Eastern Michigan University alumus Nathan Bomey is set to be inducted into The Eastern Echo Hall of Fame at The Echo's Student Media Gala and Hall of Fame Banquet on April 2, 2026.
Prior to working for the Detroit Free Press, USA Today and Axios, Bomey began his journalistic work with The Eastern Echo, starting as a news reporter and working his way up to managing editor his senior year.
"The Echo was an incredible experience for me and really formative time. We had such an amazing group of journalists. We were students, but I really felt like it was a professional team," Bomey said.
Before graduating from EMU in 2006, Bomey's work ranged from investigative pieces to sports news. While working at The Echo, Bomey was voted MVP among the staff both his junior and senior year, awarded to him through a vote by his peers.
"It prepared me for my career as a journalist," Bomey explained. "The Echo is really unique because it's more than just a newspaper; it's a community. It's a community of people who really believe that facts still matter."
After leaving The Echo, Bomey worked for a variety of papers in the Ann Arbor and Saline areas before landing a job as a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, one of two major daily newspapers in the Detroit area. While there, Bomey reported on the automotive company General Motors.
"When I graduated from Eastern, I had done such a wide variety of journalism for such a young age," Bomey said. "And yet, I had never really done business coverage on a regular basis ... I always had a pretty good sense for math, and numbers weren't scary for me."
According to Bomey, business reporting and larger investigative pieces had always attracted him to the field.
"Fundamentally, it's about people, and it's about the decisions that they make or don't make that guides the future of corporations and economies," Bomey said.
Bomey described his time at the Detroit Free Press as a dynamic and transformative experience. While he had reported on auto news before, the Detroit Free Press offered him the opportunity to focus on it as his entire beat, competing for coverage on GM issues with nationwide publications like The New York Times and the Associated Press.
About halfway through his tenure at the Detroit Free Press, the Detroit bankruptcy of 2013 occurred. On July 18, the City of Detroit filed for chapter nine bankruptcy, making it the largest city in the United States to do so. Bomey, alongside a colleague, worked to investigate the pieces of the financial emergency, leading Bomey to publish his first novel, titled "Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back." The book, published in 2016, explored how the city of Detroit crawled out of its amassed $18 billion of debt.
"I had to take a real step back and think holistically about the bigger themes and the moments of the story that would have durability, versus what would be superfluous over time," Bomey said. While writing the book, Bomey interviewed an estimated 100 sources, reapproaching the story of Detroit's bankruptcy from a new perspective. "Nobody wants to read about a bankruptcy; they would much prefer to read about the characters and the people who were caught up in the story."
“In addition to his first published work, Bomey has since written two other books: “After the Fact: The Erosion of Truth and the Inevitable Rise of Donald Trump,” a non-partisan book about the strained relationship between politics society and truth, as well as “Bridge Builders: Bringing People Together in a Polarized Age,” which explores the ways that people have worked to fix the tensions of the world’s current political climate.”
After the Detroit Free Press, Bomey joined USA Today, relocating to Washington, D.C., and working as a business reporter. After working at the publication for six years, Bomey made the move to Axios, a nationwide publication based in Virginia, founded in 2016. Since 2021, Bomey has worked as a business reporter for Axios and has authored a daily newsletter, "Axios Closer," which offers readers a chance to catch up on the biggest news in the business world every day.
"I am really thrilled to receive the honor to return to campus," Bomey said. "I'm such a huge proponent of student journalism. I think that one of the great things about student journalism these days is that you can compete with the best of the best. There's nothing to stop you from doing journalism that is just as good as what's done at The New York Times, or at AP."
Bomey is set to be inducted into The Eastern Echo Hall of Fame on April 2 at 6:30 p.m. in the McKenny Ballroom, alongside two other 2026 nominees, Sally Day Wright and Larry O'Connor.
Tickets for the event can be purchased online. Student tickets for The Eastern Echo Student Media Gala are $25, and general admission is $60.
