Since the last post, I made quite a bit of progress on the Not-So-Secret Project. The preview isn’t as far along as I would like, but with the last day of August upon us and fall starting tomorrow, I am setting a firm deadline for myself. I will have a preview up this week, even if it’s not 100% complete Paid subscribers will get it on Wednesday, Sept. 2, and it will be in free subscribers’ inboxes and up on the website/app for everyone else on Thursday, Sept. 3.

Until then, we have plenty of items - to the point where I had to move one item to next week just to avoid email limits. The theme this week seems to be labor unions and AI slop, but we also got awards, people getting fellowships, journalists moving on up, new publications launching and some Labor Day weekend events, plus some journalism jobs and more.

Daily Herald journalists unionize following layoffs

In a development that should have surprised absolutely no one, Daily Herald editorial employees announced last Monday, Aug. 24 that they are unionizing. If they succeed, the newly minted Daily Herald News Guild would be part of the Chicago News Guild, which collectively represents most Chicago area unionized print publications and news sites. It includes While they filed for the union election with the National Labor Relations Board, the union indicated that it would withdraw the paperwork if the Tribune Publishing management recognizes it voluntarily.

The union includes 20 reporters, photographers and, unusually for journalist unions, editors (after all, editors are technically management). According to Chicago Sun-Times, 19 out of those employees signed the union cards.

The unionization drive comes after Tribune Publishing/Alden Global Capital fired 12 Daily Herald employees, mostly editors and design staff, But, in the announcement and the message of on the Daily Herald News Guild page, the workers are framing this as a last straw. We knew that there were cuts and layoffs before and after Paddock Publications became employee-owned in 2018, but the union lays it out in clear terms.

In 2007, the Daily Herald conducted layoffs for the first time in its then-135-year history.

Over the last 10 years, employees of the suburban newspaper saw their wages reduced by at least 15% and their work week reduced to 36.5 hours. During that same approximate period, employees experienced eight rounds of buyouts and/or combination buyouts and layoffs, culminating Aug. 10, with the dismissal of 12 Daily Herald employees.

There is also this handy graphic that mostly covered employee ownership years.

The Sun-Times article makes it clear that this is something that staff has been talking about for months, which makes a lot of sense - they had graphics, the site and the social media account ready to go, and I doubt they would’ve been abel to cobble that together in less than two weeks.

The guild is hoping to “secure competitive wages and pay equity, transparency, a strong voice in the future of their newsroom and the ability to continue reporting on the suburban communities the paper has served for more than 150 years.” It is asking people to send letters of support to the management, and they got some supportive testimonials for current and former employees.

A union doesn’t protect newsrooms from layoffs - just ask Chicago Sun-Times, or Chicago Tribune, for that matter - but at least it gives the staff some say in the company’s direction, and ability to get things in writing, as a binding contract.

I have been in newsrooms - and know journalists who have been in newsrooms - where promises were made and some concessions were made, only for that not to be worth much, even when people making those promises really did intend to follow through at the time time.

There is a reason why, in Russian, the expression “держится на одном честном слове” (“holding on by a strength of its oath”) is used to signify that something can fall apart at any moment.

New hyperlocal AI news slop chain enters Chicago suburbs

A few days ago, I saw an ad on Instagram for something called Chicago Impact News. The description billed it as “your online townsquare for the city” with “real local coverage across sports, education, business, and government, from downtown to Elmhurst, Oak Park, Naperville, Downers Grove, and the North Shore. No national spin, no coverage gaps. Follow along and never miss what's happening in your neighborhood.” The link in bio led to a network of sites, with names like “Evanston Wire” and “Wheaton Sentinel” and “North Shore Weekly.”

It didn’t take me long to realize that “real local coverage” was neither of those things. There were no bylines, and the article content was cribbed from publicly available info such as event listings and, more importantly, lifted entire quotes and passages from the articles by local media outlets.

Compare this passage from the Evanston RoundTable article about Evanston Preservation Commission’s tour of Northwestern University-owned properties:

Preservation planner Cade Sterling, who led the inspection, said that the majority of the houses are in good condition, that repairs are feasible and that none of them needs demolition.

[…]

The Roycemore building is a concern, but he said the demolition of the property is “far from necessary.”

The group reached the consensus that the Roycemore is in “fair” condition, but with “excellent” integrity. Attendees agreed that the roof had downspouts directed toward the building interior, tarps to cover up holes, opened windows and more, all factors that makes it vulnerable to water.

“Every aspect of that building can be rehabilitated and can be restored and repaired currently,” Sterling told the group. “[Northwestern] just needs to start the process.”

Sarah Dreller, the former chair of the Preservation Commission and an architecture historian, said many conditions of the vacant properties relate to water penetration problems, which are classic signs in the “the playbook” of demolition by neglect.

And the piece on Evanston Wire covering the same topic:

Preservation planner Cade Sterling, who led the inspection, said the majority of the houses are in good condition and that repairs are feasible. None requires demolition, he said, according to the Evanston Roundtable.

“Every aspect of that building can be rehabilitated and can be restored and repaired currently,” Sterling said of the Roycemore building during the tour. “[Northwestern] just needs to start the process.”

Still, inspectors found concerns. The Roycemore building’s roof had downspouts directed toward the building interior, tarps covering holes and opened windows. Former Preservation Commission chair Sarah Dreller, an architecture historian, said the water penetration problems she observed are consistent with what she called “the playbook” for demolition by neglect.

There are examples like this on every single site within the network. Oak Park Wire lifts from Wednesday Journal. Park Ridge Wire lifts from Niles & Park Ridge Journal. Wheadon Journal lifts from Patch and Chicago Tribune. I could go on and on. The fact that it linked back to the sources doesn’t take away from the fact that it didn’t do any reporting of its own and just repackaged reporting by actual newsrooms- and, in some cases, lifted passages nearly verbatim.

Chicago Impact News is part of Surround Sound News, The “Team” section only lists two people. Robert Kellman, owner of Chicago area Enclave co-working spaces and a former Uber exec, is described as a founder and CEO. His LinkedIn doesn’t mention Surround Sound News. The same isn’t true for Purvag Patel, who is listed as the company’s Chief Technology Officer, who not only lists it on his LinkedIn profile, but is forthright about what Surround Sound News actually is.

We're using AI to rebuild local journalism in America; one community at a time. We are building a platform that combines always-on data sensors, AI-driven curation, and agentic content generation to produce hyperlocal news at scale and fill the gap left by the nationwide newsroom.

Surround Sound News is currently hiring a social media editor, which gets even more into the role of AI in these sites (emphasis mine):

Our system does the work that reporters, copy editors, and assignment editors used to do before those jobs disappeared — combing public meetings, agendas, filings, and community sources for stories nobody covers anymore. AI doesn't publish. Our editors do. They fact-check every article, approve some, kill others, and rewrite the headlines. The system learns from every edit. A managing editor with a few decades in competitive newsrooms tells the AI when it's being dumb. We're not replacing a newsroom. We're covering communities where nobody covers the school board and city council meetings.

It is worth reiterating that every community in the Chicago Impact News network does have someone cover those things. The communities they are “covering” either have their own local newspapers/news sites or get coverage from Patch and/or Tribune Publishing newspapers. They are not filling any gaps. But then again, they kind of have to - otherwise, they wouldn’t have news content to leech off of.

Ultimately, I’m not sure the people behind Surround Sound News care. They can put up content with little effort and little to no expenses, make a tidy profit via advertising, rinse and repeat. But the question becomes - what, if anything, can newsrooms those content is being regurgitated do about it?

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• Speaking of the Chicago News Guild, the Chicago Sun-Times Guild continues to give updates on its ongoing contract negotiations with Chicago Public Media, saying that the management wants to “have flexibility” to lay off union journalists if their work can be replaced by AI. According to Sun-Times photojournalist Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere, CPM wants to “use generative AI for some of the visual content at the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ.” And while we haven’t heard anything about the impact on data folks, we know that Axios recently eliminated its entire data visualization team, possible because of AI (though we don’t know that for sure).

• Neighbors magazine, a monthly magazine covering Proviso and Leyden township suburbs and some adjacent areas, announced that it may not be able to print its September issue due to price increases from their printer. The magazine, which (best I can tell) is solely operated by owner Tina Valentino, has struggled financially as printing expenses and other issues piled up, but was able to keep going thanks to a crowdfunding campaign.

• Richie Requena has been moved to (promoted?) the senior government reporter position at the Times of Northwest Indiana. He joined the paper as an education reporter in December 2025, then became its court reporter in May, before moving to his current position.

• The Society of Professional Journalists Foundation has selected two newsrooms to share the 2026 Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award: Block Club Chicago and Stocktonia (a NEWSWELL news site covering Stockton, California). The two newsrooms will split the usual $10,000 prize.

  • Block Club was recognized for its “extraordinary courage and persistence in covering “Operation Midway Blitz,” and its part in the Headline Club v. Noem lawsuit. It was also lauded for sharing lessons they learned with other newsrooms.

  • “Block Club Chicago’s extensive research found agents overwhelmingly arresting people with no criminal histories. Joined by other media organizations, including SPJ’s Chicago Headline Club chapter, their federal lawsuit resulted in a court order barring federal agents from using chemical weapons and other types of force against journalists,” members of the Pulliam First Amendment Award Committee wrote in their comments.

• Madison Hopkins, who most recently was an investigative reporter at Illinois Answers Project and is currently embarking on the Spencer Journalism Education Fellowship at Columbia University, launched , a Substack that seeks to help friends and extended family best support parents raising a child on an autism spectrum. The Substack ties into her fellowship project, where she will “will examine how the systems and communities that families rely on can better support caregivers and help autistic children thrive.” As Hopkins herself pointed out, autism is a vast spectrum, and she isn’t trying to give an instruction manual or one size fits all advice - just to give the family’s extended support network “enough understanding to ask better questions, recognize common challenges and offer help that is actually helpful.”

• National Press Foundation announced its 2026 Local Business Journalism fellowship cohort, which includes 33 journalists. Two of the fellows come from Illinois - Jesus J. Montero, founder of Echale Ganas, and Chicago Business Journal reporter Alex Zorn. The fellowship will include a 4-day training that will take place in Chicago on Oct. 5-8 and “will allow local reporters to dive into the business infrastructure across America today and into the policies and practices that fuel stability and growth for companies large and small in their own communities.”

