids as a way to further cut costs.

“The most important priorities stay in Kalamazoo — local-news gathering, content creation and advertising sales,” he said. “But other aspects of our operation can, wherever prudent, be consolidated or outsourced without a detrimental impact on the core competencies of our organization.”

Ad mix different here

Michael Assink, director of advertising for the Gazette, said that while newspaper advertising revenue has been down nationwide and advertising is the bread and butter of most newspapers, the revenue mix is different here than it is at big-city newspapers, where employment advertising may account for 50 percent of all ad revenue.

He said newspaper ad revenue in Kalamazoo is a mixture of community-based sources, including employment, automotive, retail and real estate ads. Also, he said more businesses and consumers seem to have lost some degree of fear over the housing and credit crisis.

Assink said advertising among automotive dealers has remained good through the economic downturn compared to that in other communities, advertising among retailers seems to be turning the corner and the increased number of ads the newspaper has been seeing in the real estate market is a good sign. The number of Sunday real estate listings in the first two weeks of March was double that of the first two weeks of January, he said.

The Gazette is a bellwether for the area’s economy, Assink said. “As we go, so goes the community,” he said.

In October, The Grand Rapids Press began printing the Muskegon Chronicle in addition to its own editions.

Under these latest cost-cutting moves, the three editions each week of the newspapers in Flint, Saginaw and Bay City will be printed at a press facility near Bay City. The Ann Arbor News’ press will continue to operate after that paper closes in July because it prints the Jackson Citizen Patriot and has a contract to print The New York Times.

Newspapers across the country and in Michigan have been hit hard this year by increasing costs, decreasing revenue from classified and display advertising, and an overall economic slowdown associated with the national recession.

Stephanak said newsprint costs at the Gazette have increased 35 percent to 50 percent during the past year. Additionally, classified advertising revenue has been hurt by free Web sites such as Craigslist.

National struggles

Several national newspaper companies, including the Tribune Co. and the Philadelphia Newspapers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection recently. In southeastern Michigan, the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, which have a joint operating agreement for their business operations, will cut home delivery to three days a week this year. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer switched from a daily newspaper to an online-only publication earlier this month.

In December, the Battle Creek Enquirer announced it would eliminate almost half its 105-person staff and relocate its printing operations to Lansing. Its copy editing and newspaper design functions are being done by a sister publication in Port Huron. The daily newspapers in Battle Creek, Lansing and Port Huron are owned by Gannett Co. Inc.

The decision to close The Ann Arbor News, which has published a daily newspaper since 1835, was driven by heavy losses in revenue, the paper’s publisher, Laurel Champion, said.

“We have an extremely talented staff at The Ann Arbor News, and they have done a tremendous job through very difficult times,” Champion said in a letter to readers. “There is nothing they did or didn’t do that would have sustained our seven-day print business model.”

AnnArbor.com will be a separate operation from Advance’s online operation in Michigan, Mlive.com — the Web site for the Kalamazoo Gazette and its sister newspapers. Mlive.com is based in Ann Arbor.

AnnArbor.com also expects to publish a print product twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, officials there said.

Ann Arbor News decision to close shocks, saddens employees

by Cindy Heflin | The Ann Arbor News
Monday March 23, 2009, 7:45 PM

Ann Arbor News employees expressed shock and grief upon learning Monday that the newspaper will cease publication in July.

“I’m very sad,” said Geoff Larcom, a reporter, columnist and former sports editor who has worked for the company for 24 years. “I had hoped to work for the Ann Arbor News until I retired. I’m just sad that the structural realities of today’s economy can’t sustain The Ann Arbor News.”

Larcom, 51, who grew up in Ann Arbor and delivered the paper as a child, said the Ann Arbor market, home to the University of Michigan, is particularly tough. “Many, many people here have their focus on the world, so they don’t view a local paper as absolutely essential,” he said.

Entertainment Writer Roger LeLievre has worked for The News in some capacity since 1979, except for a two-year hiatus. “I saw changes coming, but I didn’t think it would be this drastic,” he said.

Like many employees, LeLievre, 54, said The News was more than a place to work. “It’s been my home and my family,” he said. “It’s been the constant in my life. The one time I left it, I missed it.”

LeLievre said he feels fairly well prepared to endure a period of unemployment. “I’m very sad for my colleagues. I feel bad for those with families and (who are) deep in debt.”

Page designer Colleen Ericson, 50, cried at her desk after the announcement was made. “It’s a shocker,” she said. “I really wonder how the community is going to react to not having a daily newspaper.”

Ericson said she’s angry about the formation of the new Web-based media company, AnnArbor.com. News employees were told they could apply for jobs there, but it’s not clear how many are available. “It does feel like … a great way to dump the employees,” she said. “I just hate being dumped out into the market the way it is.”

Press operator Flip Jackson, 49, said he’s dismayed at the collapse of the newspaper industry. “I can’t believe America has abandoned the newspaper.” said Jackson. “I’m a little bit mad. It really is the fourth branch of government. Without the newspaper, who’s gonna watch?”

Jackson, who’s worked at The News for more than 20 years, said he was expecting news of changes Monday morning, but the closing announcement was a shock. “I didn’t think my job would be gone in July.”

Jackson has two children in college and a third who’s a junior in high school. He’s worried about college bills, particularly for his youngest child.

Sports reporter Dave Holzman also has concerns about paying for college with a 17-year-old, 15-year-old and 9-year-old at home. His said his wife works but added, “I don’t know too many two-income families these days that can afford to lose one of their incomes.”

Rhonda Warren, 48, circulation sales and marketing manager, and her husband Alan Warren, photographer, both work for The News. They have a 16-year-old son who’s a junior at Pioneer High School.

“It’s not like we can sell the house and move away,” Rhonda Warren said. “I have to find a job that pays well and has decent benefits.”

Still, Warren said it could be worse. She will get several weeks of severance pay, and her husband accepted a buyout offered earlier. “I feel sad for the people who only have been here a few years and have young children and their spouse isn’t working,” she said.

Despite the economic worries, several employees said it’s leaving their co-workers and a job they’ve loved that will make them most sad.

“I like what I do,” said advertising sales representative Sandra Steward. “I didn’t see this coming. I think the community loves the Ann Arbor News and they’re going to miss this paper.”

Larcom said he’ll miss the fellowship of the newspaper and telling stories about the community.

“The Ann Arbor News has meant great friendships,” he said. “I’ve had great fun working there. I probably had more fun working there … than I could have had in any other job.”

Contact Cindy Heflin at 734-994-6875 or cheflin@annarbornews.com.