Northwest Michigan is a dot-com kind of place when it comes to getting online news and info about Traverse City, Petoskey, Charlevoix and cities around and in between.
If it's info about local businesses or business people, arts and entertainment, food--with cherries and morels growing in Northwest Michigan's back yard this is a given--or you name it, there's probably a website for it.
A search of websites will lead you to photography blogs, a popular and thoughtful blog written by Traverse City's mayor, a blog about the travels of a dog named Charlie, moms blogs, the sport of ultimate, Northwest Michigan vacations, beer and wine.
The list goes on, and while some of the sites come out of the living rooms and home office or coffee shop based laptops of regular folks, a vast majority of information is put out by established print publications that have covered the region and local cities for so long and have adapted to the new media format of publishing.
Here's a sampling of a few sites that dominate Northwest Michigan's online media scene.
TC TICKERStarted: 2005
The TC Ticker is the daily email of the Traverse City Business News, long a go-to print publication, which has now been far surpassed in readership by its online version, says Lynda Wheatley, editor of the print and online versions.
Some 27,000 subscribers receive the TC Ticker in their email inboxes each day while 3,500 take the hard copy.
Truth is a lot more content comes with the online version, where paper and ink don't factor into costs.
Going online has allowed the small staff to actually to expand its coverage. "Our business publication is a little more specialized. The Ticker is a little more general," she says.
When TC Ticker started it was a one day a week online publication. In 2009, it went to two days and then to five days in August.
It didn't take long to see that readers wanted more.
"We got a lot of fan mail," she says. "We don't really get that at the paper."
Not everyone loved it. A few diehards insisted they not get the online version, choosing only the print.
When Luke Haase, the publisher, bought the Traverse City Business News five years ago he foresaw the gravitation to online news.
"I feel like here in Traverse City it's really easy to get a lot of news," Wheatley says. "Our thing from the outset was to be hyperlocal."
The print publication covers four counties, Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie and Kalkaska. The TC Ticker is primarily focused on Leelanau and Grand Traverse.
While the publications are dominant, Wheatley says it's clear that there's an opportunity out there "for someone who wants to try to do it better. "
"If someone thinks they can do it better," she says. "There is the opportunity to try."
MY NORTHStarted: 2008
The decision to add an online publication to the long-established Traverse Magazine was obvious from a business standpoint but at-first overwhelming, says Deborah Wyatt Fellows.
"It was 2007 and things were starting to get a little shaky. Michigan was already experiencing some pretty significant economic struggles. In 2007 everyone was ringing the death knell for print. We decided we were going to do what we always had to do: Turn the ship into the storm and begin to innovate when a lot of people were going into the harbor and hunkering down," Wyatt Fellows says of her decision to take the glossy, high design magazine online.
"I said as of now we are no longer a magazine publishing company we are going to be a media company," she says. "I don't know what that means, but I knew it was what we had to do. We couldn't add people, just one web developer."
It turned out to be a good call. Not only has the magazine's readership soared online. Circulation for the print magazine is 24,000 with readership averages of 126,000 with pass around. The website gets more than 40,000 visits a month. The estimated total audience is closing in on 1 million.
They learned hi def video, website design and development, and now sell those and other services to other businesses. QR codes, video links, contacts links, interactive features are all there. And the magazine is being read in across Michigan, the regions and by visitors in 180 countries, seeing through food, drink, local homes, recreation, restaurants, interesting people, showcased through beautiful photos and well-written stories.
"I would not want to go back to being just a print company," Wyatt Fellows says. "It is just so unbelievable the synergies that exist between print and online. All of that is absolutely dovetailing from one thing to another."
THE GRAPHIC WEEKLYStarted: 2007
This boldly designed, easy to navigate online publication of the Petoskey News has been around in print version since about 1960. It went online four years ago and saw it was the calendar of events that got hot.
"We realized having a website was really important part of being a strong publication. I think our print publication is very strong and is very oriented to people who live here," says Maggie Peterson, special publications coordinator and editor of the Graphic.
The Graphic Weekly is one of several print and online publications owned by Northern Michigan Review Inc. It covers Emmett and Charlevoix counties and focuses on arts, entertainment and features.
It's currently undergoing a revamp to make it's even more user friendly, Peterson says.
When The Graphic Weekly started, it catered to more resort communities.
It now is aimed at local residents and visitors to the area.
"We realized a lot of people are coming here to find things that are going on," she says.
Kim North Shine is a freelance writer based in Michigan.