• Speaking of Echale Ganas, Chicago content creator Sofia Sanchez, who posts as Windy City Sofi, posted in her Instagram Stories that she is part of the outlets inagural cohort of content creators. The concept behind Echale Ganas, as you may recall, is having creators the community trusts and (potentially journalists) working with experienced journalists “that want to give back to the next generation of storytelling” to develop and refine their craft.

• Ash Lane, who was laid off from The TRiiBE after working there as an art director, released a photo essay documenting her family’s experience surviving without electricity in Gary.

• Todd Bannor, who was a photography stringer for Growing Community Media/NEWSWELL Chicago between the early 2023 and July 2026, recently self-published a collection of his photography for the company’s four newspapers on Kindle and Apple Books.

What I’m watching

• Chicago Tribune reporter Kori Rumore Finley, who is, among other things, something of an archivist for the paper, digs up Dolly Parton-related materials.

• Marc Feuser, a Gorman journalist who is currently doing a work study program at WBEZ through the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship program, gives a tour of the Chicago Public Media newsroom.

Journalism Events

• On Sunday, Sept 6, University of Illinois Chicago’s Student Center East, 750 S. Halsted St., will host “Independent Media in a Time of Elections, War, and Rising Authoritarianism” talk by Amy Goodman, journalist and founder of Democracy NOW!. The talk will last between 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., and registration is required.

• On Labor Day, Sept. 7, Write That Down magazine is holding an event that’s both a launch party for its Spring/Summer 2026 issue and a fundraiser for a Palestinian family living in Gaza. The event will take place at noon to 6 p.m. at Montrose Harbor. For more details and to RSVP, click here.

Journalism Jobs

• Injustice Watch is hiring an Editor-in-Chief. Must have at least five years of newsroom management experience and “a track record of producing and editing impactful, community-centered journalism.” Salary range is $125,000 to $145,000 a year, plus benefits. Application deadline is Sept. 30, but they are encouraging folks to apply by Sept. 15. Either way, apply here.

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is hiring an education reporter who will cover higher education. Must have at least three years of journalism experience. Apply here.

A media-related quote of the week

Share

Leave a comment

Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense continues its campaign of taking editorial control of Stars and Stripes, a military newspaper that was always supposed to be editorially independent, firing its EIC, publisher and Middle East reporter after they combined about military censorship. And, on the other side of the planet, the Russian Ministry of Justice redesignated Mediazona, an independent Russian media outlet in exile that fearlessly exposed corruption, authoritarianism and abuse of power, as a foreign agent - a designation that, over the past 14 years, has become an increasingly heavy hammer to use against independent media outlets that don’t toe the state line. Not that it mattered in practice - Mediazona has already been blocked in Russia. But it acknowledged that the kind of fearless reporting Mediazona does still has power.

As I’ve written a few times before, the second Trump Administration seems to be following a playbook very familiar to Russians. We know how this story can end. And having those events happen on the same day, hours apart, only reinforces that. It will not stop with one newspaper, or any one media outlet.

Support independence of your media outlets. Donate to Mediazona, if you’re able.

Россия будет свободной. And be glad that, at least today, America is still free.

On to Chicago media news.

IWMF opens applications for the Chicago Journalism Mental Health Fund

International Women’s Media Fund officially launched the Chicago Journalism Mental Health Fund last week to help Cook County journalists who experienced mental strain due to their work pay for therapy, and help connect them to therapists if they don’t already have one.

This is part of a larger collaboration between IWMF, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Field Foundation and the Global Center for Journalism and Trauma. The story on that initiative is still coming, but I felt it was important to get the word about the fund sooner rather than later. Driehaus’ $100,800 grant is substantial, but not infinite and the need is great.

Chicago Journalism Mental Health Fund is open to journalists who live and/or work in Cook County, whether Chicago or the suburbs, who are “facing acute psychological distress resulting from their work.” That includes staff and freelance journalists working in the field, as well as “journalists who have been recently laid off or who have had to step away from reporting due to the lasting emotional or physical impacts of their work,” It does not include student journalists.

The applications must demonstrate financial need, and one of the questions that application asks is whether the media outlet they worked for provided medical help. The application isn’t that terribly strict about what kind of supporting documentation you need to provide, but they do need to provide published clips from the last six months.

For journalists who don’t have a therapist, IWMF links to Journalist Trauma Support Network directory. JTSN gives participating therapists “cultural competence and data security training” to help them navigate some specifics of working with journalists. As of this writing, all JTSN-trained journalists licensed in Illinois only offer virtual options. I haven’t had much luck with virtual therapy, but your millage can and probably will vary.

Based on my own experience, one piece that is missing (at least based on what we know so far) is a way to connect journalists with therapists ASAP. About two and a half months passed between when I started searching for a therapist in earnest and when I was actually able to get one, and those who’ve been following this Substack for a while know that I did came pretty close to killing myself during that period. There are many reasons why things went that far downhill, but lack of professional support was definitely one of them.

There is also the question of follow-through. Therapy can take years, and it isn’t something one can fit in the neat deadlines, much as a lot of us journalists may wish otherwise.

Still, having a fund is a welcome step forward. If you, or someone you know, could benefit from the fund, the application is here.

Chicago Public Media’s chicago.com plans update

Readers and subscribers may recall that, when Chicago Public Media announced its intention to revive chicago.com domain, my main concern was the shortage of specifics. Is it going to be a news aggregator? A social network? Some combination of both? None of the above?

On Aug. 13, CMP revealed a few more details - tough, once again, for a certain value of “reveal.” The press release indicated that they are partnering “non-profit tech project Roundabout, created by incubator New_ Public,” to create “healthy digital spaces where neighbors connect across lines of difference, build trust with one another, and feel a sense of belonging.”

Digging through PR buzzwords, one finds references to spaces based round five unspecified “communities” - and the language makes it unclear whether they mean neighborhoods, suburbs or both. (what I heard off the record suggests “both” - but that information may be out of date)

Conversations in the pilot communities will be facilitated by local stewards (moderator-like leaders with training, resources, and decision-making power) and will encourage neighbors to share recommendations, ask questions, discover local organizations and events, and exchange knowledge that helps neighborhoods – and ultimately the Chicagoland area – thrive.

NiemanLab piece released at the same time as a press release was able to drill down a bit more, suggesting that chicago.com is going to be, first and foremost, a social network of sorts - and suggests that the communities will be neighborhood-focused.

Roundabout has a presence in cities including Richmond, Virginia, and Portland, Oregon; the team showed me anonymized versions of its interface. It has many of the hallmarks you picture when you think of a social platform: a feed, posts, reaction buttons. The feed is ordered reverse chronologically, not algorithmically, and can be filtered by topics like arts & culture or pets. There’s a separate, second feed that features posts the community steward has flagged to bring to members’ attention. Posts might be introductions, or events, or requests or offers of help, or steward-posted discussion prompts or guides. There’s also a calendar feature, where users can submit or look for events.

And then, there is this bit:

One thing you won’t find: Profiles. The focus is on the shared conversation, not individual members’ digital presence or following, so community members don’t have profile pages.

Given how profiles - and ability attach whatever you post to your online identify -has been part and parcel of social network since proto-social-media platforms like Xanga or Livejournal, that is an interesting tact. But it harkens back to something older than that - BBSs and online forums. Profiles existed, and individual users existed, but there were no profile pages the way we understand them today. Users could create threads and start conversations, but there were no dedicated pages that serve as users’ own spaces.

Before somebody points it out, yes, Reddit still functions that way, but Reddit is a large network of subforums (subreddits). Forums that are their own entities, with no connections to a greater ecosystem, still exist, but most of them have been around for decade or more and originate in the era before social media as we currently understand it.

According to the NiemanLab piece, the major motivation is that, “with more and more people turning to social media for their news, news websites — like newspapers before them — are at risk of becoming obsolete.”

But what if a news website could be something fundamentally different? What if it could beat the platforms at their own game and offer people sick of doomscrolling something better and more useful?

And there is something to it. I’m not inclined to dismiss it entirely. But the ability to post and promote your own content is an intrinsic part of social media as it exists today. The question becomes - is there enough interest in NextDoor-ish, forum-like experience that is specific to a certain area to make it viable? And, perhaps just as importantly, is chicago.com the right brand for the idea? There have been several attempts to do something with that domain name, and all of them either didn’t gain much traction or didn’t get off the ground in the first place.

One thing for sure - if an article by another media outlet does a better job of explaining what your Next Big Thing is than your own press releases, something has gone awry.

Chicago journalism organizations to host Unity Picnic

Every year, several Chicago area journalism organizations invite members and non-members alike to the Unity Picnic. It wasn’t an entirely uninterrupted tradition, and I’m actually not entirely sure of its exact timeline, but the concept is pretty much in the name - an opportunity for various groups that normally do their own things to gather, have fun, and maybe network a little bit.

This year’s Unity Picnic is organized by Chicago Headline Club (where I am currently a board member), Chicago Journalists Association and the Chicago chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association,the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists,the the South Asian Journalists Association, the Trans Journalists Association and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.

The picnic will be held at Promontory Point on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Field Foundation is sponsoring the festivities. RSVPing by end of day Friday, Aug. 28, is strongly encouraged.

For more information about what to bring and a few other details, click here.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• WBEZ reporter and All Things Considered host Melba Lara posted a warning on in LinkedIn that someone pretending to be her offering Chicago authors, academics and others an opportunity to be interviewed - if they pay. Reporters, of course, never ask interview subjects for payment in exchange for publicity - that’s just plain unethical. Lara wrote that WBEZ/CPM legal department has been sending Cease and Desist letters the scammers, and the scam has been reported to the police.

• Injustice Watch hired Ruby Bailey as its new executive director. She previously served as Illinois Answers Project’s editor-in-cheif for 2.5 years. Before that, she was the consumer editor at USA Today, an opinion and engagement editor at Indianapolis Star, among other roles. Bailey started her journalism career in Detroit, working for Detroit News for 4.5 years and Detroit Free Press for 17.5, where she worked her way up from reporter to breaking news editor.

