DETROIT PUBLIC TELEVISION LAUNCHES NEW MiWEEK PROGRAM TO PROVIDE THE MICHIGAN COMMUNITY WITH CONTEXT AND PERSPECTIVE ON TOP NEWS ISSUES

WIXOM, Mich. (March 19, 2012) - Detroit Public Television (DPTV) announces a new news/public affairs program designed to meet the community's evolving need for journalism-focused context and perspective on the top news and issues affecting Metro Detroit, the State of Michigan and the Great Lakes region. The program, MiWeek, debuts on DPTV's main television channel, WTVS-TV Channel 56, on Friday March 23, 2012 at 7:30 p.m., its regularly weekly time slot. The show will be available to viewers on-demand, at any time, at dptv.org.

Veteran Michigan news anchor Christy McDonald will host MiWeek. McDonald's work with DPTV in the past year includes anchoring live coverage of the Mackinac Policy Conference and Great Lakes Week. Joining her each week for analysis will be Nolan Finley, Detroit News Editorial Page Editor and Stephen Henderson, Editorial Page Editor of the Detroit Free Press. Henderson will continue to host American Black Journal on DPTV.

Debbie Dingell, who had served as a co-host on the program "Am I Right?," which will no longer be produced by DPTV, will serve as a contributor to MiWeek and other DPTV productions.

"In a crowded and often confusing environment for citizens bombarded with headlines, soundbites, tweets and commercials, MiWeek will serve as a place to help the community make sense of the news, in order to focus on solving issues and moving forward," said Rich Homberg, President and General Manager of DPTV. "The creation of MiWeek is a reflection of our refocused mission to partner with the community to help solve its most important issues through the power of public media. It is a natural continuation of our recent productions that provided unprecedented access to the most important gatherings in our state last year - the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference and Great Lakes Week in Detroit." The program also plans to introduce new, important and authoritative voices to provide additional perspective on the news. MiWeek will also have access to in-depth journalistic content from Bridge Magazine, the online publication produced by The Center For Michigan.

"By producing a weekly program presenting diverse points of view on the stories and issues that matter most, MiWeek will complement what is available on air and online elsewhere and live up to the trust that our audience places in public television," added Homberg.

MiWeek is the latest example of new capabilities that DPTV has built in recent years. Those include a national documentary productions unit that produced "Beyond The Light Switch," a winner of a duPont-Columbia University Award, the highest honor in broadcast journalism. DPTV is also producing new, national PBS fundraising programs, including a concert with the internationally renowned group Il Volo, recorded in 2011 at the Detroit Opera House.

MiWeek will maintain a website at www.miweek.org.

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