I must be one of the last to read your moving essay on the demise of the A2 News and the loss of your mom. So let me add my belated condolences. Last September, I spent a week saying good-bye to my own mother. Despite four years of decline on her part and “pre-grieving” on mine, I’ve discovered there is no way to prepare, no way to defend against the pain and grief–which are both fierce and enduring.

My heart goes out to you. And my appreciation as well, for your wonderful insights about the importance of journalism, the tangible pleasures of a newsPAPER, and the impossibility of ever fully replacing that experience with online versions (even those as good as the A2 Chronicle).

All the best.
Linda

The news of the paper’s demise brought back a flood of memories and prompted several former colleagues to touch base after many years. I’ll miss the daily ritual of leafing through the paper with my husband. But most of all, I am sad to see the gradual disappearance of an entire industry.

Best wishes to you,
Cathy

I can only add my sincere sympathy to the above wonderful tributes from so many at this sad time in your (and our) lives.

You are most definitely not alone.

Heartfelt good wishes!

/anna

Your above store is still being talked about at the barbershop, so I know that your readership is going up even now as I write this. No one knows what the future will bring, hard times or not, but one thing that is very clear to me right now is the value of a locally owned newspaper. You have in effect, restored to the community a high level of journalistic value and it is the locally owned independent business that sticks it out no matter what, so with that said, I have high hopes for you and the Chronicle as you continue your path of outstanding journalism in Ann Arbor. Please let me know if there is anything that I can do for you, not just today, but in the future too.

Thank you for this wonderful piece.

Your Mom and the Ann Arbor NEWS were both lucky to have had someone like you in their lives. I wish you and the CHRONICLE the best luck ever in the coming months.

Stan Bidlack
Eugene, Oregon

When I heard about the News closing, so many images flashed through my head. I remembered walking out to get the paper as a little girl, sitting with my dad doing crossword puzzles, reading about the accomplishments of my friends’ parents, then my friends, then their children. I remembered the marriage notices, the birth notices, and the obituaries. I remembered walking to the News to place my father’s obituary–the only time I was ever inside the building. I remembered finding the copy of the News in the attic of our house, placed by the workers who had finished the house the week before Christmas almost 100 years ago. The Ann Arbor News has been a part of our city for a very long time. It is inconceivable that it will no longer be around.

I will miss the News. In many ways, not so much the News as it was recently, but the News that could have and should have been. I am a voracious consumer of online news, but still love to sit down with the paper, knowing that around the city, thousands of other people are looking at the same information, the same cartoons, the same articles. It is nice to say “did you see that in the paper last night?” and know that people knew what I was talking about. I like trading sections with my husband over a leisurely Saturday breakfast. I like reading the house sale prices and the restaurant food ratings and the hundreds of tiny bits of information that are in a local daily newspaper. I like having a reference for “today’s news”–rather than an ongoing rolling set of information.

I don’t know if I believe that newspapers are really gone. I could see it going several ways. I think a good local newspaper that is part of the community could still thrive, although I don’t know if a daily printed and delivered version is a reality anymore. I honestly don’t think the internet put newspapers out of business, I think the newspapers did it to themselves. Newspapers had grown and changed radically over the years, but in the last few decades, they started believing they were invincible. They didn’t react to the internet, they didn’t grow and change and embrace new technologies. They scoffed at blogs and Craigslist and online versions. They stayed static and immutable behind their big facades, and that is what caused their demise. I do know there are a lot of great writers out there and a lot of good work being done. Hopefully out of all of this can come something better, maybe someday, even The Ann Arbor News.

I also wish you every success with The Chronicle.