  • “I’m joining the organization at a time when protecting independent journalism and the conditions that allow it to serve the public is especially urgent,” Bailey said in a statement. “My focus will be on strengthening Injustice Watch for the long term and expanding the reach and impact of its journalism so that more people throughout Chicago and Cook County can better understand and navigate the court system and hold it accountable.”

• Illinois Times, of Springfield, Illinois, and the very last truly weekly alt-weekly in Illinois, hired Maria Gardner Lara as its new government reporter. She previously spent three years as a Report for America corps member working for Northern Public Radio, NPR station in DeKalb, Illinois, where she covered issued issues affecting the city’s and DeKalb county’s Latino communities. As far as I can tell, Gardner Lara is the paper’s first hire since it went nonprofit this spring.

• Elleana Green, who most recently served as Chicago Sun-Times’ part-time Metro desk reporter, recently started her fellowship at Politico, where she will “cycle through the newsroom assisting in coverage across multiple desks.” Green graduated from Northwestern University this spring with a Bachelors of Science degree in journalism and political science, as well as a certificate in Integrated Marketing Communications. She did mulitple internships in several media outlets, and it looks like the internship at Sun-Times led her to be hired on part-ime April through June.

• As much of Northwest Indiana’s Lake County, including Gary, continues to face power outages two weeks after the storms swept through The Region, Capital B Gary held a Community Relief Day last Saturday, Aug. 22, distributing free food, hygiene supplies and coloring books and crayons for kids. The outage didn’t spare Capital B Gary staff, even as they provided constant coverage of the storm and their aftermath.

• Chicago Sun-Times Guild shared an update on the ongoing union contract negotiations with CPM management, writing that they are fighting for generative AI protections/ More specifically, the guild is demanding “no layoffs due to AI, no cutting hours or pay because of AI, no eliminating future jobs to make room for AI,” as well as that “AI can’t write or create our editorial content.”

• Columbia Chronicle, Columbia College’s student newspaper, is a finalist in College Media Association's national Pinnacle Awards. Winners will be announced on the final day of the Associated Collegiate Press and College Media Association’s joint convention, which will be held in Nov. 4-7 in Kansas City.

What I am reading

• The second issue of AFM features, among many, many other things that are various levels of Not Safe For Work, a retrospective of THING, a Black queer magazine published in Chicago in 1989 to 1993. (“AFM” stands for “A Fucking Magazine,” because it is literally a magazine about sex and relationships published by Feeld dating app)

Journalism Opportunities

• Tomorrow, Aug. 25, at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., SciLine will hold a virtual media briefing on “what research tells us about suicide risk among college students, disparities affecting minority student populations, and evidence-based approaches to prevention.” To find out more, and to register, lick here.

• Investigative Reporters & Editors Inc is inviting US journaists of color to apply for its Chauncey Bailey Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship. It is open to staff reporters and freelancers who worked in the field for at least three years. Fellows will receive IRE training, mentorship, data services and support — with the goal of producing an investigative reporting project to help their community. The program also provides an opportunity for the fellow’s news outlet to benefit from their investigative skill-building. Apply by Setp. 1 at 11:59 p.m. Central Time.

• South Asian Journalist Association is inviting South Asian journalists (which, for the purposes of the awards, is defined as someone who is originally from/is descended from someone who is originally from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan and Afghanistan) who live or work in United States (including Chicago area) to submit to their annual awards. The application fee is $40 per entry for SAJA members, $50 per entry for non-members and $20 per entry for students. Apply by Sept. 1 at 10:59 p.m. Central Time. The information about the wards and individual categories is here, and you can apply here.

Journalism Events

• On Tuesday, Aug. 25, Mouse Arts and Letters Social Club, 555 W. 31st St., will host a “listening party” for Signal Hill audio magazine’s third issue. The event, which is co-sponsored by Lumpen Radio, will take place 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and it’s free and open to the public.

• Also on Aug. 25, Pilsen Community Cooks, [] W. 18th St., will host a Chicago Reader “The Politics of Public Space” panel and public discussion. The discussion, which ties into the August issue’s general theme of surveilence and use of public space, will delve into ‘"who gets to use “public” spaces and what kinds of spaces get built for the public.” The event will be held at 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., and while the event is free, RSVPs are encouraged.

• On Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mouse Arts and Letters will host this month’s News Night. As usual, three reporters who live and/or work in the Chicago area will talk about their recent stories and take questions from the audience. This month’s lineup includes WBEZ’s Mawa Iqbal, Capital B Gary’s Calvin Davis and n+1 magazine contributor Jack Norton. As always, journalists are welcome to use the club’s co-working space beforehand for free at any point between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Journalism Jobs

• Investigative Project on Race & Equity is hiring a part-time managing editor. Must have at least five years of experience as editor or investigative reporter. Pay is up to $50 an hour for 27 hours a week workday (in other words, up to $1,350 a week, or $5,400 a month). Email resume, cover letter, clip portfolio and related materials here by end of day Aug. 31.

• Rotary magazine, the official publication of Evanston-based Rotary International, is hiring an editor. Must have at least 10 years of editorial experience. Salary range is $81,000 - $90,000 a year. Apply here.

Share

Leave a comment

First of all, I realized that I never properly thanked those of you who donated to help offset the unexpected costs of buying a new camera. Some of the donations were pretty small, but a few (well, one) was pretty dang substantial - and all were sincerely appreciated.

I ended up doing more freelance work that I expected last week. Which is not a bad problem to have, definitely preferable to getting less freelance opportunities - but it did mean less time for Chicago Media Journal. Which meant that my Not So Secret project hasn’t really moved much. We will see if this week will be any different.

Thing is, readers and subscribers, I want the project announcement to include a bit of a preview. I can describe it all I want, but I think seeing it will make it more real. Give you something more tangible to (hopefully) look forward to.

We still got plenty of journalism news items large and small. And, if you haven’t had a chance to check out the Chicago Media Journal Instagram account lately, we got some photos of one of the most unique newsrooms I’ve ever been to, and some pics of a recent Kup League softball game. (For those who don’t know, Kup League is a long-time Chicago newsrooms softball league).

And remember - if you got any news tips, whether they are about something perfectly charming, perfectly fun or perfectly salacious, tips, anonymous or otherwise, are welcome.

Alden lays off Daily Herald editors, design staff

When Tribune Publishing purchased the Daily Herald effective late June, it reportedly made a commitment that it would retain staff and maintain current salaries and benefits through at least the end of the 2026 calendar year.

The commitment turned out not to be worth much.

Crain’s Chicago Business and Shaw Media reported that the Tribune issued termination notices to executive editor Lisa Miner, watchdog reporting editor Jake Griffin, five other, unnamed editorial department employees and five more employees from other departments (at least some of whom were designers). They were reportedly told it was a cost-cutting measure and were offered severance packages.

Managing Editor Jim Slusher was reportedly put in charge of the newsroom.

As noted in Crain’s reporting, editorial designers are usually among the first to go in any consolidation, as are folks in accounting. And, as it also noted, under the Tribune ownership, the paper has already been making design changes to bring it closer to common Tribune Publishing template the company quietly introduced in February.

Cutting editors is something that only makes sense on a superficial level. The reporters and photographers are the ones who produce actual content. Do we really need several editors? And, having written for large chains and smaller papers, I would argue that the answer is yes.

I have seen editors become less effective and less attentive as they are forced to edit more content. What’s more, I have seen bottlenecks develop as one person struggled to edit a whole bunch of items from several newspapers. And God forbid an editor falls ill, or needs to take a vacation.

Since we don’t know for sure who was laid off aside from Miner and Griffin, we can’t entirely be sure of the exact impact on the newsroom operations (Daily Herald used to have an employee directory online, but staff page now redirects to the general contact/subscriptions page).

The latest movie is not exactly surprising. Firing employees and cutting positions is something Tribune Publishing’s current owner, Alden Global, is pretty infamous for. But promises were made, and while journalists are generally a skeptical lot, there is no upside to making your new employees trust you less.

That said, it is worth pointing out that things may not have necessarily been better if Shaw Media bought the paper (and other Paddock-owned newspapers). The chain is not exactly a stranger to layoffs and consolidations. The difference is that Alden has more cash on hand to invest in the newsrooms, so layoffs are are harder to justify.

One small side note. Sometime in the last two months, Daily Herald’s paywall was brought in line with Tribune Publishing’s general paywall structure. The option to buy a $4 “day pass,” which allowed unlimited 24-hour access to the site (while also automatically signing you up for email news alerts), is gone. Which makes no sense other than for the sake of uniformity. Having 1-day peek at the site is a great way to promote you content without requiring the kind of commitment the remaining options do. And, getting news alerts, as annoying as it can be to get signed up for yet another newsletter, can also increase likelihood that a reader would visit the site again, and, with it, more likely to subscribe.

I get that Alden Global isn’t interested in the papers’ long-term viability, but this is leaving money on the table.

Driehaus, Field foundations announce Journalism Well-Being Forum, prepare to launch journalism mental health initiative

The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation recently announced that it is working with the Field Foundation to organize a Journalism Well-Being Forum on Oct. 2 at 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. It will be held at Impact House, a Loop “work club” and event venue at 200 W. Madison St.

The forum is described as a launch event for a “new journalist well-being initiative designed to expand mental health resources and support for newsrooms across Chicago,” one that will also involve The Global Center for Journalism and Trauma and International Women's Media Foundation. Driehaus indicated it has committed $250,000 to the initiative.

In an earlier announcement that I missed, we get some sense as to what this will look like. GCJT received $50,00 “for their Chicago Journalist Resilience Initiative that provides support to journalists who cover high-stress, trauma-related stories from the 19 member organizations of the Chicago News Consortium. It provides resources, training, and community support to help reporters cope with the emotional toll of their work.”

(If you are wondering what the hecking heck Chicago News Consortium is, I’m not really sure. We do know that Solving for Chicago, a pandemic-era media collaborative, had 19 member media outlets (that number grew to 20 at some point). Maybe this is something that grew out of that, but, again, I don’t know that for sure).

