The Call suspends publication

From the Late September 2014 edition of The North Woods Call

     The North Woods Call has ceased publication—at least temporarily—due to family and medical issues that demand greater attention and freedom from unforgiving  deadlines.
    Regular production of the newspaper will stop indefinitely after this issue and active subscribers will receive pro-rated refunds for the unused portions of their subscriptions (See related story below).
     “It is with deep regret that we make this announcement,” said Call Editor and Publisher Mike VanBuren.  “This is not something we would choose to do under normal circumstances, but life has thrown us some unexpected curve balls during the past year and we feel that we have little choice in the matter.”  (For more information about this decision and the reasons behind it, please see the column blog post immediately below this article).
     “We apologize to those loyal subscribers who have enthusiastically stuck by us since we resurrected the paper following the death of former Publisher Glen Sheppard,” VanBuren said. “We greatly appreciate your support, as well as that of the many new subscribers who have joined us during the past two years.”
     Some of these individuals have purchased first-time subscriptions, or renewed old ones, in just the past few weeks, VanBuren said, and “it’s awkward to pull the plug on them so quickly.”
     “But we trust that readers will understand our decision to do this in the face of the personal challenges that we are now facing,” he said.
     VanBuren said he hopes The Call will return in the not-too-distant future and be able to do a more thorough and focused job of covering conservation issues in Michigan and beyond.  If so, past subscribers will be notified when the publication again becomes available, he said.
     In the meantime, a comprehensive history of the newspaper and its role in Michigan conservation journalism is in the works.
     “Despite the continuing economic difficulties facing newspapers today, we still believe there is a niche for The North Woods Call,” VanBuren said. “and we’d like to have a role in that, if possible.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a partner who can keep things going for us during this forced sabbatical.”
    Whoever ultimately carries the North Woods Call tradition forward, it’s clear that he or she will need to better accommodate the needs of modern news consumers and  more aggressively adapt to changing communication technologies, VanBuren said.
     And returning the base of operations to the north woods would be helpful, he said.
      Glen and Mary Lou Sheppard published The Call from the Charlevoix area for more than four decades after purchasing it from founder Marguerite Gahagan in 1969.  Gahagan had operated the newspaper from the Johannesburg and Roscommon areas for 16 years prior to that.
     Glen Sheppard died Jan. 5, 2011, and VanBuren bought the defunct newspaper later that year from Shep’s widow, who had mothballed it after her husband’s death.  Publication began anew in September 2012 after an 18-month absence.
     Since then, VanBuren has tried to create what he calls “a conservation community,” or a “public square,” where citizens interested in the conservation of natural resources could come together to learn about and discuss related issues of the day.
     The overall goal has been to serve as a trustworthy news source for people who love nature and the north woods, VanBuren said.
     “Essentially, we have wanted to be a practical journal of human ecology that chronicles our ongoing relationship to the natural world,” he said.
     Sometimes this has meant exposing readers to alternative viewpoints in an effort to stimulate thought and jump-start discussion, according to VanBuren.
     “We’re  interested  in  the  truth about the relationship between people and the earth,” he said, “and have tried to find it in a politically distorted world that often prefers deception to reality.  It’s clear from the reactions of readers that some folks are comfortable with this and some are not.”
     Still, we need dissenting voices and independent thinking if we are going to find viable solutions to our problems, VanBuren said.
     “We can’t merely push prefabricated agendas and demand that others validate what we already believe,” he said.

Subscription refunds to be given
     Current subscribers to The North Woods Call will soon receive pro-rated refunds for the unused portions of their subscriptions.
   The individual refunds will be figured based on the newspaper’s regular production schedule—twice monthly (except one issue each in January, April, July and October).
     Please note that several electronic and print subscriptions are expiring in early October, before the next scheduled edition would have been produced.  Obviously, in those cases, refunds won’t be required.
     “Those who are due refunds are asked to be patient, allowing us a few weeks to calculate what is owed and get checks in the mail.  Questions may be directed to editor@mynorthwoodscall.com.