Dear Reader,
Happy New Year!
I hope you are having a wonderful holiday respite from the craziness of this world and are energized to face 2022 head-on.
The “fresh start” aspect of the beginning of a year applies to MLive, as well. We take stock of the year past – our successes, our challenges and what we learned – and apply that to discussions about the ways we can improve.
Seeking constant improvement is nothing new, for journalists or any other business. But it has taken on new degrees of difficulty in the past few years, where every norm of operations has been tested and altered by the COVID pandemic.
I’ve written about the obstacles of working from home for journalists, who are used to being out in the field and in front of their subjects. I’ve written about COVID fatigue in our readers and society at large.
Back in November, our editors across the state met via video meeting to discuss ways in which we can bring even better content to our readers in 2022, and how we can create a safe and mentally stable work environment for our reporters and photographers.
So, here’s how we are gearing up for the beginning of the year by making plans to improve in many areas.
Enterprise and investigative reporting: MLive had two major reporting projects in 2021, and several of smaller, but still significant, scope. Those two large ones were on a culture of sexism and sexual harassment in Lansing, and a years-long pattern of sexual assaults and other crimes at the annual Faster Horses musical festival. This coming year, we plan to investigate and publish four major projects, all while continuing to write stories that matter in Michigan every week on COVID, statewide politics and the economy.
Explanatory journalism through data: Late in 2021, MLive added a position on its statewide reporting team focused solely on covering topics through the prism of data and statistics. You may have been accustomed to our journalists using stats, charts and graphics to help you understand life and issues in Michigan. In 2022, that will be the sole focus of reporter Taylor DesOrmeau, who had been our state economy writer.
More journalism in different formats: MLive has strong historic ties to our eight local printed newspapers. But did you know we’ve won 9 Emmy awards in the past two years? Or that we have the 5th most Facebook engagement among media companies, trailing only titles like The New York Times and Wall Street Journal? Our obligation is to meet our audience where it gathers to get its news. We showed that with strong documentary journalism last year on environmental racism, plastics in our water, the complicated legacy of Michigan’s bottle-return bill, and more. And, also by expanding our long-form journalism into audio storytelling with “Mandatory” and “Pinconning Paralyzer.” In 2022, we’re committed to finding more ways to reach news consumers with our most important journalism.
Stronger local report: MLive is Michigan’s most-read news source, with tens of millions of views monthly and strong readership to topics as diverse as state Capitol coverage, weather, pro and college sports, food and travel. But the bread-and-butter is coverage in our eight traditional newspaper markets: It’s the largest segment of total readership, at 40 percent of all views, and entails our most avid readers. We plan to beef up our local coverage with more enterprise reporting in our communities.
More engagement with you: We measure readership each year in the hundreds of millions of views; more than 12 million visitors come to our digital content in an average month. But some of the smaller numbers are more meaningful. For instance, the 47,500 passionate followers of the MLive Michigan Weather page are very involved, asking questions, sharing photos and offering story tips. About 170,000 of our readers have opened one of our newsletters in the past month. And this year, we passed 10,000 paying digital subscribers; that vote for journalism is the most important of all. Personal relationships like this are our lifeblood, and in 2022 we will work to expand these connections.
There’s one last small, but meaningful number to me: The readers – ranging from a handful to a hundred a week – who take the time to write emails reacting to these columns. Sometimes with praise, sometimes with criticism, sometimes with coverage suggestions. I try to reply to as many as I can, but often get swept up in my other day-to-day duties. In 2022, I pledge to do a better job of responding to you, our most important customer.
If these all sound like New Year’s resolutions, well, ‘tis the season.
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John Hiner is the vice president of content for MLive Media Group. If you have questions you’d like him to answer, or topics to explore, share your thoughts at editor@mlive.com.