IWMF got $100,800 to establish a dedicated Mental Health Newsroom Emergency Fund “for journalists in Chicago to rapidly respond to the psychological distress they face daily” by helping them across “specially trained local therapists.” Which, as someone who spent three months trying to find a therapist, while things got bad enough to the point where I did come close to killing myself, I think is actually pretty damn useful.

According to the announcement, the Oct. 2 forum will include “opportunities to connect with Global Center-trained therapists to learn about mental health services designed specifically for journalists,” as well as wellness activities such as chair massages and “destressing fitness sessions.”

At the moment, there is no registration link, and not much in the way of further details. But I’m sure more will be released the closer we get to Oct. 2 - and, of course, there is plenty of stuff for me to follow up on with the organizations involved. Stay tuned, readers and subscribers.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• Field & MacArthur Foundations honored newspaper executive Cheryl Mainor Norman as one of the 2026 Leaders for a New Chicago. The award recognized eight “extraordinary nonprofit leaders for the transformative work they are doing in their communities.” Mainor Norman was notably the Chicago Defender’s first-ever female publisher, and she is the founder and publisher of Chicago News Weekly, which has quite a few Defender alumni on staff. She also notably served as a media services director at National Newspaper Publishers Association, the trade association of Black-owned newspapers. The award comes with $50,000 no-strings-attached cash prize for Mainor Norman herself, and CNW is getting a $25,000 general operating grant.

  • Chicago News Weekly, it is worth noting is part of Field Foundation’s Journalism & Storytelling Multi-Year Cohort.

  • “The awards are a gift to these leaders, who have given so much to our communities” Field Foundation President Daniel O. Ash said. “We want them to invest in themselves, to rest, to dream. Because Chicago needs their brilliance.”

• Borderless magazine hired F. Amanda Tugade as a new staff reporter, who started covering “he intersection of labor, economy, environment and health.” She previously worked as a Social Justice Reporter at The Des Moine Register (where she covered the city’s many immigrant communities, among many Tonother things). During the 2024 Republican primary, Tugade ended up being a Nikki Haley beat reporter. She has a long history of working for various Chicago area media outlets - before joining the Register, Tugade was Growing Community Media’s very first full-fledged education reporter.

  • A bit of a disclaimer - Amanda is a friend, and we worked together at GCM.

• Tonia Hill, who was The TRiiBE’s longest-serving reporter, recently joined the Illinois Justice Project as a communications specialist. She worked at The TRiiBE for six years almost exactly, leaving the outlet sometime in May. Before that, Hill was a freelance producer for WTTW, and she served a staff reporter for the Hyde Park Herald. She wrote on her LinkedIn page that she was “looking forward to working with the team to advocate for the issues I've covered as a reporter.”

  • Hill was an active part of the failed The TRiiBE unionization drive, signing the One Triibe United mission statement, as well as the union’s response to the National Labor Relations Board ruling that found that reporter Corli Jay’s firing wasn’t retaliatory. She was one of only two staff writers remaining following Jay’s firing.

  • The TRiiBE currently only lists one reporter, cultural correspondent Jerome “Rome J.” Johnson, on staff. If they tried to fill Hill’s position, I’ve seen no evidence of it.

• Labor unions representing journalists at 31 USA Today Inc. newspapers have released a joint statement calling on the company to end its recently launched partnership with Palantir. Here in Illinois, the unions that signed onto this letter include Peoria Newspaper Guild, which represents Peoria Journal Star staff, and SJ-R Newspaper Guild, which represents State Journal-Register (of Springfield, Illinois) journalists. Journalists representing Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and South Bend Tribune reporters signed on as well. USA Today Inc. reportedly defended the deal as purely a business decision that won’t impact the company’s data.

• McKinley Park News, an online media outlet covering the eponymous Chicago Southwest Side neighborhood, marked its 10th anniversary last last week.

  • There is a much longer piece about this particular outlet that I have been meaning to write for a while - I completed all the interviews and research for in early July, I just need to find the time to put it all together. Bear with me, readers and subscribers.

• As last week’s storms swept Northwest Indiana, The Times of Northwest Indiana put out a call on social media, asking The Region businesses and organizations to share any resources they might have to help with the recovery. The paper then reshared those resources on its socials (mostly via IG stories, as far as I can tell).

• For the third year in a row, Block Club Chicago is teaming up with Open Books for a joint fundraiser to raise money for the news outlet and free books for Chicago Public Schools students.

• Axios Chicago launched the Axios Social Club, which it describes as a way to build community among its readers and subscribers through dinner events. It is also sort of platonic matchmaking thing. Participants must take a personality quiz, which helps Axios match them with “five compatible guests” who meet at the restaurant of Axios’ choice.

  • If you are wondering why the outlet is going through the trouble, it allows Axios to collect emails that could be used for advertising and drawing new subscribers. Plus, plus, the events are paid, and food and drinks are not included, so there is a revenue generation component.

• WBEZ win this year’s Edward R. Murrow Award in the Excellence in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category, Large Market Radio division for its look into Chicago life expectancy gap.

• The Porter McNeil Public Service Foundation launched Porter and Mary McNeil Public Affairs Reporting Student Support Fund at the University of Illinois Springfield, creating an endowment to support aspiring journalists pursuing careers covering government, politics and public service. The fund honors Porter McNeil and his wife, Mary Carlin McNeil, who met in UIS’s Public Affairs Reporting master’s program and graduated together in 1986.

What I’m reading

• WTTW profiles Ravenous, a Substack-based food journalism outlets founded by reporters laid off from Eater.

• In Poynter’s Ask the Recruiter column, Boston Globe Managing Editor for Operations and Standards weighs in on how often you should follow up with editors.

What I’m watching (looking at?)

• Chicago-based Span studio breaks down its redesign of Chicago Reader masthead and logos.

Journalism Resources

• Society of Professional Journalists is looking for input on the proposed revisions to its Code of Ethics. It is holding virtual listening sessions tomorrow at 6 p.m. Central time, and next Friday, Aug. 28 at 3 p.m. Central time. You can also submit feedback online.

• SciLine is offering a free science essentials for local reporters virtual crash course this Thursday, Aug. 20 at 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Central time. To read more about the course and register for it, click here.

Journalism Jobs

• Chicago Sun-Times is hiring a general assignment reporter. Must have at least two years of professional experience. Pay range is $60,000 to $65,500 a year, plus benefits. Apply here.

• WGN-TV is hiring a sports anchor. Most have at least five years of experience reporting on sports for television. Salary range is $110,000 to $150,000 a year, plus benefits. Apply here.

• South Side Media Works, the nonprofit that operates Hyde Park Herald and South Side Weekly, is hiring an executive director (for those keeping a track at home, it’s basically a publisher role). Salary range is $75,000 to $80,000 a year, plus benefits. Apply by end of day Sept. 8 here.

Share

Leave a comment

It was a relatively light week, news-wise. Emphasis on “relatively.” While there were only two news items that justified more than a few paragraphs, there are plenty of smaller items, including a bunch of journalism events and some freelance opportunities. And this did give me opportunities to catch up on some items I missed, and list some events that I moved to this missive because the last one got a bit roomy.

I am still trying to get everything together for the preview of the Not-So-Secret Project, along with a bit of a backlog of longer feature pieces. I do hope to at least have something out about the former before the end of the week, even if it’s just a few preview images.

As it has been pointed out to me, the only person who gives me those deadlines is me, but I am a firm believer in at least trying to land within the neighborhood of the deadlines I set.

Keep an eye on your inboxes, and we’ll see how I do. And, if you like what I have been doing so far, paid subscriptions and donations are always appreciated.

Canada’s Village Media plans Illinois expansion with financial support from Knight Foundation

The Knight Foundation announced in late July that it was investing $5 million to support the expansion of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario-based Village Media into three US states. Wisconsin is first on the list, and it “has tentatively targeted Pennsylvania and Illinois as the other two initial states.”

There are no ideas about what parts of Illinois they might be expanding to - just a reference to the fact that Village Media “expects to announce specific markets and launch timing at a later date.” The company did not respond to a request for comment by this missive’s deadline.

Readers and subscribers may recall that Village Media was cited as one of the models for the latest iteration of chicago.com. The best I can tell looking around its news sites and on the company’s main site, they follow a variation of the Patch.com model - a digital-only media network that offers mix of content produced by journalists and local content produced by local residents, with tools of businesses and organizations to put up ads and list local events. It does have a NextDoor-eque Spaces social network, and it leans more into the communities they serve, with separate news sites (that do tend to follow the “[Town Name] Today” naming convention) and more emphasis on local giving and organizing local events. Which could well by why Village Media is seen as a Promising New Thing while Patch is just kind of checking along - more personal touch may be the secret sauce.

Village Media already had an outpost in United States - Soo Leader covers Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the Canadian city’s smaller twin. Now, they are launching five news sites in Wisconsin - in Appleton, Fond du Lac, Kaukauna, Manitowoc and Sheboygan, to be more specific. They are all cities in the east-central Wisconsin. According to the press release talks about three clusters, one per state, and,, while they don’t quite say it, the fact that the press release indicates that they plan to expand into 15 communities overall suggests that there will be communities per cluster.

Notably, every single one of those town already has either a daily or a weekly newspaper, with all but the Kaukuna’s Times-Villager are USA Today Inc.-owned. Which, if how the latter’s smaller-market, ex-Gatehouse newspapers in Illinois have been allowed to degrade in the past few years, may not say much.

Between that and the towns’ profiles - not large, but not exactly small - my best guess would be that the Illinois cluster would be in Central Illinois, probably in Peoria, Bllomington-Normal, Urbana-Champaign, maybe Pekin and/or Galesburg and/or Danville. Maybe Decatur. We’ll see if I’m completely off the mark or somewhat on the money.

The job listings posted on JournalismJobs gives us some idea for what’s to come in Illinois. They are hiring an editor/lead reporter and a second reporter per locale. The people they hire must either already live in the area or be willing to relocate there (at their own expense). The job descriptions basically talks about community reporting a lot of folks reading this have done, and are pretty familiar with.

There is this passage that gives me pause.

