The word "ironic," often misused in place of "coincidental," applies to this situation reported in a news briefs column at Crain's.
The nonprofit Detroit Regional News Hub couldn't afford to maintain its Eastern Market office, and its chief now works pro bono from home.
The Hub is a media outreach effort aimed in part at combating distorted views of Detroit's complex story. It was launched in 2008 as part of the Road to Renaissance economic revival planning. . . .
The organization's purpose is to link visiting journalists to data, stories and sources in the region.
The Detroit Regional News Hub's blog and newsletter mixes original content with aggregated media pickups.
In other words, just as it's needed more than ever to offset negative perceptions of Detroit, the Hub's well appears to be running low.
The newsroom-like enterprise, led from the start by former automotive journalist Marge Sorge, also has a Detroit Unspun blog and e-newsletter. Paid contributors, while the budget lasted, included experienced local professionals such as Karen Dybis, Jerome Espy and Maura Campbell.
It has 14,500 followers on Twitter and 8,000 at Facebook. It also creates videos for a YouTube channel and takes visiting journalists around Detroit or develops customized guides to points of interest.
After spending the $600,000 in corporate contributions gathered five years ago by Detroit Renaissance (now called Business Leaders for Michigan), the Hub seeks $150,000 from businesses through the Downtown Detroit Partnership, Crain's reports.
That downtown group's chair, Strategic Staffing Solutions CEO Cindy Pasky, also leads the Hub's board and posted an optimistic essay Friday on its site that reinforces the urgency of image-influencing efforts:
We must speak with one voice and tell the world Detroit is in the midst of a massive transformation, is meeting its challenges and reinventing itself for the 21st century. . . .
Businesses are vested and invested in Detroit. We will continue to do everything we can and work with anyone necessary to make Detroit clean, safe and inviting.
