Add the Big Rapids Pioneer to the list of endangered American newspapers.
The number of local subscribers who are cancelling their subscriptions is reportedly growing due to the newspaper’s support of the proposed Gotion Inc. electric-vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Mecosta County’s Green Charter Township.
The plant was initially planned to be built on land in both GCT but as well neighboring Big Rapids Charter Township, and included a parcel of land that is home to the Pioneer. As reported by The Midwesterner in May 2023: “After Big Rapids Charter Township leaders began asking more questions and sought a federal national security review of the company that has documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party, CCP Gotion altered its plans to build only in Green Charter Township.”
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Despite Gotion limiting its plans to build in only GCT, the Pioneer has remained supportive of the endeavor while national opposition to the mid-Michigan plant has only grown. Current Republican nominee former President Donald Trump has expressed his disapproval as has his vice presidential running mate JD Vance, who appeared at an August 27 campaign stop on the GCT horse farm owned by Lori Brock, which is located across the road from the proposed plant.
According to the No Gotion Facebook page, subscribers became even more disgruntled with the Pioneer when it didn’t cover Vance’s speech.
Thomas Sage was among the No Gotion members who posted his attempt to unsubscribe.
“This morning I finally get the time to call the Pioneer to cancel our subscription,” Sage’s Facebook post reads. “I am transferred to a national call center affiliated with the Paper. I am now chatting with a gentleman with a heavy foreign accent. I am asked why I want to cancel. I reply ‘when you go Wok [sic] you go Broke”. He replies ‘we need more information[.]’ I respond your liberal paper did not cover Vance’s visit to Big Rapids and I am no longer interested in your liberal biased news. He then tells me that due to the number of cancel requests that paper is no longer giving refunds and that they are extending our subscription a few months to appease us.”
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Christopher Long, another No Gotion member, posted: “Hey! Pioneer Newspaper! Go Woke, Go Broke!”
Less than two years ago, the Hearst-owned Pioneer was boasting 2,350 print and digital subscribers, which it reported was its highest number since 2018. The Midwesterner emailed the newspaper for an estimate of its current paid readership, but received no reply.
According to Poynter, the fifth edition of the Penny Abernathy report on local news in America notes that 2,500 local papers shuttered between 2004 and 2019, with an additional 360 closures between 2019 and 2022. In the past two decades, an average of two local newspapers ceased publication each week.
“Many of the nation’s 1,230 dailies are so slight they could be called ‘ghost newspapers,’ Poynter reported. “The total number of journalists working at local newspaper organizations is estimated to have fallen by roughly 60% since 2005 to 31,400.”