We’re building something ambitious in the digital media space, so we value:

• Humility over ego

• Optimism over cynicism

• Ownership over “that’s not my job”

We move quickly, support one another, and believe meaningful work comes from people who care deeply about both their colleagues and their neighbors. If you’re excited by the opportunity to make a real difference where people live, you’ll thrive here.

As those of us in the community reporting space know, community reporters are expected to cover a little of everything, and work outside 9 to 5 hours. Having two full-timers at least reduces the “trying to be everywhere all at once” issue we deal with. But I also experienced that the eagerness to cover everything in the community you’re passionate about can easily be exploited.

This job requires both optimism and cynicism, a willingness to believe in a higher purpose and the ability to call bullshit when it inevitably happens. It’s about being willing to go above and beyond and knowing when to stop. As eager as a lot of us are to cover everything, trying to do it all the time leads to burnout. Sometimes, lines need to be drawn. Sometimes, lines need to be drawn. Sometimes, “this is not what I signed up” is the only way to set any kind of boundaries and devote some time to yourself.

The Village Media has advantages, but I spent almost 14 years doing exactly the kind of community journalism it is trying to do sustainably. I know of what I speak, first-hand and second-hand. There is an opportunity to avoid some mistakes, and the least I can do is point out some yellow flags. (Because, see, yellow means caution, a medium between red flags and green flags).

Logan Square bar launches quarterly newspaper, mulls smutty fiction anthology

Last Wednesday, Aug. 5, a post came across the Chicago Media Journal Instagram feed. A launch party for a newspaper, which, as it quickly became clear, was affiliated with the bar, was happening on Thursday, Aug. 6 at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. I had a lot on my plate, but I still decided to swing by around 8 p.m., because that’s when there are supposed to be speeches.

The bar, I should add, was no ordinary bar. Babe’s Sports Bar, 3017 W Armitage Ave.,was always meant to be a place where fans of women’s sports could gather, watch sports and bond. Suffice to say, there is a good chance a lot of regulars are somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, Men of all orientations can come in, and they are welcome so long as, you know, they don’t be weird about.

This context is important, because The Babe’s Beat, the newspaper in question, definitely reflects the love for women’s sports, concern about lesbians and trans experiences, and the intersection of the two. There is a certain touch of irreverence while also fully and sincerely committing to the bit.

Just to give you a sense of what I’m talking about, the top of the masthead promises “women’s sports news, exclusive articles, upcoming events and recently single gays” and it delivers on all of those. (it did take me two tries to find that’s last one - it’s on the bottom of Page 4, under the (fittingly) WNBA players word search).

From what the founding editors, bartending duo Mini and Mo, said during the grand opening (and I do feel like I am missing some context just because I got a vibe that a lot of attendees were regulars who were in on the lore), the idea came kind of on the whim, and owner Nora McConnell-Johnson rolled with it. The submissions came from regulars, and there were apparently so many submissions that they had to save some submissions for future issues. The paper will be released quarterly, and the duo said that they are thinking of doing a separate fiction supplement/lit mag just because they got a lot of smut, and they do want to keep the paper reasonably family-friendly.

The Babe’s Beat is eight pages on 8.5’’ x 11’’ copy paper, sort of like the smaller version of The Beacher (on a nicer-feeling paper). It includes news items, essays, features, a photo essay, a word search I mentioned earlier, a legit personal ad for an aforementioned recently single gay, and a piece spotlighting Babe’s Sports Bar-approved local businesses. In an interesting touch, the articles have the writers’ pronouns where reporters’ titles would usually go.

It is a bit rough around the edges at times. The designer has not figured out how to justify the columns (something that’s become so intrinsic to print periodicals that you only notice it when it’s not done right), and there is a typo in one of the headlines. But those are relatively minor quibbles, and, given that this is a first issue from someone who (as far as I know) never put together a periodical before, forgivable. It is, overall, a pretty well laid out package. And, most importantly, the writing is genuinely good.

I’ve written before about my community newspaper test - does the periodical that I hold in my hand convey what the community is about, and what issues matter in the community? Does it make you care about the community it’s covering. A bar community is no village or a city, but The Babe’s Beat passes that test with flying colors.

And if you are wondering if this is something worth the effort - I would say that, given how people showed up to the release party, and many of them took the publishers’ invitation to dress up as stereotypical newsboys, and how many papers I saw passed around and eagerly read… I think they are onto something.

I did leave my card with the bartenders and offered to interview folks properly. Haven’t heard back from them as of this missive’s deadline, but the offer is still open, if or when you feel like reaching out.

The Babe’s Beat is available at Babe’s Sports Bar for free. There are apparently colored versions that you can order from behind the bar for $5.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism bits and bites

• In the first bit of catch up, Illinois Press Association hired Jeff Rogers, who was already heading its sister organization, the Illinois Press Foundation, as its new CEO. Rogers remains the foundation’s Executive Director.

• And in the “I can’t believe I missed it, but better late than ever” news, Chicago Reader won two first place awards in this year’s Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Awards. Lowering the curtain by Daniella Mazzio won first place in Art Feature, Long Form category, while “The ghosts of Geneva’s ‘home for wayward girls’ by Katie Prout won first place in Features Story - Long Form category.

  • “This story so adeptly and movingly goes back in time to use historical records, interviews with subjects whose lives continued on in the aftermath of the largely unregulated “home,” and the changing tide of juvenile justice reform–along with an engrossing narrative style–that makes this piece such an achievement,” whore the judges about the latter winner. “This reporter delved so deeply into the past and present lives of both the women and men who were sent to Geneva, made such good use of historical records, and made this story both cinematic and useful for policy change. It’s truly worth of this year’s first-place award!”

• South Side Weekly hired artist and community organizer Alycia Kamil as its new engagement editor. She has contributed to the paper before, and I do think her background and experience prepared her well for this job.

• Taylor Moore, a long-time journalist who has been working as a program specialist at Press Forward Chicago, has been promoted to program manager. At the same time, Press Forward Chicago hired Amanda Miley, who most recently served as director of development and operations at Injustice Watch, as its first-ever director of strategic partnerships.

  • “This new role was created to expand the partnerships and resources needed to sustain local journalism across the Chicago region, allowing us to invest more in grants, shared services, and sustainable solutions that increase public access to reliable local news and information.”

• Jillian Melero, Founder and Publisher of Connect Puerto Rico (and Chicago Headline Club board member), has been selected for the Online News Association’s Women’s Leadership Accelerator 2026 cohort. According to her LinkedIn post, she hopes what she learns at the accelerator will help her “build a focused, sustainable model around it with the right audience, revenue model, and support systems.”

• Block Club Chicago is a finalist for three Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers Sustainability Awards this year. Aside from another nomination for Operation Midway Blitz coverage, and for its part in Chicago Headline Club v. Noem lawsuit, it was nominated for figuring out ways to maximize subscriber revenue. Winners will be announced at LION’s Independent News Sustainability Summit in San Diego in Sept. 9-11.

• Medill alumna Mary Randolph won first place in 2025-26 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Student Magazine Contest reporting category for Horseshoe Crab Blood Has Long Helped Us Make Safe Medicines. Now, Alternatives That Spare the Ancient Creatures Might Be Breaking Through, which was published in the Smithsonian magazine.

• Illinois Answers released a zine about Illinois Early Intervention services for kids - a print tie-in into this story.

• Quimby’s, Chicago’s iconic comics and zines store, is celebrating its 35th anniversary with a series of events this weekend and throughout a week.

• Columbia Chronicle photojournalist Amelia Baird had two of her photos featured in a People magazine article about the spontaneous lesbian mud wrestling event at Lollapalooza.

  • “Having her work as a student be published in a national publication is a great accomplishment, and we couldn’t be more proud of her!” the student newspaper’s official LinkedIn account stated. “Her work being recognized on this level truly speaks to the talent, skill and dedication she displays as a photojournalist every day. It’s so exciting to see her work reaching new audiences, and we know that amazing things await her.”

Journalism events

• This Wednesday, Aug. 12, The Gleacher Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 450 Cityfront Plaza Dr., will host the “From Headlines to Change: The Future of Muslim Journalism” panel. Organized by the Islamic Scholarship Fund, the event seeks to “confront institutionalized Islamophobia in modern newsrooms” and hold “a critical conversation about the systemic challenges Muslim journalists face.” The panel will run from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and will feature ISF Media Program Lead and Founder of Sahan Journal Mukhtar Ibrahim, ISF Alum and CNN reporter Alaa Elassar, and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Rummana Hussain. The panel is free, but RVSPs are encouraged.

• This Saturday, Aug. 15, Walls Turned Sideways, an East Garfield Park-based self-described “abolitionist art and community space,” 2717 W. Madison St., is hosting a panel on writing, publishing and distributing prison newspapers. The panel will be held at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

• Also this Saturday, CHIRP Radio is holding a 2010s-themed launch party for its new website and app. The event will be held at Bramble Arts Loft, 5545 N Clark St. 2nd Floor, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. General admission is $25, and there are also $50 VIP tickets.

• Next Tuesday, Aug. 18, Mouse Arts and Letters Social Club, 555 W 31st St., is hosting an Article Club (it’s like a book club, but for articles) about Injustice Watch reporter Kelly Garcia's investigation into Cook County prosecutors seeking arrest warrants for people who have been detained by ICE, and sometimes deported. The book club will take place from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Freelance opportunities

• The VP Chicago, an online media outlet launched earlier this year, is looking for freelancers to cover Chicago’s first ever city-wide Board of Education election on the South Side (a big part of its coverage area). Editor and publisher Kelly Glass is specifically looking for freelancers who live on the South Side and/or have relationships on the South Side. Pay is around $300 for story. Email your clips and information about your qualifications to Glass.

• Loyola University is looking to add stringers to its freelance pool for Loyola Today news site and Loyola magazine. Email or DM managing editor Ali West with pitches and portfolios.

• Sixty Inches From Center is looking for “writing about topics and practices that are relevant to the art and cultural landscapes of the Midwest.” Pay is $150 per story. For more information about what kind of stories they’re looking for, and a link to the pitch form, click here.

Share

Leave a comment

This missive is obviously coming in a day late. Long story short, my laptop was out of commission for a decent chunk of last Wednesday, which threw off the time table for my freelance assignments and Chicago Media Journal. I was hoping to announce the Secret Project I’ve been alluding two (and which paid subscribers and folks paying attention to the Chicago Media Journal Instagram are already aware of), but this is going to have to wait until next week at the earliest.

