During 2023, The Ann Arbor Independent’s readership rose from 80,949 to 90,657, an 11.9 percent increase. The newspaper’s readership in 2021 stood at 68,124. According to research by the non-partisan Pew Research Center published in Nov. 2023, overall print newspaper readership in the U.S. for both weekday and Sunday, declined 8% and 10% respectively, from 2021. The A2Indy, which was founded in 2013, was in print weekly until 2017. It is now a digital newspaper.

Shannon McFall vlogs for the newspaper. He said, “Power comes from the implementation of information gained through fruitful communicative methods. The Ann Arbor Independent’s increased readership means that people are increasingly seeking more truthful information and less big box media fodder. More and more people take that acquired knowledge and implement it into their daily lives.”

The Ann Arbor Independent focuses on Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Washtenaw County news. The paper’s business model is unique: The A2Indy is supported by reader subscriptions and donations rather than advertising. There is no paywall on the site, unlike other local news publications. In addition, The A2Indy focuses on accountability and investigative journalism. This work is funded by donations to the newspaper’s FOIA Fund, which is similar to the Knight Foundation’s FOI Litigation Fund.

As far as readership of digital newspapers is concerned, the Pew Research Center’s data show that, “digital circulation in 2022 is projected to have remained relatively stable.” For the industry, this is welcome news. However, in May 2022 the Pew Research Center published information about the readership of local newspapers, including digital readership. For newspapers that focus on local news, between 2015 and 2022 print and digital readership fell a combined 40%.

The Ann Arbor Independent’s Publisher and Editor Patricia Lesko said, “I am proud of the work of the newspaper’s many writers and contributors. I am especially grateful to the newspaper’s subscribers and FOIA Fund supporters. The more than 30 percent increase in readership over the course of the past three years is proof positive that Washtenaw County readers are hungry for The A2Indy’s hard-hitting reporting.

During 2023, The Ann Arbor Independent broke several important stories. The A2Indy investigated the Washtenaw County Community Mental Health Dept. (CMH) and discovered that callers to the mental health crisis hotline were being denied services and shunted to private mental health care providers, because CMH is not accepting any new patients. In addition, the newspaper used the Freedom of Information Act and discovered that Community Mental Health Dir. Trish Cortes is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of Mental Health millage money on consultants paid to produce puff news stories and PR ads about CMH. Cortes also used Mental Health Millage money to purchase billboard and bus advertising that featured the picture and name of a candidate for Sheriff.

The newspaper also broke the story that the County’s Chief Asst. Prosecutor Victoria Burton-Harris owes over $5,000 is campaign finance fines from her failed 2020 run for Wayne County Prosecutor. The Michigan Secretary of State’s Election Division launched an investigation into Burton-Harris’s unpaid campaign finance fines.

“In 2024, I expect The Ann Arbor Independent to continue to bring our Washtenaw County readers important news stories that they won’t read anywhere else,” said Patricia Lesko. “As George Orwell said, ‘Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is PR.’ I know County politicos at every level sometimes don’t appreciate the newspaper’s scrutiny of their work and reporting that examines how they spend, divert – and waste – the public’s time and money. These people, including a local judge, have used their elected offices to attack the newspaper in public. This, combined with the huge jump in readership and subscribers, tell me The A2Indy is on the right track, editorially.”

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