Another Newspaper Closes

Media pundits have been predicting that the newspaper recession won't end with two-daily towns becoming one-daily towns—soon we'll see one-daily towns become no-daily towns. That fate hasn't befallen a big city yet, but it'll hit a mid-sized municipality in July, when Michigan's 174-year-old Ann Arbor News closes down:

The Ann Arbor News will close in July after publishing as the city's daily newspaper since 1835, publisher Laurel Champion announced today.

Heavy losses in revenue drove the decision. Champion said the current "business model is not sustainable."…

A new Web-based media company called AnnArbor.com LLC will be launched later this year. In addition to publishing continuously online, AnnArbor.com will publish a print edition twice a week.

I suppose the town still has the student-run Michigan Daily but, speaking as a former Daily staffer, I don't think that counts.

Bonus links: For an optimistic take on the future of journalism as newspapers disappear, go here. For a pessimistic take, go here. For my take—or part of it, anyway—go here.

Update: Elsewhere in Michigan, three other papers owned by the Booth media company are changing their schedules so they no longer appear every day. And it looks like the old Daily's facing financial troubles, too.