BridgeDetroit to launch community news website

Nonprofit publication, BridgeDetroit will be launching a new community news website headed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Henderson.

The new venture is backed by $5 million in donations with $2.25 million coming in from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Other donors include the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, sponsor Delta Dental of Michigan and the Facebook Journalism Project Community Network program.

The newly launched website will be using direct engagement with city residents to steer its news. “This is not a, ‘Hey, what stories do you want to see in our publication?’ kind of engagement,” Henderson said. “This is a, ‘What’s going on in your life, in your neighborhood, your community … that you don’t have enough information about and don’t understand, or want to understand better?'”

The team will comprise of:

• Louis Aguilar, who comes from 18 years at The Detroit News
• Bryce Huffman, a former Michigan Radio reporter
• Catherine Kelly, a former publisher of The Michigan Citizen
• Orlando Bailey, the former chief development officer for Eastside Community Network
• Olivia Lewis, a former Gannett reporter and policy analyst for the Council of Michigan Foundations

In addition, Bridge Magazine is also expanding with three new internees. Meghanlata Gupta, who will grow the publication’s coverage of Native American tribes in Michigan; Eve Washington, who will work on data analysis and visualization and general reporting; and Sophia Yoon, who will do general and public policy reporting.