The Ann Arbor News will cease to exist in July. I don't live in Ann Arbor, and I haven't regularly read the Ann Arbor News since I did live there, years and years ago. But there's something about knowing it's there, just like knowing Ann Arbor is there, if I want to go visit, that gives me a little feeling of comfort. Ann Arbor was where I did a lot of my growing up, went to college, went to law school, had my first baby. During all of those formative years, the Ann Arbor News was my main paper, complemented by The Michigan Daily.

These days I visit my kids who go to school there, and I only look to the Ann Arbor News to fill in facts when there's something of local importance. It's a pretty attenuated connection. But still, the news of its closing signifies the end of an era, and a sign that Ann Arbor, like the rest of Michigan, and like newspapers around the country, are in hard times.

It's the same twinge I feel when a favorite TV show ends. Not watching Thirty Something because I was too busy felt very different from not watching it because it was over. (It's true, I actually remember feeling genuinely sad when Thirty Something ended.) I miss President Bartlett's presence in my life during The West Wing days, and I miss the whole Sopranos gang.

I haven't felt bad knowing the Detroit Free Press is re-emphasizing to on-line newspapers, maybe because I am a predominantly on-line Free Press reader.

But when July comes, and it's official -- no Ann Arbor News, life will feel just a little different, one more color from the palette of my past rubbed out.