When a local newspaper in Ann Arbor was collapsing (despite the prosperity of the city) and with the local paper in Ypsilanti already shuttered, IMG was invited to consider the community for a publication. “There was a deep, deep, hand-wringing anxiety about what was happening,” says Schutt, who lives in Ann Arbor and was part of the community foundation there. Forming an initial coalition of a wide range of institutions, from universities to economic development organizations to nonprofits, IMG launched Concentrate in January 2007 to cover news for the residents of Washtenaw County. A major challenge in markets like this one is the way that the lack of coverage occurs is not always equal — Ann Arbor was continuing to see some coverage, mostly in external publications, but Ypsilanti went almost completely dark. The only reports coming out were covering crime. So, IMG formed a separate coalition for ‘Ypsi’ (as the region is known locally), specifically designed to fill the news desert that was emerging there. With one of IMG’s strongest Voices of Youth initiatives, Concentrate’s dynamic newsroom is led by an experienced editor and Ann Arbor resident, Partick Dunn.
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