By: Charla Hamilton
charlachelseaguardian@gmail.com
In September of 2019 Dexter Guardian was launched. Tom and Charla Hamilton, already having two other newspaper publications under their belts, felt like it was time to take the jump with another. The Dexter community embraced the new publication with open arms and with the help of outstanding reporters the paper flourished.
Fast forward to the present and an opportunity for Dexter Guardian that couldn’t be passed up. Dexter Guardian is announcing a partnership with We Love Dexter beginning June 18. Since 2012, We Love Dexter has provided the Dexter community with up to date coverage of the latest news and sports online with an emphasis on community.
Tom and Charla feel that this partnership will be highly beneficial to both parties. “ I am very excited about the partnership with We Love Dexter. Being able to add an award winning journalist like Terry Jacoby to Dexter Guardian will increase our sports coverage and the quality of the overall coverage dramatically,” stated Tom Hamilton, Publisher of Dexter Guardian.
“This will be great for our readers to have Don Richter and Jacoby together again writing, along with our exceptional journalist reporter Aimee Bingham Osinski. As well as being able to offer two new online platforms to our customers (We Love Dexter and We Love Ann Arbor). To be able to cover completely the Chelsea, Dexter and Ann Arbor areas with the two online platforms and our two newspapers (Chelsea Guardian and Dexter Guardian) will give us the most complete digital and print advertising opportunities in the marketplace today.”
Rob Ewing, Owner, We Love Dexter is equally as excited.
“It is great that we will be able to now reach people not only online but in print as well,” Ewing says. “This will give both of us (We Love Dexter and Dexter Guardian) a greater reach. We feel this will benefit both our readers and our advertisers, and we are very excited for this opportunity. Not only are we expanding our reach in Dexter, but we are also developing a synergy for a broader reach into the Ann Arbor market for both the Guardian papers and journalists as well as our own.”
Ewing, a longtime active leader in the community, financed the creation of the “Discover Ann Arbor & Dexter” videos which were the first steps towards launching a hyperlocal online newspaper.
Longtime award-winning journalist Terry Jacoby also agrees the partnership is beneficial to both publications and especially the community they serve.
Jacoby is a longtime journalist who has worked as an editor and writer for The Detroit News, Sacramento Bee and Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.). A graduate of EMU, Jacoby was an editor of the award-winning Dexter Leader and Chelsea Standard newspapers and helped launch the Ann Arbor Journal as an editor with Heritage Newspapers. He has won numerous writing, photography and design awards from both state and national journalism associations.
“Our mission is to tell your stories because they deserve to be told. You worked hard to be better students, people, athletes, musicians, citizens, leaders … Hard work, determination and accomplishment deserves to be recognized and celebrated,” Jacoby says. “I’ve been told by parents, students, coaches and administrators that what we are doing in the schools is important. It matters. It makes a difference. And unfortunately it’s been missing with the changing tide of journalism – until now.
“This partnership with the Dexter Guardian is exciting for several reasons. The first is that it gives WeLoveDexter a print option for content and advertising opportunities. The second is that it gives WeLoveDexter excellent partners to work with – Tom and Charla Hamilton are not only experienced and talented journalists but also outstanding people. The third, and most important, is that this partnership will give us a chance to better cover the great community of Dexter and the surrounding area. It’s a win (for us) – win (for the Guardian) – win (for Dexter)!”
