Back from the Brink: Three Rivers Commercial-News to return as weekly under new ownership

The last issue of the Three Rivers Commercial-News has yet to be printed. Despite emotional farewells from News Director Robert Tomlinson and Publisher Dirk Milliman in Saturday’s edition, in what was meant to be the 127-year-old newspaper’s swan song, the Commercial-News isn’t done reporting the news.

Not now, not yet.

The paper announced on its Facebook page Sunday that it would resume operations after a Southwest Michigan newspaper company, and a man named Mike Wilcox, swooped in at the last minute to save it. Shortly after the news was delivered, the original post was taken down, reportedly because the report was premature, and the deal had yet to be finalized.

However, staff did receive confirmation on Monday that the deal is done, and the Commercial will publish its next issue on Friday, December 16, and presumably every Friday after that, as it will return as a weekly publication.

The former daily went from publishing six days a week to two in 2020, before its latest transformation into a weekly. Tomlinson will return as the paper’s director but sadly former Sports Editor Scott Hassinger opted not to return under new ownership.

Alek Haak-Frost is executive editor and publisher of Watershed Voice.