Five semi-weeklies serving Birmingham, Troy, West Bloomfield, Rochester and Southfield in the Michigan areas, published by Observer & Eccentric Newspapers, will stop publishing and will close their Web sites as of May 31, The Detroit News reported.

The Gannett Co. owned Observer & Eccentric Newspaper chain, will also amalgamate the Southfield and Mirror Newspaper into a single multicomminity paper. The South Oakland Eccentric will begin publishing on June 7.

Monday's changes also included the announcement of 44 layoffs in advertising, circulation, editorial and production.

"We're kind of going back to our roots," said Susan Rosiek, executive editor for the Observer & Eccentric, Mirror, and Hometown Newspapers, in reference to when the Observer and Eccentric were separate chains. They two companies merged in 1974. "We're resizing and retooling our company just like other newspapers in Michigan and newspapers across the country," she told The Detroit News.

The South Oakland Eccentric will replace the Southfield edition and the Observer & Eccentric's Mirror Newspaper. It will be published on Sundays in Royal Oak, Berkley, Clawson, Huntington Woods, Southfield and Pleasant Ridge. Gannett will continue publishing Observer & Eccentric papers in western Wayne County, Farmington and Farmington Hills, and maintain Hometown Weekly Newspapers in Northville, Novi, Milford and South Lyon will continue, The Detroit News reported.

According to Rosiek the combined Thursday circulation of the seven publications was 77,000.