On Sept. 27, the Detroit Lions won a game after a nearly two-year losing streak.

On Sept. 28, the newspaper that “eliminated” my job for budget reasons reported that it spent nearly $500,000 on upgrades to beef up color reproduction at its printing plant — a story I read, ironically, online.

On Oct. 1, Livingstontalk.com launched. It’s a hyper-local information and conversation site I started with an eclectic group of people, including the man who gave me my start in newspapers, and other out-of-work area journalists.

Whether there’s deeper meaning in these three things happening in the same week remains to be seen (though area bookies are reporting extra action on whether hell froze over), but I am excited to share the news of Livingstontalk.com with you.

The project took shape with casual conversations in coffee shops and then around my dining room table throughout the summer with a cast of participants that shape-shifted throughout. In the end, 20 of us — unemployed journalists, freelance writers, community luminaries and activists, salespeople, bloggers — are working for nothing, at least for now, to launch this project. We’ve taken a deep breath and jumped in with an “if we post it, money will come” attitude.

When I talk about Livingstontalk.com, I describe it as more of a daily online magazine than an online newspaper. We’ll be covering news, of course, but we don’t have manpower or desire to chase every fire and ambulance run. We’re aiming for something different. We’re focusing our energy on the bigger-picture stories, the whys and hows, and we’re excited to have an eclectic group of bloggers from throughout the community to supply their takes on the issues that affect us.

If you check out today’s edition, you’ll see a compelling blog post from Nancy Flanagan, a well-known educator across the country and a former Michigan Teacher of the Year. Flanagan writes about the book “Columbine,” by none other than OS’s Dave Cullen, and the lessons it holds for our community.

Then there’s a blog about fairly dispensing justice when the accused is a juvenile, written by published mystery novelist (“Perjury”) and retired Circuit Court Judge Stan Latreille.

One of our bloggers, Bill Nowling, is the Republican communications director for the Michigan Legislature (as well as one of my reporters from years ago). Other former reporters are on board with the project, as are journalists who lost their jobs at the Ann Arbor News and its Community News subsidiary, which folded in July.

Every single person – including my partner, Buddy Moorehouse (a member of a comedy troupe that regularly played Las Vegas in the past) — is working for no pay to get the publication off the ground.

While we don’t consider ourselves in direct competition with our old newspaper, I’d be less than truthful if I didn’t confess a bit of a rebellious, guerilla attitude in this whole thing. We’re launching our new website based, in large part, on a philosophy that’s much different from that of our old newspaper’s site. We also believe we’re remaking local journalism in a way that’s different from any of the local websites that are out there.

We’re putting into action what we believe will become a new, sustainable model of journalism in the digital age. It’s really going back to what newspapers were years ago, minus any costs to readers. We’re out there selling ads because we want to support ourselves. People who know how to report and write are working for us. We’ll curate the site and guide people through the important stories of the day, not make them search for the information they need.

There are so many places to get national and regional news stories, but so few to get thoughtful, well-written local stories and opinion pieces. That’s what Livingstontalk.com is aiming for.

I’ve learned a lot from the time I’ve been blogging here, and those lessons inspired and helped guide me as I pulled together the writers for Livingstontalk.com.

For years, every Sunday, rain or shine, whether I wrote pearls or crap, my column ran. That’s how it is at papers — certain space is allotted for certain things. The column doesn’t need to be good to be published; it just needs to be written because the space must be sold or filled. After I was evicted from my “space,” I needed to know whether there were other homes for my writing anywhere else in the world.

At Open Salon, I learned there was, which was an important lesson for me as I contemplated life without my job, without my guaranteed column space. Truth is, if I hadn’t come to OS as a way to cope with the loss of my job, I may not be here today, chewing my fingernails in anticipation of how Livingstontalk.com is received.

Now, the really hard work begins. We’ve got to get tomorrow’s website ready. We will learn lessons and improve the site day after day after day. We’ve got big plans for Livingstontalk.com, and a year from now, what you see will be bigger, better and even more deeply rooted in the community that every Livingstontalk contributor calls home.

This is, after all, a community website, run by community journalists. Our goal is to be the heart of our community, the place where people debate issues and exchange ideas and share the milestones of their lives, all at no cost to them. There are no subscription fees, no price tag for obits or birth announcements. We are running our business based on the guiding premise of the Internet — information is free for the taking. It’s the lesson that our former corporate overlords don’t seem willing to learn.