Charles A. Hughes - 2008 Special Award

Although a little known figure for many in the media community, Charles A. Hughes was a leader in metro Detroit publishing and printing, launching a magazine that continues to reach an important audience 90 years later.

In 1916, Hughes founded what is today one of the oldest, continuously published, monthly magazines in Michigan, the DAC News. No simple club “newsletter,” the award-winning DAC News has included feature and sports writing, essays and humor writing—all hallmarks of America’s early 20th century magazine tradition—a combination of journalism and an erudite literary approach.

Many of Hughes’ collaborators and friends included renowned Detroit sports writers, like the legendary E.A. “Eddie” Batchelor who wrote for the Detroit Free Press for decades; Edgar Guest, another Free Press journalist and Detroit poet, was a frequent contributor and sometime staff member.

The magazine publishes 12 issues annually reaching an audience of more than 10,000 of the most important, powerful and successful leaders in metro Detroit and the state.

Hughes’ contribution to the industry is unchallenged.  At the time of the DAC News’ founding, there were only two significant magazine publications in the entire state.  A number of other “newsletters” revolving around the automotive industry emerged and vanished in this era. But today the DAC News’ record of nearly 1,000 issues published can rightly be called the most significant benchmark for any Michigan magazine.