MLive Media Group, originally known as Booth Newspapers, or Booth Michigan, is a media group that produces
newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...
s in the state of
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
. Founded by
George Gough Booth
George Gough Booth (September 24, 1864 – April 11, 1949) was the publisher of the privately held Evening News Association, a co-founder of Booth Newspapers, and a philanthropist.
Biography
He was born on September 24, 1864 in Toronto to Henry ...
with his two brothers, Booth Newspapers was sold to
Advance Publications
Advance Publications, Inc., doing business as Advance, is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse Jr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including Condé Nast, an ...
, a
Samuel I. Newhouse property, in 1976.
MLive Media Group newspaper publications include ''
The Ann Arbor News
''The Ann Arbor News'' is a newspaper serving Washtenaw and Livingston counties in Michigan. Published daily online through MLive.com, the paper also publishes print editions on Thursdays and Sundays.
History
Original publication
Published in An ...
'',''
The Bay City Times
''The Bay City Times'' is a newspaper published in Bay City, Michigan, United States, published Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, with a Tuesday edition jointly published with ''The Saginaw News''. The paper is published by Booth Newspapers, owned b ...
'', ''
The Flint Journal
''The Flint Journal'' is a quad-weekly newspaper based in Flint, Michigan, owned by Booth Newspapers, a subsidiary of Advance Publications. Published Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, it serves Genesee, Lapeer and Shiawassee Counties. ...
'', ''
The Grand Rapids Press
''The Grand Rapids Press'' is a daily newspaper published in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is the largest of the eight Booth newspapers. It is sold for $1.50 daily and $7.99 on Sunday.
AccuWeather provides weather content to the ''Grand Rapids ...
'', ''
Jackson Citizen Patriot
''Jackson Citizen Patriot'' is a daily newspaper published in Jackson, Michigan.
Since 2012, the ''Citizen Patriot'' has been published at AnnArbor.com
''AnnArbor.com'' was an online newspaper that covered local news of Ann Arbor, Michigan, ...
'', ''
Kalamazoo Gazette
The ''Kalamazoo Gazette'' is the daily newspaper in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and is part of MLive Media Group, Michigan's largest local media organization. ''The Gazette'' publishes seven days a week. Papers are available for home delivery on Thurs ...
'', ''
Muskegon Chronicle
The ''Muskegon Chronicle'' is a daily newspaper in Muskegon, Michigan, owned by Booth newspapers. In May 2007, the paper celebrated 150 years.
Because of common ownership with ''Grand Rapids Press'', the ''Chronicle''s coverage and distribution ...
'', ''
The Saginaw News
''The Saginaw News'' is a newspaper publication based in Saginaw, Michigan, owned by Booth Newspapers, a division of Advance Publications. Published on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays (along with a joint Tuesday edition with ''The Bay City Times'' ...
'', and ''
Advance Newspapers
Advance Newspapers, based in Hudsonville, Michigan, published weekly community newspapers for Kent County, Michigan and portions of Muskegon County, Michigan, Muskegon, Ottawa County, Michigan, Ottawa, and Allegan County, Michigan, Allegan counti ...
''. The company also maintains newsrooms in Lansing and Detroit. All of Advance Publications' Michigan content is published on Mlive.com.
History
Early history
Booth Newspapers was founded by
George Gough Booth
George Gough Booth (September 24, 1864 – April 11, 1949) was the publisher of the privately held Evening News Association, a co-founder of Booth Newspapers, and a philanthropist.
Biography
He was born on September 24, 1864 in Toronto to Henry ...
and his brothers in 1893 and was a media company based in
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...
. In 1976,
Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr.
Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. (born Solomon Isadore Neuhaus; May 24, 1895 – August 29, 1979) was an American broadcasting businessman, as well as a magazine and newspaper publisher. He was the founder of Advance Publications.
Early life
Newhouse ...
of
Advance Publications
Advance Publications, Inc., doing business as Advance, is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse Jr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including Condé Nast, an ...
acquired Booth Newspapers for $305 million, the .
The Herald Company, Inc. merged with Booth Newspapers, Inc. in July 1987.
In September 2002, Booth Newspapers acquired
21st Century Newspapers
21st Century Newspapers was a corporation owning newspapers in the state of Michigan and based in Pontiac, Michigan, and founded in 1995.
History
21st Century Newspapers' first acquisitions were ''The Oakland Press'' and ''The Macomb Daily'' and ...
, Inc.'s
Heritage Newspapers' Suburban Flint Newspaper Group which had nine local papers: ''
Clio Messenger
In Greek mythology, Clio ( , ; el, Κλειώ), also spelled Kleio, is the muse of history, or in a few mythological accounts, the muse of lyre playing.
Etymology
Clio's name is etymologically derived from the Greek root κλέω/κλεί ...
'', ''
Davison Flagstaff Davison may refer to:
*Davison (surname)
Places in the United States
*Davison, Michigan, a suburb of Flint
*Davison Township, Michigan
*Davison Freeway, a highway in Detroit, Michigan
*Davison County, South Dakota
Other uses
*Davison Design & Deve ...
'', ''
Fenton Press Fenton may refer to:
Places Canada
* Fenton, Saskatchewan
United Kingdom
* Fenton, Cambridgeshire, with neighbouring Pidley, part of the parish of Pidley cum Fenton
* Fenton, Cumbria
* Fenton, South Kesteven, Lincolnshire
* Fenton, West ...
'', ''
Grand Blanc News
Grand may refer to:
People with the name
* Grand (surname)
* Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor
* Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist
* Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper
Places
* Grand, Oklahoma
* Grand, Vosges, village and commun ...
