Holly Madigan, for whom The Michigan Daily’s newsroom is named along with her husband John, passed away on Sept. 20. We want to send our sympathies to John Madigan, as the gifts Holly and John gave the newsroom have created so many opportunities for our staff.
John and Holly Madigan have been tremendous supporters of The Daily, donating funds to renovate our newsroom and create a need-based scholarship in 2015. The Madigans also gifted The Daily $300,000 in 2019 to sustain professional development and help us work toward financial stability. Holly and John named the fund after Michigan Daily alum Ann Marie Lipinski, former editor of The Chicago Tribune.
The Madigans’ generous gifts allowed The Daily to bring in veteran journalists for short-term fellowships in 2019, and to finance student research this past summer into making The Daily’s revenue and content model more sustainable.
Holly and John’s names and photos, along with the phrase “May all who enter value the importance of journalism, media and business,” sit atop a central wall in our newsroom. Our staff misses everything about our newsroom right now, and our newsroom misses us, too. We’re looking forward to the day freshmen can book it to the newsroom after class to share their story with an intimidating editor and when the whole newsroom works together during the frenzied energy of an election night. For now, our newsroom is symbolic and spreads between all our computer screens. Despite our current lack of physical newsroom, Holly and John’s great contributions support us as we work on our journalism.
— Elizabeth Lawrence, Editor in Chief of The Michigan Daily