The Penasee Globe, which has roots as a weekly newspaper going back to 1884, will be no more as of the end of the month.
The MLive Media Group today announced it is ending publication of the Advance Weeklies, seven weekly publications that provide news coverage of suburban communities in the Grand Rapids region, including Wayland, Hopkins and Martin. Final editions will be distributed Sunday, Jan. 27.
The Wayland Globe was first published almost 135 years ago in 1884 by George Mosher, who handed off responsibilities as editor and publisher in 1919 to his son, Rollo. Irvin P. Helmey and his wife, Helen Jane, bought the weekly paper in 1953. When they retired in 1986, the Globe had gone 102 years of existence with just three editor-publishers.
The Helmeys sold the weekly publication to Nila Aamoth and Ron Carlson, who changed the name to the Penasee Globe because the newspaper they had was called the Penasee Press.
Advance Newspapers, the largest newspaper publishers in Michigan bought the Globe from Aamoth and Carlson, under the banner of MLive publishers, which also handled the former Grand Rapids Press and Kalamazoo Gazette.
MLive Media Group President Dan Gaydou explained that the cost of publishing exceeded the company’s ability to sustain production.
“Regretfully, this will result in job loss, and impacted employees of the Advance Weeklies’ team along with a few members of the distribution force have been notified,” he said in Tuesday’s on-line story on MLive. “However, we remain committed to our core mission of producing great local news and will continue to cover these communities on MLive.com as well as in the Grand Rapids Press print editions.”
Gaydou declined to specify the number of people who will lose their jobs. The current reporter for the Penasee Globe is Karen Turko-Ebright.
Besides the Globe, Advance weekly newspapers being eliminated include Southwest Advance, Grand Valley Advance, Cadence Advance, Northeast Advance, Northwest Advance and Southeast Advance.
Those who receive the Advance Weeklies will begin getting MLive Media Group’s Michigan’s Best print product, which already is distributed in many parts of the state. Michigan’s Best print product features news on restaurants, food, entertainment and other local and statewide businesses and people.
COVER PHOTO: (From left) Nila Aamoth, Ron Carlson and Helen Jane and Irvin P. Helmey in 1986 when the sale of the Wayland Globe was reported in July 1986.
Can’t say it’s a huge loss. Once the Advance took control the path to failure began .
The only thing I may miss are the grocery and hardware store fliers. But they can be had on line.
RIP.you had a good run for a number of years.
Very little of local interest in the Penesee Globe since Advance got it. It was an outdated format. A local paper may be successful if done right. However, the wave of the future is Web based like this one. Townbroadcast is where I get my local news from. This would be a good time to expand it even further. Maybe an ad page?
Hopefully you notice the Ads are on each page of this publication. If on laptop it is on the right hand side. If mobile device, just scroll toward bottom of your screen.
Sad, but logical.. Pennesee stoped being a timely accurate Wayland newspaper many years ago. The costs of publishing print on paper make on-lines like Town Broadcast the viable small area media of the 21st century.
Had just read Tom Millers comment so misspelled Pennasee also AYE.
Yes, towards the end the ” Globe” contained very little local news. So in that respect, it wasn’t as much of a loss as it could have been. The Michigan’s Best paper which was supposed to replace it has yet to be delivered to my home, a year later, which is on a main road just outside of Wayland.
I found this website a while ago. You should check it out. searchinghisword.com