One of the many reasons I decided to launch the Chicago Media Journal was because I wanted to create a space that could highlight misconduct within our industry. When, a couple of years ago, I worked for a newsroom that hired an editor that mistreated everyone on the editorial staff, and I just remembered wishing that Robert Feder’s column was still around.

I had some folks ask me over the past week if I’ve gotten any tips like this. So far, the answer is ‘no’ - but I do want to make it clear that such tips are welcome at the Chicago Media Journal. I am trying to figure out a way to allow folks to submit truly anonymous tips. Until then, if you reach out to me and don’t want to go on record, or just don’t want your name or any other specifics out there, I will keep your confidence.

Thankfully, none of the items in this missive are about any kind of misconduct. In fact, the news are, all things considered, mostly positive. A new media outlet has launched, ProPublica Guild ratified a long-awaited union contract, and we got new hires, new job opportunities and plenty of grants. So read it.

Enchale Ganas hopes to tell stories with intention, help Chicago content creators grow and improve

Freelance journalist Jesus Montero recalled that, when he was starting out as a journalist, he was mostly there for entertainment coverage.

“I was always at the music festivals, covering my favorite artists,” he said. “But as I grew as a journalist, I saw the importance and power the storytelling had. That’s when i started to challenge myself.”

This led to him working for Cicero Independiente as a volunteer reporter, and other gigs. Montero is a DePaul University alumnus, eating a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in journalism. He interned at NBC5 News in the fall of 2019 And he ended up getting into the planning and organizing side, becoming the outlet’s worked as Operations Coordinator in 2024-2025. Most recently, Montero worked as a contract content producer and vertical video editor.

Two weeks ago, he took the next step in his career and launched his own media outlet.

Montero said he wanted to create something that would tell the stories of his community, something that the people in the community could trust, and something that isn’t as wedded to The Way Things Were Done Before.

“The newsrooms themselves are limited,” he said. “They are limited because of their old infrastructure, they are limited because of their priorities. It’s not a dig - [they have] a lot of great journalists, a lot of great reporters, a lot of great things, but what Enchale Ganas is going to do is build that infrastructure from the start, so our internals line up what we want journalism to look like in this new age.”

That means journalism that is based in social media, that follows the best format the story demands - whether it’s a short clip, a video, a podcast or even an in-person event.

“The space that the newsroom creates can be very important,” Montero said.

“Echale Ganas” literally means “give it your all.” But as those of us who speak more than one language know, a direct translation doesn’t capture full cultural context.

“It’s like a word of encouragement in our culture, to do what you’re doing with feeling,” Montero said. “We’re going to tell our stories with our heart, our intention and our feelings.”

The model Echale Ganas will operate under is similar to City Bureau’s revamped fellowship program, with a cohort of content creators the community trusts and potentially journalists working with experienced journalists “that want to give back to the next generation of storytelling” to develop and refine their craft. The cohort will start developing as part of the mentoring process and keep going

Montero said that the big inspiration for that structure was from the image he had of what an editor was supposed to be growing up.

“To me, the editor is supposed to be someone who’s going to help you tell your stories, and not just fact-check it and make sure it’s in AP style,” he said.

Each cohort is supposed to have 10 storytellers and 10 editors. Montero said that, as of July 29, he had five editors and four storytellers on board - and he was optimistic about filling the rest of the cohort.

Echale Ganas’ website is upfront about the fact that no one involved is getting paid. Montero said that his first priority is to get the cohort together, and then figure out the revenue model. He said that everyone involved “will have an equal say-so in decisions involving funding.”

The real test, of course, will be when Echale Ganas is going to start putting out content, which Montero said expects to happen in the fall. But the fact that he got multiple people on board is a promising sign.

ProPublica Guild ratifies its first union contract

After more than three years of at times heated negotiations that included an online video campaign and a one-day strike, the union representing ProPublica employees secured their first-ever union contract.

Some of the major issues (that the Guild publicly talked about) included “just cause” protections for terminations, wage increases to keep up with the rising cost of living, better health benefits and some guardrails around AI use.

According to the Guild, the contract included “13-24% wage increases over the life of the contract and new salary floors starting at $75,000,” 15% salary increases for local reporters (presumably including Chicago-based ones) and business side employees, just cause firing protections, and maintaining a 14-month recall list for any laid-off employees (in other words, if the company has the means to rehire employees who were laid off within that time span, they’ll get the opportunity to come back).

On the AI front, the new contract includes a “Mandate to maintain an AI policy, which includes a commitment to transparency around AI use and human involvement in the implementation of any AI tools,” as well as creating a committee “hat will have a say in issues related to the use of the technology. There is no mention of whether protections from layoffs due to AI use were included.

On the health insurance fronts, the only thing the statement mentions is that staff with dependents will save thousands of dollars every year. And the contract includes a requirement that any office mandate can’t exceed two days a week (though the management will have the ability to increase that to three in 2029)

“It took a major fight to earn the fair contract that we deserve, but our members, our supporters and our unionized allies across the industry did not back down,” said Mark Olalde, an environment reporter and member of the union’s Bargaining Committee. “We will remain vigilant in enforcing this contract.”

The contract was ratified by the “overwhelming majority” of around 150 reporters, editors, designers and business and communications staff.

With the contract negotiations complete, all eyes turn to Chicago Reader Union, which made similar demands as it continues to negotiate with new owner Noisy Creek. Given that ProPublica is a national organization, and Noisy Creek certainly taking steps to expand its footprint to similar scale, I could see the Reader union using the latest agreement to help make its case.

Either way, I suppose we’ll see what the next few weeks, or more likely months, will bring..

In These Times magazine offers a very on-brand promotion

In These Times magazine, a Chicago-based left-wing magazine announced that it’s giving free 1-year subscriptions to all Democratic Socialists of America members and labor union members. This promotion is perfectly on brand for In These Times’ ideological leanings, and, because it is being subsidized by Puffin Foundation, they are not losing money on it while potentially increasing their subscriber base.

That said, because I am always on the lookout for how [x] can backfire, I do want to point out that the promotion is open to any union. Fraternity of Police Chicago John Dineen Lodge 7, National Border Patrol Council and National ICE Officers Association (just to give three examples atop of my head) are labor unions, no different from, say, Chicago Reader Union and such as far as federal law is concerned.

Now, if I ran a left-wing magazine, I wouldn’t stop them from taking advantage of the offer just on the chance that some might subscribe out of genuine curiosity and are thus open to seeing the magazine’s viewpoint. But some left-wing spaces are willing to open their tent than others.

Either way, props for a creative, on-brand promotion.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, the city’s legal newspaper and the second-oldest newspaper currently publishing in Chicago, hired Leah Schroeder as a new staff reporter. She graduated from Northwestern University earlier this year. She has years of experience as reporter and editor for the Daily Northwestern, and she freelanced for several Chicago area publications. Schroeder most recently worked as a student researcher for Medill Local News Initiative.

  • “We're excited to have Leah bring her passion for storytelling, curiosity, and commitment to great journalism to our newsroom,” the paper indicated in a statement. “We look forward to the stories she'll tell and the contributions she'll make. “

• Lumpen Radio announced that it upgraded to hybrid digital broadcast. I’m not a radio person, but it seems like this translates into better sound quality.

• NiemanLab’s latest quarterly report on search traffic cited Block Club Chicago as one of the news sites that saw a search traffic bump even amid concerns about AI summaries pulling search traffic from news sites.

  • “Much of what drove readers and traffic to Block Club Chicago in April was the outlet’s nuanced coverage of crime stories,” the report said. “One story covered the release of a video related to the death of a Chicago police officer. Another reported on the shooting of two police officers in a neighborhood hospital.”

  • The report listed Block Club as the sixth most popular nonprofit news site nationwide as of May 2026. Chicago Reader came in at ninth place.

• Illinois Business Journal, a monthly business newspaper covering southwest Illinois (including St. Louis’ Illinois, Metro East suburbs), closed effective last Friday, July 31. The paper was owned by Better Newspapers Inc., which has some newspapers in Illinois and Missouri (I’m not sure how many, because the company doesn’t have a main corporate website). This is a bit of a blow to specialized business news reporting, especially for a region that often flies under the radar.

• Illinois Library Association honored editor Kevin Gosztola and Elmwood Park resident Jack Bower with this year’s Intellectual Freedom Award for what they’ve done to expose transparency issues at the Elmwood Park Public Library. It is a saga that cannot be easily summed up within the paragraph, so I will simply direct you to Elmwood Park Advocate’s article about the award.

• Chicago News Guild is holding a leadership summit this Saturday, Aug. 8 at Chicago Teachers Union headquarters, 1901 W. Carroll Ave., at 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The summit is open to all Guild members, and will focus on “Power Mapping, Guild wins, strategy, and membership engagement.”

  • The reason why this isn’t listed under events is because it’s members-only - but I think that the fact that this is a thing that’s happening is newsworthy.

• There is a documentary in the works about Field Foundation’s inagural Storytelling Multi-Year Cohort. Back in 2024, the foundation gave $75,000 in two-year grants to Borderless Magazine, Chicago News Weekly, Investigative Project on Race & Equity and South Side Weekly to “help news organizations grow, adapt, and continue serving their communities.” The documentary seems to be about what the four media outlets are doing with that money.

• Mouse Arts and Letters Club received a $5,000 grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) for its monthly News Night program. Each News Night features three reporters who talk about the stories they recently worked on and take questions from the audience (it’s actually pretty interesting in practice). The grant will be used to pay the journalists, as well as to pay artists to capture the event, courtroom sketch artist style (because the grant required an art component).

What I’m reading

• Chicago Reader looks at the wave of Chicago-based cultural magazines and newspapers that have been emerging and growing in recent years.

• Altavoz Lab Community Journalism Fellow Leslie Hurtado, who writes for Cicero Independiente, talks about how ICE raids impacted her reporting in the predominantly Hispanic Town of Cicero.

• Block Club Chicago Summer 2026 photojournalism intern Zoey Duchene looks back at her experience.

