The Michigan Citizen, a stridently progressive publication in Detroit that wasn't afraid to speak its mind, is ceasing publication.
Its last weekly edition was Dec. 28, the fringe newspaper says:
We have deep gratitude for the hundreds of contributors over nearly four decades, the tens of thousands of readers and the citizens in our community who informed our work and whose voices challenged local and state government to be responsible to all of us.
The Citizen was founded by the late Charles D. Kelly (1932-2006) and Teresa Maxwell Kelly in 1978. Their experience as community organizers provided the newspaper’s editorial focus.
The Citizen has attempted to hold public officials and institutions accountable and in so doing has shaped a distinctive voice in Michigan’s media landscape.
Due to the overall decline of the newspaper industry, the print format will end. Connect with the Michigan Citizen via social media to learn of future projects.
Michael Jackman, Metro Times managing editor, blogs:
The closing of another Detroit-based media outlet is cause for sadness. Bear in mind, the editorial staff at Metro Times hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with the reporting in the Citizen over the years: Sometimes, we've felt, its reporters became victims of their own passions, or their columnists could be hired political agents grinding their professional axes. But if you wanted to lay your finger on the pulse of Michigan's progressive black intelligentsia, you could do much, much worse than peruse an issue of the Citizen.
