Our Mission & Model

Our mission

Issue Media Group is a network of digital news publications committed to solutions-based journalism that puts people at the center of community change. We report on how innovation, policy, and local action shape life today — and what’s next for the places we call home.

Our journalism focuses on real challenges facing communities and the individuals most affected by them. We examine emerging ideas, highlight promising responses, and explore how solutions play out on the ground — from neighborhoods and small businesses to community institutions and local governments.

Grounded in local voices and lived experience, our reporting goes beyond identifying problems. We seek to inform, connect, and empower readers by showing how people are working to improve their communities and what those efforts mean for the future. We believe journalism should not only explain the world as it is, but help communities imagine — and build — what it can be.

Our start

Issue Media Group (IMG) has its origins in 2005 in Detroit, when at the time the narrative was altogether negative and defeatist but when our founders envisioned a renaissance for the city. There was another narrative, one of hope that wasn’t a focus of the Detroit media, which was instead focused on the day-to-day machinations of a city seemingly in a spiral of only decline. From that first publication, Model D, additional media outlets followed, many for the same reasons and in similar situations — communities that had a different narrative and a vision of hope to express.

We write about issues that are central to the authenticity of the community, and these may include sustainability, transportation, arts and culture, talent, design, neighborhood growth and revitalization, small businesses and entrepreneurship, and social innovation.

Our model

We work with like-minded stakeholders who have shared values and missions through an underwriting model of publishing. Our work is editorially independent, but the financial support of our partners allows us to dedicate and expand our attention to issues and ideas of common interest and community impact. We engage our underwriters and the community at large to help shape our coverage, but underwriters do not review our journalism before it publishes. Any content that is directed and approved by a sponsor will be clearly labeled “Partner Content” for full transparency to readers.

Our content is freely available — no paywalls — but readers may support our journalism with voluntary contributions. We believe in doing work that has impact, which is a combination of solutions-based journalism and reaching as wide an audience as possible.

Issue Media Group is owned by Fourth Estate Inc., a family-owned private company dedicated to impactful community journalism. We continue to call Detroit home, but our team operates virtually. All of our publishers and editors live in the communities their publications serve.

We are for-profit in tax status only. Our mission is not to make a profit; it is to make our impact sustainable. Though we are not technically a nonprofit, we operate much like one. We also adhere to the same fiscal responsibilities as nonprofits when accepting grants from foundation partners. And we often use fiscal sponsors locally such as community foundations and United Ways, and nationally through Report for America and Tiny News Collective, which have accountability requirements for use of nonprofit funding.