September 09th, 2019

​By: Rebecca Indianer
r.indianer13@gmail.com
 
You may be wondering what this new paper is and why it’s in your mailbox. I too had this same feeling when the Chelsea Guardian newspaper arrived in my mailbox a couple of years ago at my rented cottage off of N. Territorial Rd in Chelsea. The Dexter Guardian is Dexter’s newest source for hometown news and its neighboring paper is, The Chelsea Guardian. We are under a bigger umbrella called Hamilton Publishing, and this is our story.
 
Tom Hamilton is the Publisher of the Dexter Guardian newspaper. He has been an entrepreneur since he was 24 years old. He’s worked in the newspaper industry since 2010, and has managed 8 newspapers in Washtenaw and Wayne Counties including the Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader. His wife Charla Hamilton is the Editor & an Advertising Consultant for Dexter Guardian and has worked in the newspaper industry on and off for over 7 years. She was an inside sales rep for Heritage Media and sold advertising into the Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader newspapers.
 
The couple started Hamilton Publishing in January 2018 and its first publication was the Chelsea Guardian newspaper a month later. Charla shares, “We decided we wanted to start newspapers that focused and were exclusive to each individual community.” (Right about now you may be scratching your head about whether the word “newspapers” is a typo or not, it isn’t. Hamilton publishing has several newspapers. The publishing company explains, “Chelsea Guardian was the first newspaper. We currently live in Allen Park and the residents of that district started reading the Chelsea Guardian and showed interest. Allen Park then began asking us why there was no paper there…hence the Allen Park Guardian was born! The Dexter Guardian was just the next logical step. It made sense due to the success we’ve had in Chelsea, and our advertisers wanted to reach the Dexter market. We are thrilled to be in Dexter and look forward to developing new working relationships and making new friends. Some of our writers aren’t too familiar with Dexter and they are really excited to immerse themselves into the Dexter community. Dexter and Chelsea have a long history and we’re delighted to be apart of the ongoing bridge between the two communities.”
 
So, what goes into making a strong newspaper? This is what Hamilton Publishing had to say, “Take care of your employees and they will take care of you. We have been blessed with a group of wonderful, passionate people who put their all into what they do, and love what they do. From our two sports writers Don Richter, who was the Sports Editor for the Chelsea Standard, is a Chelsea resident and loves to write for the community and Dave Merchant who has written for Chelsea Standard, Dexter Leader and has interviewed many great people and has a passion to cover anything sports, to our youngest writer Rebecca Indianer who is also a local business owner, a breath of fresh air, and brings a unique personality and authentic writing style to the Guardian, to Dave & Shelley Edwards who are incredibly talented and dedicated to do our graphic designing and layout, and Aimee Bingham Osinski, our newest talented writer who previously did some writing for the Manchester Enterprise…we couldn’t ask for a better group of people to work with…they truly make our paper what it is.”
 
With all the other media options in around how does the Dexter Guardian stand out from the other news outlets? My two bosses say its, “our hyper-local news coverage of individual communities…it is a personal feel…you don’t have to search for your news…you know when you open up one of our papers it will be full of that specific community’s news and events.”
 
We all at the Dexter Guardian are ecstatic about becoming part of the Dexter community and look forward to really engaging with what makes Dexter unique. If you have any suggestions on stories you’d like to have us cover then let us know and we’d be happy to start a rapport. We hope you have a terrific week, and we’ll meet again at the mailbox next week!