AADL Talks to Mary Morgan

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 4:57pm

Before she started the Ann Arbor Chronicle with husband Dave Askins, Mary Morgan worked at the Ann Arbor News where she served as Business editor and later oversaw the Opinions desk. Mary recalls what attracted her to Ann Arbor and the News and she contrasts a typical mid-1990s day in the newsroom with running her online-only news site. She touches on some of the challenges of working the Opinions desk under News Editor Ed Petykiewicz; how the News responded to major changes in the industry; and the decision by Booth Newspapers to close the paper in 2009.

AADL Talks to Jack Stubbs

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 4:53pm

In this candid interview, Jack Stubbs, veteran Ann Arbor News photographer (1968-1996), paints a colorful portrait of the life of a newspaper photographer during the pre-digital era of journalism. He discusses tricks of his trade and recalls the creative ways he got the shot. Jack talks about the work of his fellow "shooters" during this period, and about some of the other News photographers he admired, notably Eck Stanger. Stubbs' assignments ranged from city and college sports to crime scenes and weather disasters, and he covered most of Washtenaw County's major events of the era, including Ann Arbor's June 1968 flood; the marches and protests at the end of the 1960s; the Coed murders and trial of John Norman Collins.

AADL Talks To Veteran Ann Arbor News Reporter Bill Treml

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 1:00pm

Bill Treml spent forty years at the Ann Arbor News working the police beat--"chasing cops and robbers," as he puts it. In that time he saw and reported on many of the stories we remember: the Coed Murders of John Norman Collins, UFO sightings, a bank robbery in Ypsilanti that left one police officer dead. Much of what we remember we remember from what he wrote. We got a chance to talk to Bill about some of those stories and what kept him at it through all those years. Treml's self-effacing manner cannot hide the fact that he went places most of us have never gone and witnessed things most of us never want to see. He stood in mud in his pajamas at murder scenes. He chased down paddy wagons. He took a front row seat to riots. He sat across the table from one of the worst serial killers in Michigan's history. Treml shared his stories of years as a reporter and told us what it takes to be a great reporter in any age of news reporting. 

AADL Productions Podcast: John Hilton, editor of The Ann Arbor Observer

Wed, 06/17/2009 - 11:53am

We had the privilege of talking with Ann Arbor Observer editor, John Hilton, about the origins and development of the Observer, how Ann Arbor has changed over the past three decades, and the current state of the newspaper industry. John also joined us along with local historian and author Grace Shackman to talk about Ann Arbor history and help us launch an online collection of local history articles from the Observer dating back to 1982. You can read all of Grace's articles from the Observer online now in Ann Arbor Observer: Then & Now.

(Due to technical difficulties, the quality of the audio isn't quite what it should be, but please listen in as John has many interesting things to say about Ann Arbor!)