One of Michigan’s largest newspaper publishers says it will end print production later this year.
MLive Media Group will transition to an entirely digital operation in December, which the company says is in response to audience trends.
The company owns eight titles throughout Michigan, including The Jackson Citizen Patriot, The Grand Rapids Press, The Flint Journal and The Ann Arbor News.
In the past two decades, more than 3,500 newspapers nationwide have ceased printing, according to the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University.
Michigan State University journalism professor Eric Freedman said having a tangible product helps news organizations stand out as trustworthy amid a proliferation of online information sources.
“A newspaper, whether it’s a daily or weekly, whether it’s national or hyperlocal, is a brand, and in your community, that brand matters,” Freedman said.
But Hiner said as print subscribers dwindle, it’s not sustainable to continue delivering papers over long distances.
“What has happened is, logistically, as the population has gotten older, subscribers have died,” Hiner said. “It’s getting harder and harder to deliver papers over broad areas with fewer subscribers.”
More than 99% of the company’s readership comes from digital formats, Hiner said, and the number of digital subscribers has surpassed the number of print subscribers.
“It's nice to have a name on a building, or, you know, a physical paper at the gas station,” Hiner said. “But we've grown the brand in a lot of different ways that are just really in keeping with the times that we live in and how our readers are using new tools to get that news.”
Hiner said the format doesn’t matter as much as the content, which he said reaches more than 8 million unique visitors per month.
But Freedman said print newspapers expose audiences to stories they may not have sought out online.
“It’s a chance to browse in a substantive way and to learn new things and discover, because it’s not what you look for,” Freedman said. “It’s not your curated feed. It’s the broader world around us.”
MLive’s newsroom employees will not be affected by the production change, Hiner said, but one full-time job related to distribution of the newspapers will be lost.
The last print editions will be released Dec. 6. After that, Hiner said the titles will continue in an online newspaper format.
The company plans to hold workshops to teach current print subscribers how they can access the digital benefits of their subscription.
“The Flint Journal still exists,” Hiner said. “There’s a seven-day online paper. There’s our social media accounts. There’s our apps. … The title will be alive going forward.”
