Traverse Magazine’s Mission Adapted to New Tech Tools & Audience Grows to 1.5 Million
MyNorth Media has been chosen as one of “50 Michigan Companies to Watch,” as determined by a coalition of national and Michigan-based business organizations. MyNorth Media’s achievements will be formally recognized at the 2014 Michigan Celebrates Small Business event to be held on May 6, 2014, at the Breslin Center in East Lansing.
Deborah Wyatt Fellows, Founder & President of MyNorth Media
“We’re thrilled to have MyNorth Media and Traverse Magazine named to 50 Michigan Companies to Watch,” said MyNorth Media’s president and founder of Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine, Deborah Wyatt Fellows. “It’s a win, too, for all our readers and advertisers who’ve supported us for 30 years. Without them, we wouldn’t be here.”
MyNorth Media has become instrumental in the growth of many Northern Michigan small businesses by providing an array of marketing solutions through their websites, print publications, and media production services which, in all, reach an audience of 1.5 million people.
Fellows started with Traverse Magazine more than 30 years ago and built it into MyNorth Media, holding true to the same mission and maintaining the passion of those early years.
“We took what we’ve always done with Traverse Magazine—celebrate and protect Northern Michigan’s natural resources including its towns and entrepreneurs—and we continuously found new ways to tell that story,” says Fellows. “Traverse Magazine’s engaging stories, stunning photography and integrity are now online, in video, in directories, with MyNorthTickets, ShopMyNorth and now a completely redesigned MyNorth.com.”
As a recession started in 2008, MyNorth Media expanded into digital media by producing its own website, MyNorth.com, adding video, newsletters and launching six new print products. The company also offered clients specialized client-based media services, including video production, website design and development, e-Newsletter distribution and custom-manufactured magazines and books. MyNorth Media accomplished all of this with essentially the same number of staff. Since then, the company has added only a few positions to support MyNorth Tickets and ShopMyNorth.
“We not only weathered the recession,” says Fellows. “We came out stronger and ready for the recovery.” The award is especially important to Fellows because Michigan 50 promotes entrepreneurial creativity and tenacity, while also looking for stable companies built to last.
Innovative Use of Tools While Maintaining Its Mission to Protect & Celebrate Northern Michigan’s Resources
MyNorth Media’s innovative cross-marketing methods and its applications of unique tools have garnered the company attention aside from its recent placement among the “50 Michigan Companies to Watch.” Fellows has been profiled by print-industry magazine Folio along with professionals from Apple, The New York Times and Forbes, and has spoken at national conventions of city and regional magazine associations to describe MyNorth Media’s strategic integration of multimedia platforms into its business plan. That MyNorth Media was chosen among the “50 Michigan Companies to Watch” is a testament to the company’s history of exceptional innovation.
The “50 Michigan Companies to Watch” are selected by the organization Michigan Celebrates Small Business (MCSB), which is a cooperative association comprised of the Michigan Small Business Development Center, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Small Business Association of Michigan and several other foundations. The prestigious titles are granted to businesses that “form the backbone of Michigan’s economy.” Businesses eligible for the award are defined as second-tier business, and therefore must employ between 6 and 99 full-time employees.
About MyNorth Media
MyNorth Media, founded as Prism Publications Inc. more than 30 years ago by Deborah Wyatt Fellows, publishes Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine, Northern Home & Cottage, MyNorth Vacation Guide and MyNorth Wedding, in addition to several other print and online publications. It also produces MyNorth.com, the online home of Traverse Magazine, ShopMyNorth.com and MyNorthTickets.com, Northern Michigan’s ticket source.
Traverse Magazine and its staff have won more than a dozen national and international awards for excellence. They were named to 50 Michigan Companies to Watch in 2014. And Traverse Magazine won a 2008 silver award for general excellence from the City and Regional Magazine Association and the 2007 “Magazine of the Year” award from the International Regional Magazine Association.
MyNorth Media has also published Reflections of a Life Up North, a coffee-table book of stunning photography from Traverse Magazine paired with a collection of Fellows’s columns, The Cottage Cookbook, 101 Ways to Love Traverse City and Beautiful Sleeping Bear Dunes. MyNorth Media is also a proud sponsor of many events including the Traverse City Film Festival, Shanty Creek’s Beer & Boards Festival, Traverse City Wine & Art Festival, Traverse City Friday Night Live, Paella in the Park and Elk Rapids Harbor Days. The privately held company is headquartered in Traverse City, Michigan. For more information visit MyNorth.com or call (231) 941-8174.