If you haven’t read my recent post about the death of newspapers and the ever-changing world of journalism, you should because what I’m about to write about aligns perfectly with that post. I learned today that one of my favorite publications, Twist Magazine (part of the weekend edition of the Detroit Free Press), will no longer be published come August. The Detroit Media Partnership announced today a voluntary buyout program in response to dwindling advertising revenue and a challenging economy. Along with that comes the elimination of Twist and the Community Free Press sections. Not to mention, this probably means a good portion of the journalists that my company has solid relationships with will no longer be at the Freep or Detroit News in the next few months — which is another enormous disappointment.
I was so fired up today that I e-mailed Twist’s editor to express how sorry I was to hear about this change and to let her know that every weekend, the first thing I do is dig Twist out from among the sales paper and read it word for word. The stories are heartwarming, inspiring and connect with readers on a variety of different levels. The editor, Laura Varon Brown, was just as genuine in e-mail interaction as she is in her weekly column. She expressed her gratitude for my kind words and stressed that she is working relentlessly to ensure the Twist brand and content continue making a solid impact in the Sunday main edition of the Freep. She did note it’s important that she hears from readers like myself who are in opposition to the Freep editors calling it quits with Twist. If she hears from enough people, it will help her make her case against why this decision is wrong and why it will affect a large amount of loyal readers, not only of Twist, but of the Free Press in general. Laura may compile some expressions from readers in an expanded letters column in print.
So, if you read Twist religiously on the weekends, if you’ve only read it here and there, and even if you don’t know a darn thing about it, trust me when I say that many people will thank you if you take the time to send a note expressing your thoughts to Laura. Her e-mail is lvaron@freepress.com.
I hope enough people create a voice that’s loud enough for Freep editors to hear. I’m sure other people in the communications world who pay loads of attention to the news can attest to the fact that pubs like Twist give us a pleasant departure from what the media deems “news” nowadays….i.e. shootings, fires, crime, robberies and every other depressing thing that happens on a daily basis in Detroit, Michigan and around the world.
I’ll be rooting for you, Twist!!! Best of luck.