January 2025
With this January issue kicking off our 16th calendar year of producing Downtown Newsmagazine, it seemed an appropriate time to both do some personal review of this past year and in doing so remind our followers of what we do here at the publishing group.
We would like to think we have provided a solid publication, beginning with our longform storytelling that sets us apart from other publications in Oakland County.
As I have explained in the past, we are fortunate to have one of the more educated populations in the state, so we know that our newsmagazine in general, along with our longform stories, gets read. But we also know that our residents are busy, therefore we take on the role as providers of what we think is essential to know. That includes our longform stories with which we try to tackle – and in many cases anticipate in advance – critical issues that have or will have a local impact.
A good example is our July issue in which we brought readers the issue of fluoridation of the public waters, an age-old controversy that we sensed was soon to become a battle in the public sphere, which has now come to fruition.
Over the past year, here are some of the issues we have addressed: cell tower radiation concerns; local police departments use of drones; the state of aquifers we rely on in Oakland; how local communities are (or are not) addressing climate change; health department inspections of the countless restaurants here and in other counties; and the challenges faced by local police departments to maintain staffing.
These stories, 4,000 – 6,000 words each, involve weeks of research and work with multiple sources here, across the state, the country and beyond these borders. Certainly not something you find in any other local publication. Our efforts on this front are driven by our daily consumption of news from multiple national and international newspapers and magazines to keep us informed about potential developing trends and concerns.
We also set out years ago to highlight in our monthly Faces feature local persons who either live in the Birmingham-Bloomfield area or were raised here and have gone on to accomplish something newsworthy. Our search has taken us across the country, from Hollywood to the East Coast, and in a number of cases to other countries. I did a rough count for this column and found we have done personality profiles of about 800 persons since we launched this publication.
Downtown also focuses considerable effort each month on the traditional role of covering local municipal and school board meetings, because we know that while local issues are of concern, few people make time in their busy schedules to monitor these themselves. We consider ourselves students of government and we do the legwork so residents can remain informed and decide when appropriate to take action.
We also offer our editorial commentary on issues in the Endnote portion of Downtown. We do admit that we are only one of many voices in a community when it comes to local issues but we feel strongly that this is the traditional, important role of a publication, and we feel uniquely qualified having followed local, county and state government for so many years.
Also part of the monthly package is the Metro Intelligencer column that captures what’s taking place in the regional restaurant world. And of course, for the political junkies, there’s our Oakland Confidential column, presenting (sometimes in smarmy fashion) gossip from the world of politics. In 2023, separate from the print product, we created an environment newsletter (Threatened Planet) of curated material from a wide array of sources with information pertaining to the climate crisis we are all facing. We issue this every other week. We have created websites for these three editorial offerings and send out email blasts to several thousand followers who have signed up to receive these columns.
Beyond the monthly print edition of Downtown, we have also taken our content online to reach an even broader audience and those who don’t gather their news from print products. For the past 15 years we have sent out each Friday morning an email newsletter blast to several thousand recipients with the latest news from the local government front, along with the latest police blotter news for the local area. On occasion we will send out special breaking news notices to this same set of followers. We also post to Facebook, Instagram and Threads. We did abandon posting on X, formerly know as Twitter because of its decline into a toxic misinformation mess once Elon Musk bought it, but we just started posting to Bluesky, so join us there.
Although I am generally pleased with our effort in the past year, I do have one regret – the decision to take our Voter Guide for the 2024 election to an only online format. I don’t think that was in the best interest of readers, so in future major election years we will be returning our Voter Guides to a print format. We made the decision this year because between labor, printing and postage, a Voter Guide is a major expense, especially for a small, independent publishing group like ours. Years ago the expense of providing voters with detailed positions of those seeking office was basically funded by candidates who ran ads. But that source of revenue for the most part dried up well over a decade ago as candidates have turned to direct mail, broadcast and social media to promote their campaigns. We know, based on phone calls and emails we get in advance of an election, that readers look forward to the Voter Guide. So when the 2026 election arrives, we will be going out in advance to find local companies willing to be sponsors of this special publication, which in heavy election years has often been 40-44 pages in size. As we return the Voter Guide to the print product, we will also continue to post the same content online at our website.
Bottom line: looking back on 2024, we are generally satisfied with what we have brought the community. Our efforts have allowed us to take our share of awards from the Detroit chapter of the Professional Journalism Society, for publication design, commentary and the longform stories we have covered, but the greatest affirmation of what we do comes from our readers and in turn from the business community who supports us.
Supporting local journalism: Months ago I ran into a local restaurant business owner who I have known for several decades and was one of the supporters who helped us bring Downtown to market in 2010. He asked why we were still running the donation campaign you encounter in most issues (see page 49) and at our website, something we launched when the pandemic closed down local businesses for months. My answer: What we do here is expensive and the local business community has consistently funded our efforts. But as costs increase we can’t always pass all of those along to our supporters, like the newsprint increase we just received, let alone the 25 percent tariffs proposed by the new administration as we and most other publications in the eastern one third of the country import paper from Canada. So if you are inclined to support strong local journalism, I thank you in advance.
David Hohendorf
Publisher
