© Jerimiah B. Brown

AA News Alums

Where are they now?

by Vickie Elmer

posted 12/11/2009

The people thrown out of work when the Ann Arbor News closed in July are getting on with their lives. After twelve years at the News, photographer Leisa Thompson is snapping senior portraits, weddings, and images for some local businesses. "The community has really stepped up to try to help us," she says. Graphic artist Tammie Graves works part-time at the Tri-County Times in Fenton and has launched a freelance business--including illustrating a children's book written by former reporter Jo Mathis. "It's a weird feeling," Graves admits. "I have not been out of work since I was fourteen."

Mathis is writing a column for the online Ann Arbor Chronicle, while former editor-reporter Judy McGovern now freelances for both the Chronicle and the Observer. Former stringer Lisa Allmendinger is now one of four reporters at the A2 Journal, the Heritage papers' new weekly--with help from stringer Art Aisner, a former News staffer. But given the dismal state of the newspaper industry, it's no surprise that some reporters have changed careers--including longtime reporter, editor, and columnist Geoff Larcom, who's now EMU's director of media relations.   

[Originally published in December, 2009.]