Illustration by Tabi Walters
Ann Arbor businessman Nagabhushanam “Bobbi” Peddi has purchased the Sun Times News, a weekly paper covering Dexter, Chelsea, Milan, and Saline.
Peddi owns TRUiC (The Really Useful Information Company), which he describes as “a media-tech and information company providing free guides for entrepreneurs.” Earlier this year, he says, he approached Sun Times News publisher Chuck Colby about tapping into their website’s “unrealized potential.”
But this summer, the paper’s finances became critical: according to editor Doug Marrin, the staff hadn’t been paid and they couldn’t afford to print their next issue. “During and after Covid, the cost of paper and postage nearly doubled,” Colby says.
“For each edition, the Sun Times was losing money,” Peddi says. But he agreed to bail out the company, paying its bills and putting its staff on TRUiC’s payroll.
A British-trained physician, Peddi arrived in Michigan eighteen years ago, intending to practice here. But while preparing for the state exams, he realized, “I don’t like being told what to do. I wanted to be my own boss.” He launched TRUiC in 2008.
The Sun Times has followed its own circuitous journey. Manchester resident Bob Nester, a retired federal employee, bought the Stockbridge Town Crier in 2008. “Every community deserves a local newspaper that covers high school sports, civic affairs, local organizations’ activities, and matters of concern,” he told the Observer’s Community Guide in 2023. “And every town council needs an official newspaper of record.”
Related: The Survival of a Small-Town Paper
He changed the name and, after experimenting with wider distribution, zeroed in on Chelsea, Dexter, Milan, and Saline. During Covid, he sold a rental property to keep the staff paid and brought in Colby to run the business; Colby in turn hired Marrin as editor.
Marrin says that Colby is no longer involved and TRUiC’s CEO is now running the business side. Traffic to the radically revised Sun Times Facebook page rose twenty-four-fold—“and so far, I’ve given only ten percent of the ideas we have to increase traffic and revenue,” Peddi estimates.
“TRUiC has offered us the administrative structure and financial backing we had been lacking,” Marrin says. “We’re off to a fantastic start together.”