Journalism Resources

• International Women’s Media Foundation has launched the Fault Lines Reporting Fund to support journalists “reporting on the forces driving racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, misogyny, and other forms of intolerance promoting hate in the United States.” Grants can range from $2,500 to $10,000 (with IWMF indicating that they might consider something larger if the case is compelling enough) and freelancers and staff reporters are both eligible. For more information about the fund and the application process, click here. To apply, click here.

• Reporters Without Borders USA is inviting US-based journalists to apply for funding for personal protective equipment, “including first aid kits, eye protection, masks, helmets, and press vests.” Applications from “freelancers, independent journalists, journalists from less-resourced media organizations, or other at-risk journalists” will get priority.

• The Pulitzer Center is inviting journalists to apply for the U.S. Democracy Reporting Grants to fund “big picture” stories about elections, voting rights and civil/free speech rights. Applications are open to freelancers and staff reporters alike. Grant funding can be used to cover “travel needs, extra help with the costs for justifiable research, record searches for data analysis, or visual and extra reporting help.” Apply by Aug. 31.

Journalism Jobs

• The Trace and Block Club Chicago are teaming up to fund a full-time Block Club staff reporter position that will cover the impact of gun violence on Chicago neighborhoods. The writer will be expected to publish 28 to 32 stories a year (so roughly one story every two weeks) “a mix of deep beat reporting, spot reporting, and accountability work.” Must have 6-8 years of reporting experience and familiarity with Chicago. Salary is $85,000-$90,000 a year, plus benefits. Apply here.

• Injustice Watch is hiring an Editor in Chief. Must have at least five years of newsroom management experience and be “committed to building a caring work environment and culture by respectfully providing and accepting feedback, encouraging work-life balance, and providing steady and consistent mentorship.” Salary is $115,000 to $125,000 a year, plus benefits. Apply here.

Share

Leave a comment

It is interesting how the whims of the social media algorithm work out. For whatever reason, the post where I explained exactly why I found the latest chicago.com revival so dubious got reshared way more than an average Chicago Media Journal post. More importantly, it resulted in the second-highest influx of subscribers Chicago MeWernal has seen so far. Most of the time, the posts attract subscribers in single digits, if at all. This one attracted 20 subscribers so far, and, given that it keeps on getting liked and reshared, I wouldn’t be surprised if it attracts more.

(The post that got me the most subscribers was the introductory post. After Chicago Public Square reshared it, Chicago Media Journal went single digit subscribers to over 100)

Of course, those numbers only reflect people who hit the “subscribe” button after reading the post. It doesn’t count people who subscribed thanks to recommendations from other Substacks, subscribers found Chicago Media Journal via simple search, people who got the newsletters forwarded, and even people who filled out the good old-fashioned pen and paper sign-up sheets (it’s more effective than you’d think). Chicago Media Journal is on track to get 360 subscribers, and it currently has 20 (!) paid subscribers, which is more than I expected when I started this.

Last Wednesday, I attended a networking event co-organized by Asian American Journalists Association Chicago and Chicago Journalist Association. And, for the first time ever, I met people who had no idea who I was or where I work - but who do subscribe to Chicago Media Journal, and even recommend it to others. Slowly, but surely, this Substack’s reputation is growing. And, hopefully, it means that it is indeed becoming a useful resource for Chicago area journalism community - which is all I ever wanted.

Well, that and for Chicago Media Journal to make enough money to allow me to devote more time to it… but we are getting there. Slowly, oh so slowly, but surely.

In the meantime, we got plenty of news this week - a look at the revamped City Bureau fellowship program, an update on Chicago Reader union negotiations, a look at what happens when the state tax credits meant to support local journalism don’t come through, new hires, new awards, events, freelance opportunities and so much more.

City Bureau revamps reporting fellowship into more Documenters-style professional development program

The City Bureau never set out to be conventional media outlet, or even a journalistic outlet per se. A recent newsletter described its mission as a “vision for structural change: reimagining journalism as an accessible civic act and a shared practice for building community power.” The Documenters program, which paid journalists and non-jounalists alike to compile reporters on the many, many government body meetings happening throughout Chicago, was a major example of that. The Civic Reporting Fellowship, a seasonal program that recruited journalists to do more long-form investigations, was more conventionally journalist in its structure. Journalists received professional development and support as they worked on major issues that affected South and West sides, and it wasn’t unusual for them to work with other local newsrooms and publish their investigations in other media outlets.

A couple of weeks, I heard from someone in position to know those things that City Bureau was bringing back a fellowship program as more of a training program for South and West Side residents. Because there are only so many hours in the day (and getting sick in the beginning of July really threw off a lot of my plans), I didn’t get chance to follow up before City Bureau officially announced it.

They are calling it a Civic Information Fellowship, which is described as (emphasis theirs) “ a paid, six-month, two-phase program for Chicagoans who want to grow their skills in community engagement, civic participation and journalism.” The first phase involves training in those three areas, as well as “spending as much time in their communities as possible to fully understand what information their community needs and design a project that meets that need.”

Phase II involves more training, actually putting their concept into action and figuring out the best way to get the information out by developing “distribution and audience engagement strategies to ensure we get the information you’ve produced to the people who need it most, and they have clear ways to apply it to their lives.”

Similar to the Documenters program, being a journalist helps, but is hardly required.

We look for people who have a demonstrated interest in civic issues and engagement, community organizing, public policy or journalism through personal projects, previous training, school and internships.

Living on the South or West sides of Chicago helps, and so is being experienced Documenters. As with the Civic Reporting Fellowships, the focus is on reporting on issues outside the North Side.

The fellowship description goes out of its way to call what the fellows would be doing “information” rather than journalism. Which is pretty broad, but would neatly cover, say, a series of TikTok videos, or a podcast, or even a bunch of zines. And, unlike with Civic Reporting Fellowships, the participants choose the topic, instead of City Bureau deciding on the topic ahead of time.

The fellows will get a $5,000 for the 14 weeks of Phase I, and a $2,800 stipend for 12 weeks of Phase II. In other words, about $300 a week for 26 weeks of what is, in fairness, clearly described as a part-time commitment. By comparison, the Fall 2025 Civic Reporting Fellowship offered participants a $6,000 stipend for a part-time 16-week commitment, or $375 a week.

The fall program kicks off on Sept. 8, and applications are due end-of-day Aug 11.

While City Bureau didn’t really give a rationale about the change, it seems to be part of the broader pivot from the more traditional journalism side and more toward the civic engagement/public service side. But it is also important to bear in mind the more pragmatic side.

According to its 2025 annual report, last year, City Bureau had $5,569,152 in revenues versus $6,134,104 in expenses, so it technically ended the year with a $564,952. The salaries/benefits accounted for about a third of the expenses, a number that increased after City Bureau hired six new staffers.

The vast majority of revenue (over $4.9 million of it) comes from philanthropic support from large foundations. The individual donations bucket is relatively tiny - $61.461. In fact, the second-largest revenue bucket, $516,043 worth, is “earned revenues” - which the biggest pieces coming from consulting services ($463,137) and fiscal sponsorship fees ($50,663 worth) it gets for providing administrative support to “several mission-driven projects.”

We know that, with the second Trump Administration pulling back on grants, private foundations struggling to fill in the gap. Media outlets in particular have been struggling to find grants. Putting more emphasis on less journalistic projects could expand City Bureau’s grant base - and expand the demand for their consulting and support services.

Those new strategies will take a while to pay off, and I suspect we’ll see more new or revamped initiatives before the year is over. And it will be interesting to see how this iteration of the fellowship program will work out, and what sort of information it ends up producing.

Chicago Reader Union seeks support as union contract negotiations sour

Since February, the Chicago Reader Union has been negotiating a new contract with the paper’s new owners, Noisy Creek - and the union says that the management playing hardball.

In a July 16 Bluesky thread, the union’s official account noted that, “last year, members of the Chicago Reader Union voluntarily took pay cuts and furloughs to keep the paper running amid layoffs and an uncertain future. Yet we've continued to create award-winning journalism, even with a reduced staff and despite salaries lower than most newsrooms in Chicago.”

Now that the paper is on a better financial footing, better terms is not an unreasonable ask -but the union indicated that it’s not what Noisy Creek is offering.

Noisy Creek management refuses to pay us what we're worth. They want us to give up sick time, work longer hours, and mandate we work in an office in exchange for meager raises that would leave us making less per hour. All the while, Noisy Creek shares news of growth and prosperity in other parts of the company—in part due to funding from other labor organizations.

The work in office mandate is particularly baffling for a company that talks about new ways of supporting journalism. I have written about how working remotely and working in the office both have their advantages and disadvantages, but I think the era of requiring staff to be in the every day (if that is indeed what Noisy Creek is asking) offers no obvious upside to anyone.

Since the negotiations began, Noisy Creek continued to acquire publications and expand its presence outside the West Coast. It is taking part in the revival alt-weekly Anchorage Press, of Anchorage, Alaska (though, in this case, it’s seems to be a co-owner rather than taking full control), and purchased alt-weekly Memphis Flyer and its sister publication, the Memphis Magazine, last week. The Memphis Magazine announcement references “more members onboarding soon.” So money clearly isn’t an issue.

Chicago Reader Union has been encouraging readers to send letters of support asking Noisy Creek to offer what it sees as fairer proposals. As of this post’s deadline, the campaign is 34 letters away from its 800-letter goal.

There haven’t been any updates from either side. But the union has played hardball before, and I expect nothing less if the stalemate continues.

Central Illinois hospital makes large donation to local paper after Illinois tax credits didn’t come through

Back in early July, Medill’s Local News Initiative looked into which Illinois news outlets received state tax credits for retaining employees and hiring new employees. I don’t really have much to add to that, except one titbit.

The data Local News Initiative FOIAed redacted the media outlets those tax credit applications got rejected, but we know of at least one of them. Ford County Chronicle, a weekly newspaper covering Central Illinois’ Ford County, is practically a toddler by Illinois newspaper standard. It was launched in July 2020 by Will Brumleve and Andrew Rosten, local journalists who previously wrote for the now-defunct Ford County Record.

