The New Express

May 4, 2005

This is a big week for Northern Express for a number of reasons. It‘s our 14th birthday, for one thing, and we‘re celebrating by tearing our offices to pieces with everything we own being tossed out the door.
More on that later.
We got our start the first week in May of 1991, and when I see old friends and aquaintances from those days and reminisce over how long it‘s been since the Express got started, well, it‘s something of a shock -- 14 years -- that‘s a long time. In dog years we‘re 98 years old.
I wouldn‘t say that our longevity has made the Express a pillar of the community, but we‘ve become at least a 2“-by-4“ propping up certain parts of it. We‘ve been proud to support music and the arts in Northern Michigan and to offer some views and stories that don‘t always surface elsewhere.
But with age comes cobwebs, rust, and the need for housecleaning, so over the past few months we‘ve been quietly reinventing our paper in a campaign we call the “New Express.“
It‘s been a gradual process, and perhaps you‘ve barely noticed, but we‘ve striven to add a little more splash to our pages.
It started with the “Northern Seen“ a year ago, the photo page which has become one of our most popular features. The Northern Seen doubles as something of a Society page and presents a tug-of-war between bar-hopping partyers, art gallery openers and Chamber of Commerce types. I get a bit of a chuckle out of this page, which juxtiposes tattooed hellraisers with Rotary-type dudes in suits, serving to remind us that we‘re all Americans and one big Northern Michigan family in one offbeat way or another.
Over the past few months we‘ve been adding other subtle changes. Perhaps you‘ve noticed that our covers are now more of a crazy quilt of what‘s happening inside the paper. This is a nod to cover trends at urban newsweeklies across the nation which are going for more of a potpourri design. It‘s also a nod to the way young people assimilate information in the computer age -- they tend to like a lot of stimulus, much as you‘d find on a website, and since youth is the future, we aim to please.
Inside, we‘ve done more to “magazine-ize“ the paper with new features such as “Tastemakers,“ “Bottoms Up,“ “Gear Box,“ “My Style,“ etc. I‘ve always been skeptical of this trend in publications, but have to admit it does add some pizzazz, and again, it mirrors what we‘re seeing on the Web. Newspapers bemoan declining readership, but that‘s mostly because they haven‘t kept up with what‘s happening in the world cognitively. They tend to look dull, and dull doesn‘t cut it in the zippy cathode ray tube side of the media. Our readership and advertising has risen because you can see at a glance that the Express is flowing with the current of what‘s new. In that respect, we‘re recharging the paper.
Yet, for all the new bits & pieces, we don‘t intend to take the “New Express“ in a superficial direction. This month, investigative reporter Anne Stanton will be joining our staff to add in-depth coverage of issues such as courts, crime and the environment. Anne brings deep community connections and a decade of experience writing formerly for the Traverse City Record-Eagle and the Michigan Land Use Institute. It‘s been a long-time goal at the Express to add more hard news to our pages in an era when most newspapers are cutting back on local news in favor of wire service copy. Look for more edge in the paper in the months ahead.
Lastly, we‘re moving, and that‘s why all of our stuff is flying out the door today. After 10 glorious years next to the sewage plant on 8th Street in Traverse City, our offices are moving to classy new digs in the Southview section of Building 50 at the Grand Traverse Commons.
We‘re honored to be one of the first outfits to occupy Building 50, which is perhaps the largest historical preservation project in the country, and one of the biggest in the world. Over the past few months we‘ve watched this project transforming itself from a paint-peeling wreck of a mental hospital worthy of a haunted house film to a New Urbanist palace brimming with energy, grace and new ideas. The renovation of the Commons still has a long way to go -- reportedly 10 or 15 years -- but what‘s taking shape there is sure to be a jewel in the region‘s crown.
We hope that some of that energy will rub off as we attempt to recharge the Express to make the paper “new“ again. For those who‘ve hung in with us over the past 14 years, thanks for the good times. To those attracted to our new format and features, welcome aboard.