I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
The New York Times reports today that Gannett Company (NYSE:GCI), which owns 85 newspapers across the nation, will order most of its 31,000 employees to take a week off without pay.
Gannett owns several Michigan newspapers including the Battle Creek Enquirer and The Lansing State Journal. It is anchored by its national headliner, USA Today.
From the NYT:
“Most of our U.S. employees – including myself and all other top executives – will be furloughed for the equivalent of one week in the first quarter,” Craig A. Dubow, the chairman, president and chief executive, wrote in a memorandum to employees.
“We sincerely hope this minimizes the need for any layoffs going forward,” he added.
Last month Gannett announced a massive run of layoffs across the country, including in Michigan. As Michigan Messenger reported then, Battle Creek laid off half of its work force, and the Lansing State Journal laid off 34 members of its work force.
Berl Schwartz, editor and publisher of alternative newspaper and Lansing State Journal’s competitor the City Pulse, was surprised by the announcement. In an interview with Michigan Messenger he said
“My sympathy goes out to them [the employees of Gannett]. It’s unfortunate that a company that is turning a profit is trying to maintain that profit on the backs of workers.”
Michigan Messenger has been following the decline of Gannett and other traditional print media outlets. Our colleague Ed Brayton wrote an excellent piece about the pressures on traditional print media; I followed up with a piece about the loss of institutional memory at places like the Lansing State Journal. We’ll continue to cover the sea change in print media — stay tuned.
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