A letter from the staff: Thanks

Bridge readers,

The year has been a tumultuous one in Michigan public affairs – and at Bridge Magazine. Now 14 months into our effort to provide in-depth, wide-ranging journalism about Michigan issues, we continue to be amazed at – and humbled by – the positive response from you.

Through the end of October, bridgemi.com had almost half a million unique visitors (490,266 to be exact). Page views for our site exceeded 1 million by the end of October (1,097,012).

These numbers dwarf those we saw from our first (partial) year in 2011 and, frankly, have exceeded all of our expectations.

Bridge’s reach goes beyond these figures, though, thanks to the variety of media partnerships and arrangements we have forged in the last year.

Our principal partner, mlive.com, tells us that Bridge content drew approximately 375,000 page views at their site between Feb. 28 and Nov. 19 of this year. We are confident that next year, in our first full calendar year of partnership, the page-view total will well exceed 500,000.

Bridge content also routinely appears in the print editions of the Grand Rapids Press, Kalamazoo Gazette, Flint Journal, Saginaw News, Muskegon Chronicle, Bay City Times and the Jackson Citizen-Patriot.

More recently, both the Traverse City Record-Eagle and Crain’s Detroit Business made extensive use of Bridge’s “Ballot mania” coverage of the deluge of proposals on the statewide ballot.

And Bridge staffers and contributors are making repeated appearances on Michigan Radio, Interlochen Public Radio and other broadcast outlets.

From "Ballot mania" to "Forgotten 4-year-olds" to Michigan’s "college tax" to the budget implications of fire departments across the state, Bridge has spent 2012 identifying and illuminating the trends that directly affect the quality of life in Michigan today. This is the coverage you have told us you want and we will endeavor to continue to deliver it.

In closing today, we wish to share a few of the many comments we have received at Bridge this year – comments earned by the hard work of our staff and contributors. We are thankful for your readership and support.

“I am compelled to write today because of how valuable I found your Bridge Magazine. The value in the information that the reporters dig up and present is just fabulous. I don’t know where else a citizen of Michigan can go to find this kind of non-partisan, fact-filled information on a regular basis. The Center for Michigan and Bridge Magazine are filling a much needed void that is very much appreciated” -- Brad Morrill.

“I appreciate that Bridge explores otherwise ignored but very important topics in an intellectually stimulating and well-researched way. Thank you” -- Jane Lumm.

“Congratulations on such amazing growth in readership of Bridge. It is the one resource I make sure I read because of the true, insightful and objective journalism you are providing as a service to the citizens of Michigan” -- Michele Strasz.

“I am utterly ashamed of the blatant one-sidedness of the media in so many of these political and cultural debates and of the cultural coarseness engendered by what passes as ‘entertainment.’ Bravo to the Center for Michigan’s effort to bring people together, and thank you for all you do toward that end” -- Graydon DeCamp.

Bridge's regular coverage of Michigan issues will return Nov. 27. Happy Thanksgiving.

Senior Editor Derek Melot joined Bridge Magazine in 2011 after serving as an assistant editorial page editor, columnist and reporter at the Lansing State Journal, where he covered state and local issues extensively, earning awards from the Associated Press and Michigan Press Association. The Oklahoma native moved to Michigan in 1999.

Staff Writer Nancy Nall Derringer has been a writer, editor and teacher in Metro Detroit for seven years, and was a co-founder and editor of GrossePointeToday.com, an early experiment in hyperlocal journalism. Before that, she worked for 20 years in Fort   Wayne, Indiana, where she won numerous state and national awards for her work as a columnist for The News-Sentinel.

Senior Writer Ron French joined Bridge in 2011 after having won more than 40 national and state journalism awards since he joined the Detroit News in 1995. French has a long track record of uncovering emerging issues and changing the public policy debate through his work. In 2006, he foretold the coming crisis in the auto industry in a special report detailing how worker health-care costs threatened to bankrupt General Motors.