Letter from the editor: Concentrate editor steps up to publisher role

Dear Concentrate readers,

After nine years as Concentrate’s managing editor, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve accepted a dual role as Concentrate’s editor and publisher. This means that, in addition to my existing duties planning and preparing all the content you read in Concentrate, I’ll be the chief fundraiser responsible for keeping our vital journalism going.

I’m immensely proud of what the Concentrate team and I have accomplished over the past nine years. We’ve launched On the Ground Ypsilanti, an embedded reporting project in the city and township of Ypsilanti, which continues to share stories that aren’t being told elsewhere about a crucial part of our community. We’ve introduced Voices of Youth, a journalism education program in which we train middle and high schoolers on the basics of journalism and then pair them with Concentrate staff mentors to write stories for paid publication. We’ve brought you a new weekly series chronicling the latest developments in Washtenaw County’s vibrant arts scene. And we’ve continued work that began long before my tenure – covering what’s next for Washtenaw County in community and economic development, entrepreneurship, education, health, technology, sustainability, and more.

I’m immensely excited to take an even more active role in supporting and expanding Concentrate’s work, which I see as vitally important. As local news outlets have dwindled and news media in general have increasingly come under fire, I’m proud that we’ve been able to continue bringing you hyperlocal coverage grounded in spotlighting solutions to our community’s challenges.

If you’re as passionate about this work as I am and you’d like to support what we do, it would be my pleasure to help you do that as I step into this new role. If you’d like to contribute to our work as a reader, you can do so here. If you’re interested in playing a bigger role by providing underwriting support of a vital topic or advertising with Concentrate, please email me at publisher@concentratemedia.com. I’d love to chat.

Thanks for reading and being part of our beautiful community. Stay safe and read on.

– Patrick Dunn