'', ''
Flint Township News
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fires ...
'', ''
Flushing Observer
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushing ...
'', ''
Holly Press
''Ilex'' (), or holly, is a genus of over 570 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. ''Ilex'' has the most species of any woody dioecious angiosperm genus. The species are evergreen o ...
'', ''
Suburban Burton
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
'', and ''
Swartz Creek News Swartz may refer to:
;Places
*Swartz, Louisiana
*Swartz Creek (disambiguation)
*Swartz Bay, British Columbia on the north end of the Saanich Peninsula on Vancouver Island
**Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal
*Swartz Nunataks, in Antarctica
;People
*Swartz ...
'', and included ''Suburban Flint Shopper''. All of these operated with ''The Flint Journal'' as the Community Newspapers.
In December 2006, the Herald Company, Inc. merged with Advance Magazine Publisher, Inc. but continues to operate under the Booth Newspapers name in Michigan.
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
The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
, with "Defend Freedom, Defeat
Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...
" 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''.
''The Flint Journal'' posted a short apology on its website that stated that "The wrapper was supposed to be inserted into the newspaper." The ''Journal'' also told
WJRT-TV
WJRT-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Flint, Michigan, United States, serving as the ABC affiliate for northeastern Michigan. Owned by Allen Media Broadcasting, the station maintains studios on Lapeer Road in Flint, with offi ...
, who also received a flood of calls about the incident, that there was "some miscommunication" with the paper carriers.
The three papers mentioned endorsed Barack Obama for president.
On March 23, 2009, Booth Newspapers announced in ''
The Ann Arbor News
''The Ann Arbor News'' is a newspaper serving Washtenaw and Livingston counties in Michigan. Published daily online through MLive.com, the paper also publishes print editions on Thursdays and Sundays.
History
Original publication
Published in An ...
'' that it would end the paper's 174-year print run in July 2009, due to economic difficulties, and be replaced by ''
AnnArbor.com
''AnnArbor.com'' was an online newspaper that covered local news of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the surrounding Washtenaw County. In 2013 ''AnnArbor.com'' was transitioned to MLive.com along with Advance Publications other Michigan newspapers an ...
'', a daily web paper that will have a twice-weekly print edition. Also on this date, Booth announced that beginning June 1, 2009, ''The Bay City Times'', ''The Saginaw News'', and ''The Flint Journal'' would reduce publishing to three times a week (Thursday, Friday, and Sunday) while increasing their web presence; the three newspapers would add a Tuesday edition in March 2010, with ''The Bay City Times'' and ''The Saginaw News'' sharing an edition.
MLive consolidation
On February 2, 2012, Booth Newspapers split into two companies: MLive Media Group and Advance Central Services Michigan. MLive Group handles advertising and news for all newspapers and websites. Advance Central Services handles human resources, production, and distribution. At the same time, home delivery of Booth's remaining daily newspapers was reduced to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays with subscribers receiving e-editions on the other days on which they print.
Also in 2012, Mlive contracted with former
WEYI-TV
WEYI-TV (channel 25), branded on-air as NBC 25, is a television station licensed to Saginaw, Michigan, United States, serving northeastern Michigan as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Howard Stirk Holdings, which maintains a shared services ...
meteorologist Mark Torregrossa to run the website's weather section with the expectation of increasing the section's views from 900,000 to 1 million. Instead by 2014, the section received on average 5 million to 6 million page views with a high in January 2014 of 13 million.
In 2012, the former 21st Century Newspapers-owned papers in the Flint area had all ceased publication, although the ''Clio Messenger'' had stopped publishing two years prior.
In 2013
AnnArbor.com
''AnnArbor.com'' was an online newspaper that covered local news of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the surrounding Washtenaw County. In 2013 ''AnnArbor.com'' was transitioned to MLive.com along with Advance Publications other Michigan newspapers an ...
joined MLive Media Group, which was established in 2012 as the Michigan brand for
Advance Publications
Advance Publications, Inc., doing business as Advance, is an American media company owned by the descendants of S.I. Newhouse Sr., Donald Newhouse and S.I. Newhouse Jr. It owns a large number of subsidiary companies, including Condé Nast, an ...
. At that time, AnnArbor.com's web presence was integrated with the other Michigan properties under the MLive.com URL and the
AnnArbor.com
''AnnArbor.com'' was an online newspaper that covered local news of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the surrounding Washtenaw County. In 2013 ''AnnArbor.com'' was transitioned to MLive.com along with Advance Publications other Michigan newspapers an ...
newspaper returned to its historical identity as ''
The Ann Arbor News
''The Ann Arbor News'' is a newspaper serving Washtenaw and Livingston counties in Michigan. Published daily online through MLive.com, the paper also publishes print editions on Thursdays and Sundays.
History
Original publication
Published in An ...
''.
In 2019, a similar group of Booth/Advance/MLive-owned community newspapers in the
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
area, operating under the banner
Advance Newspapers
Advance Newspapers, based in Hudsonville, Michigan, published weekly community newspapers for Kent County, Michigan and portions of Muskegon County, Michigan, Muskegon, Ottawa County, Michigan, Ottawa, and Allegan County, Michigan, Allegan counti ...
, also ceased publishing.
In March 2020, MLive Media Group announced Tim Gruber as the President and Chief Revenue Officer.
References
External links
*
*
{{Advance Publications
Newspapers published in Michigan
Newspaper companies of the United States
Companies based in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Advance Publications
1976 mergers and acquisitions