By Nic Custer
In the 1990s, one afternoon each month, my father would pick me up from school in his Plymouth minivan and instead of heading home, I’d help distribute this magazine.
Dwarfed by seats stacked high with rubber-banded East Village Magazine issues – counted earlier that day by volunteers who’d batched them into the exact numbers needed for each neighborhood drop – we would drive across the city, listening to “Science Friday” or another public radio show, and pull up to a home where I’d hop out and drop off a batch.
Even at that age, I knew I was part of something larger than I could understand. Me, entrusted to carry these important pages those final few feet to volunteer distributors’ doorsteps.
I’ll admit that I didn’t know the person whose porch I set each bundle on, nor the neighbors whose doorstep the distributor would later deliver each issue to – but I knew we were all part of an unseen network of readers and volunteers, writers, editors, advertisers, photographers, board members and distributors, who all came together each month for this printed magazine to exist.
In high school, I joined EVM’s staff as a reporter, and I, like decades of volunteers before me, was trained in professional journalism techniques and sent into the community to find the stories that weren’t being reported elsewhere. I spent evenings in neighborhood association meetings and city council chambers, learning how to find story ideas from conversations, event flyers, and public notices.
Alongside my nightly schoolwork, I deciphered hastily scrawled interview notes and transcribed audio recordings into Associated Press–style articles before each issue’s deadline.
I played my small part informing my neighbors and empowering Flint residents with the news they may have missed (or may otherwise never have the chance to learn about).
As the philosopher Marshall McLuhan put it, “the medium is the message.”
McLuhan contended that the medium by which we receive our information is just as important as the information itself. And while EVM was founded before the internet democratized how people access the news, it remains in print because it was built on a similar premise.
Over its 49-year history, EVM has welcomed students, whether at the beginning of their careers or retirees who want to give back – folks of all walks of life who see value in learning journalism and informing their neighbors of what happened at that most recent school board meeting.
Our journalism school is tuition-free and our classroom is the Flint community, and we proudly prepare reporters to cover real events and hold public officials accountable in our city and beyond.
Our mission of community-centered journalism is the message and is apparent in every facet of our operation: from the number of hands involved in each issue’s creation to the generations of volunteers and readers that continue to prove that this media has value and is worth sharing. And while we’ve used our website to expand readership and the speed at which we can report in recent years, the magazine has remained our physical medium – its distinctive black and white photography popping up at businesses and on Flint doorsteps as reliably as an old friend.
But that shared process of creation also means no one person is responsible for this magazine’s success. And, in order to maximize our impact on the small budget we’re able to pull together, we wanted to let you know that we’re planning to put more of an emphasis on our website and move to fewer print issues a year.
Rest assured though: the website will simply become an extension of this same magazine, the trustworthy news source you’ve picked up to read today.
It has always been our focus to keep our news free, and now seems an important time to build on that access and grow our team of citizen journalists and community-focused readers.
Like this magazine, my role has changed over the years. Alongside my day job and a host of community positions, I now serve as EVM’s business manager. And while my father has replaced his makeshift delivery van twice since I was a child, he still delivers EVM magazine bundles to our distributors each month. So, even as we work to grow EVM’s online presence, we are confident it will remain the “magazine” – albeit more digital than physical – that you have known and trusted since 1976.
We welcome your thoughts and feedback as we transition in the year ahead. You can reach us at eastvillagemagazineflint@gmail.com.
This article also appears in East Village Magazine’s March 2025 issue.
