Welcome to the new Mid Michigan Journal

I’ve struggled for a few years to figure out what I was going to do with my site for The Mid Michigan Journal. Originally, my plan was to build on the following I had grown on Facebook via The Shepherd Journal, and expand into covering news in the region (thus the change in name), but this proved to be a goal that was much trickier than I had been prepared for. There was simply far more news than one person could cover, and I struggled to recruit people to help me. I even tried different tactics to help streamline the process of gathering news to report on.

Then, my son was diagnosed with cancer and just about everything else in our lives was suddenly put on the back burner. Any momentum I had gained with the Mid Michigan Journal was suddenly lost. Shortly after my son passed away in April 2021, my Facebook account was hacked and then my account was disabled. Other than serving as a kind of photo repository and source of comfort as photos from ten, five, or a year ago would pop up and remind me of happier times with my son, when I lost my account I lost access to any of the pages that I maintained including the original page for the Mid Michigan Journal. So, all of the progress I had made on Facebook, the foundation for starting this site, was suddenly gone. As I was still grieving for my son, and struggling at work, it seemed like everything familiar had been suddenly been taken away from me.

So, I have come to the realization that maybe things haven’t been working out for the MMJ because the idea of a news website is too old fashioned. The practice of reporting the news can be awfully daunting for people. Hell, I earned a degree in Journalism, and still struggled to produce stories. After a lot of pondering, I’ve decided that maybe its time for the Mid Michigan Journal to be something different, perhaps a more casual platform where people can simply share their thoughts about stuff. I’ve also considered opening it up to publishing fiction and other forms of literature.

Moving forward, I am inviting community members to contribute by sending me messages that share thoughts about something going on in the world or your life. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering, it might not even be earth shattering. Just share to share, or maybe it’s something you want to get off your chest. You can submit these articles by sending a direct message to the Mid Michigan Journal Facebook page, or sending email to editor@midmichiganjournal.com. Or, use the link “Submit a News Tip” which is located at the top of this site to submit your story. I will work with you to polish your submission, and then publish on my site. If you are interested in submitting, but don’t know where to start, reach out to me and I’ll discuss ideas with you.