You now hold in your hands the premiere issue of LAKE magazine that has been direct mailed to over 17,000 lakefront homes in Oakland County as the 2024 summer season approaches.
The people who brought LAKE magazine to market are members of the Downtown Publications group with offices in the downtown area of Birmingham starting in 2010. Our team has been producing Downtown Newsmagazine, a monthly publication that has become the dominant news and advertising source for the Birmingham-Bloomfield area of Oakland County, which you can view online in flipbook format at downtownpublications.com.
Many of the names you see on the masthead in this issue of LAKE magazine have been part of the publishing and journalism world in Oakland and metro Detroit for decades. Some of us had worked together on past publishing projects so we understand what it takes to provide a product for residents and advertisers.
I felt confident months ago when I was considering launching LAKE magazine that we had the right team members, the right publishing philosophy and the understanding of life in an area of the state with the most inland lakes – bar none. We also bring to bear an appreciation for the importance of the hundreds of lakes in this area in terms of what they mean for those living on the waterways of Oakland and the overall value to the county itself.
On a personal note, I have lived on three lakes in Oakland since the 1970s – Union Lake in the West Bloomfield-Commerce area; Long Lake in Commerce; and most recently on the White Lake Township side of White Lake. I have been involved both as a local resident and a journalist in environmental issues most of my adult life – whether open space preservation issues; covering toxic waste contamination of the headwaters that feed most of the lakes we see here in Oakland; to the health of the many lakes that make this county unique, for example.
As a result, what you will find in the early issues of LAKE magazine is an effort on our part to inform those living on the lakefronts in Oakland about the valuable asset these lakes are for us all. It is this view of the lakes that allows us to be passionate when it comes to providing editorial content for our readers, which is reflected in the recognition and awards we have received from our professional peers over the years when judged on quality of content for coverage of environmental and general issues, along with design of the publications we produce.
Each issue will also be featuring an aerial view of one of Oakland’s inland lakes, thanks to an arrangement we have with the Aerial Graphics firm from Lansing, which for 20 years has been providing aerial photography services and has amassed an archive of over 1,000 photos of Michigan lakes.
Readers will also be able to find the lake levels for those Oakland waterways that are under control of Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash.
Regular features will also include the Metro Intelligencer restaurant news and gossip column and a quick-take or sampling of broader environmental issues currently in the headlines captured in our Threatened Planet column.
We are also welcoming feedback from the community, on either general issues of concern or feedback on what we are doing, so my personal email is listed below.
As we are going to press with this June issue of LAKE, we are also putting the final touches on our website for the magazine which you can view at lakemagazine.media.
Lastly, our thanks go to the many advertisers you will note in this issue who helped us bring LAKE magazine into your homes.
David Hohendorf
Publisher
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