Booth Newspapers

Booth Newspapers

Type	Division
Industry	Publishing
Founder(s)	George Gough Booth & his 2 brothers
Headquarters	Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
Area served	Michigan
Products	Newspapers
Parent	Advance Publications
Divisions	Ann Arbor News Bay City Times Flint Journal Grand Rapids Press Jackson Citizen Patriot Kalamazoo Gazette Muskegon Chronicle Saginaw News Advance Newspapers Community Newspapers
Website	http://www.boothnewspapers.com/

Booth Newspapers or BoothMichigan, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, owns eight newspapers in the state of Michigan. Founded by George Gough Booth along with his two brothers, Booth Newspapers is presently owned by Advance Publications (a Samuel I. Newhouse property), who purchased it in 1976 for $305 million, a record at the time.

Booth Newspapers owned the Ann Arbor News which closed July 2009. It currently owns the Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, and Saginaw News, as well as Advance Newspapers.

MLive.com is the website home for all Booth Newspapers, as well as the weekly Advance Newspapers. The site includes reports from its Lansing bureau.

History

The Herald Company, Inc. merged with Booth Newspapers, Inc. in July 1987.^[1]

In September 2002, Booth Newspapers acquired 21st Century Newspapers, Inc.'s Heritage Newspapers' Suburban Flint Newspaper Group which has nine local papers: The Clio Messenger, The Davison Flagstaff, The Fenton Press, The Grand Blanc News, Flint Township News, The Flushing Observer, The Holly Press, The Suburban Burton, and Swartz Creek News; and included Suburban Flint Shopper. All of which operate with the Flint Journal as the Community Newspapers.^[2]

In December 2006, The Herald Company, Inc. merged with Advance Magazine Publisher, Inc. but continues to operate under the Booth Newspapers name in Michigan.^[3]

On November 3, 2008, the day before the 2008 presidential election, many copies of Booth newspapers were delivered inside a white advertising wrapper, paid for by the National Rifle Association, with "Defend Freedom, Defeat Obama" written across the outside. The bags were mostly reported with the Flint Journal, but there were also similar reports from customers of the Saginaw News and the Bay City Times.^[4] The Flint Journal posted a short apology on its website that stated that "The wrapper was supposed to be inserted into the newspaper."^[5] The Journal also told WJRT-TV, who also received a flood of calls about the incident, that there was "some miscommunication" with the paper carriers.^[4] The three papers mentioned endorsed Barack Obama for president.^[6][7][8]

On March 23, 2009, The Ann Arbor News announced that it will end its 174-year print run in July 2009, due to economic difficulties, and be replaced by AnnArbor.com, a daily web paper that will have a twice-weekly print edition.^[9] Also on this date, it was announced that on June 1, 2009, The Bay City Times, The Saginaw News and The Flint Journal will reduce publishing to three times a week—Thursday, Friday and Sunday, while increasing their web presence;^[10] the three newspapers would add back a Tuesday edition in March 2010, with the Bay City Times and The Saginaw News sharing an edition.^[11][12]

References

1. ^ "Booth Newspapers, Inc". DLEG-BCS-Corp Div Database Lookup-Corp Entity Details. http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcs_corp/dt_corp.asp?id_nbr=600673&name_entity=BOOTH%20NEWSPAPERS,%20INC.. Retrieved 2008-04-24. 
2. ^ "Booth Newspapers Acquires Nine Suburban Flint Weekly Papers From 21st Century Newspapers". flintjournal.com. http://www.flintjournal.com/about/salespressrelease.html. Retrieved 2008-04-14. 
3. ^ "NY State Certificate of Merger" (tif). DLEG-BCS-Corp Div Database Lookup-Corp Entity Details. http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcs_corp/image.asp?FILE_TYPE=UCO&FILE_NAME=D200702%5C2007047%5C00000179.tif. Retrieved 2008-04-24. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Abraham, Kristen (2008-11-03). "Monday Flint Journal sleeve draws fire". WJRT-TV. http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=6485809. Retrieved 2008-11-03. 
5. ^ "Monday's Journal mistakenly placed in NRA-paid plastic wrapper; newspaper apologizes for error". 2008-11-03. http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/11/mondays_journal_mistakenly_pla.html. Retrieved 2008-11-03. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ "Flint Journal endorses Barack Obama for president; Obama more attuned to needs of Michigan". Flint Journal. 2008-10-30. http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/voices/index.ssf/2008/10/flint_journal_endorses_barack.html. Retrieved 2008-11-04. ^{[dead link]}
7. ^ "Editorial: Summarizing our editorial endorsements". Saginaw News. 2008-11-01. http://www.mlive.com/saginawnews/opinion/index.ssf/2008/11/editorial_summarizing_our_edit.html. Retrieved 2008-11-04. ^{[dead link]}
8. ^ "The Bay City Times Election Day 2008 endorsement roundup". Bay City Times. 2008-11-02. http://www.mlive.com/baycity/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-2/122562453646970.xml&coll=4. Retrieved 2008-11-04. 
9. ^ "Ann Arbor News to Close in July," Ann Arbor News, 23 Mar. 2009. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.
10. ^ Bay City Times: "The Bay City Times announces big changes", 3/23/2009.
11. ^ Flint Journal: "Flint Journal to return to Newsstands on Tuesdays starting March 23", 3/7/2010.
12. ^ The Saginaw News: "The Saginaw News to partner with The Bay City Times for Great Lakes Bay Tuesday print edition", March 14, 2010.

External links

	Michigan portal
	Journalism portal

• Official website of BoothMichigan
• MLive.com — official website for the newspapers
• MLive mobile classifieds