I’ve actually seen the copy of the paper - the owners were handing them out at the 2024 Illinois Press Association convention. I thought it was a perfectly fine paper, for what it was.

In a recent editorial, Brumleve wrote that it’s not clear why they were denied $30,000 in tax credits, but it was the money they were counting on, and not receiving it was a blow. Gibson Area Hospital & Health Services, a regular advertiser since the paper’s founding, stepped in with a $20,000 no stringers attached donation.

I was speechless. All I could say in a text message to the hospital’s chief executive officer, Rob Schmitt, was “thank you!” followed by a bunch of additional exclamation marks.

The donation toward the cause of sustaining our award-winning community newspaper saved the day — the year, really. While it does not entirely make up for the $30,000 loss in once-anticipated revenue, the donation helps tremendously to fill the gap. Without it, we would have been forced to consider raising subscription or advertising rates. Now, we will not.

The donation came with no strings attached — no request for advertising or anything in return. Regardless, we definitely will give the hospital every bit of return on its investment in our newspaper and its mission to provide top-notch community journalism. In addition to making it a priority to cover some important hospital-related news stories on the horizon, we will run full-page ads on behalf of the hospital throughout the coming months — for 33 weeks, to be exact. It’s the least we can do to show our thanks.

Which does goes to show that a bit of goodwill goes a long way - in more ways than one. And, you know, begs the question of what Ford County Chronicle would need to do differently to get the tax credits next year.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• Harvey World Herald, a news site covering Harvey, Illinois, promoted Kristin McKee to full-time news editor effective Aug. 1. Founder and publisher Amethyst Davis indicated on LinkedIn that the position was made possible by funding from the Square One Foundation.

  • McKee first started writing for HWH in 2023 as a freelancer, and she began working for the outlet under contract at the start of Jan. 1, editing government reporting. McKee holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Media Studies from Chicago’s Roosevelt University, where she served as editor of The Torch, the student newspaper.

• Chicago Public Media named Andres Lombana as Senior Vice President of Sales and Sponsorship. According to CPM press release, he has “more than two decades of leadership experience spanning local media, business development, and the technology sector” and “will oversee the organization’s Advertising and Sponsorship teams and shape the advertising model for the recently-announced public platform chicago.com.”

• Block Club Chicago won the latest in the growing series of awards it received for its coverage of Operation Midway Blitz. It earned this year’s Society of Professional Journalists 2025 Alpha Sigma Chi Award in the Investigative Reporting (online-only publication) category.

• Long-time Chicago journalist Sally Ramirez, who currently serves as NBC5 and Telemundo Chicago, was inducted into the 2026 National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame at the organization’s annual convention, which was held last week in New Orleans.

• Borderless magazine has announced that it will be holding BorderlessLive, it’s “inaugural annual event celebrating journalism, community and the conversations shaping Chicago.” The event will be held in Oct. 8 at the Chicago History Museum, but that’s all we’ll know so far.

• Chicago sports journalist Michele Steele launched the Steele Cut Substack as place for her sports reporting that “ends up on the cutting room floor.”

• Wisconsin Newspaper Association officially changed its name to the Wisconsin Newsmedia Association. As the press release notes, its membership already includes magazines and news sites, so the change is just acknowledging reality.

• Teresa Davis, a “long-time employee” of The Beverly Review, a Fr South Side community newspaper, passed away on July 18. The obituary the paper ran doesn’t at all elaborate on what she did, but, the best I can tell from a few references in the papers’ archives, she did office/clerical work.

What I’m reading

• The Daily Egyptian and Gateway Journalism Review look at the implications of the closure of Associated Press Springfield (Illinois) bureau last spring)

What I’m listening to

• The Kicker, Columbia Journalism Review’s bi-monthly podcast, looked at why a promising Texas news site crashed and burned - and the lessons that offers to all US-based news startups of this type.

Journalism Events

• On Wednesday, July 29, Mouse Arts and Letters Social Club, 555 W. 31st St., will host its monthly News Night at 7 p.m. This month’s News Night will feature Block Club Chicago investigative reporter and editor Crystal Paul, Illinois Answers reporter Casey Toner and Chicago Sun-Times reporter Michael Armentraut will share the process behind their recent investigations and take audience questions.

  • As usual on the last Wednesdays of the month, journalists are welcome to take advantage of the club’s co-working space between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., whether they are members or not. They are also invited to talk about the stories they’re working on at 1 p.m.

• On Thursday, July 30, Kenosha Tap House, 125 56th St., will host a release party for the Summer 2026 issue of Kenozia, Kenosha, Wisconsin’s very own art and culture magazine. This will also be the first anniversary issue for the publication. Since I last wrote about the zine, I had a chance to buy Issue 4, and I thought it was pretty good. The party will kick off at 5:30 p.m., and while there is no charge, RSVP is required.

Freelance Opportunities

• Chinatown Spotlight newspaper and news site is looking for stringers. The ability to speak Mandarin and having cultural context is helpful, but not required (the site, at least, is bilingual). Pay is described as “Competitive” and “commensurate with the writer’s experience and the complexity of the assignment.” There will also be professional development opportunities. For more information and application instructions, click here.

• Bold Latina, a self-described “modern multi-media platform for Latinas who refuse to be invisible", is looking for articles “culture, politics, power, race, gender, intersectional feminism, entertainment, technology, wellness/self-care, work and wealth.” The pieces should be within 600-750 words, and they pay the flat rate of $180 per piece.

Share

Leave a comment

The event ended up a reflection on the role journalism plays in the society, including reflecting on the harmful narratives it perpetuated and still sometimes perpetuates, and how the media should respond to the economic and political pressures it faces. Given the people who spoke, it was somewhat inevitable that there was a lot of focus on Black journalists and the relationship between African Americans and the media. Another prominent theme is how media can best respond to unprecedented authoritarian pressures the second Trump Administration exerts on the American civil society.

Medill associate professor Jon Marshall gave a presentation on American media history. This was followed by not one, but two keynote speakers - both Black journalists who are currently in the midst of legal proceedings stemming from their journalism. Georgia Fort, founder of BLCK Press, was arrested for covering the Jan. 18 protest at St. Paul’s Cities Church, the same one Don Lemon was arrested for covering (her case is still ongoing). , founding editor of Washington Post’s Global Opinions section, was fired from the paper for Bluesky tweets critical of the broad tenor of public responses to Charlie Kirk’s assassination (she contested her termination)

Following her speech, Attiah moderated a panel that featured Chicago Public Media EIC Kimbriell Kelly, ProPublica Chicago area reporter Melissa Sanchez, Chicago Tribune City Hall reporter Alice Yin and Block Club Chicago Director of Photography Colin Boyle. Attorney Merrick Wayne and Seth Stern, Director of Advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, had their own mini-panel about legal risks journalists faced.

The event concluded with an “open mic,” where heads of Chicago area journalist organizations, reporters and a few others got three minutes to speak their mind on the topic… Or at least that was the initial plan. The event was supposed to conclude at 9 p.m., but it ended up running quite a bit over time, leading event organizer Maudlyne Ihejirika (Field Foundation’s Director of Journalism & Storytelling and a retired Chicago Sun-Times columnist) to ask the last few speakers to keep their remark to one minute.

A bit of housekeeping, readers and subscribers. While I took plenty of pictures, I lost my camera before I had a chance to back them (and quite a few other items on the SD card) up. I’m 80% sure that I left it at the Impact House, but, so far, they haven’t found it, and there is still a not-small possibility that I lost it on the ‘L’ on the way home. (I did reach out to CTA about that. Nothing was turned into the lost-and-founds).

I did my best to substitute the pictures other folks took, just so this wouldn’t be a wall of texts. In the long run, replacing the camera is going to be a large unplanned expense, so any donation, no matter how small, would be appreciated.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

“How many times can the source lie before we no longer consider them reliable?”

Like many people who spoke throughout the event, Fort’s speech dove into what it means to have a “journalism reckoning.” The big part of that, she argued, is reckoning with its role in “perpetuating harm in Black and brown communities” through editorial decisions, the way it newspapers chose to cover certain topics, and plenty of examples when newspapers encouraged lynchings.

“Our press has historically been unfair to Black Americans,” Fort said.

She pointed to that, in the lead-up to the Tulsa Race Massacre, Tulsa Tribune stocked tensions by running an article about a Black shoeshiner Dick Rowland, allegedly trying to rape a white woman in an elevator (the only thing we know for sure is that he grabbed her arm) under the headline "Nab Negro for Attacking Girl In an Elevator.”

“I want to ask you - does that sound like objective reporting?” Fort said. “It is a call to action for the white community, the report has been anything but objective.”

She also talked about how initial reporting around the death of George Floyd accepted the police press releases uncritically, and that it was only when the phone footage from the scene emerged that those narratives started getting challenged. As Fort noted, six years later, the first instinct of a lot of news organizations, especially the longer-lasting ones, is still to accept police press releases uncritically and assume that they are basically accurate until proven otherwise.

“Was there ever any accountability? Was there ever any reckoning?” she asked. “What is our industry standard? How many times can the source lie before we no longer consider them reliable?”

The objectivity, Fort argued, has been “selective,” with white people being afforded more objectivity than African Americans.

Fort also questioned what journalistic objectivity means in the face of the second Trump Administration's authoritarianism.

“is it our job as the members of the Fourth Estate to be neutral about our democracy, or is it our job to defend it?” she said. “J School doesn’t teach you how to cover an authoritarian regime.”

Fort said that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein didn’t give Nixon Administration’s spin equal weight in their Watergate coverage, and didn't worry about “being perceived as biased.”

“[Their reporting] was rooted in understanding that violating our laws is wrong, that violating our constitution is wrong,” she said. “Bob and Carl set the blueprint for he type of fearless reporting we need today.”

Fort discussed going independent and founding BLCK Press, which produces “TV quality” newscasts online that are geared specifically toward Twin Cities’ Black residents, with the aim of avoiding biases and cultural blind spots that crop up in white-run media outlets. In 2021, BLCK Press launched the Center for Broadcast Journalism, which helps minority youth get into broadcast journalism.

“I can name a dozen of young journalists who are employed in mainstream press,” Fort said.

She emphasized that the point of a reckoning is not just to take stock of past and present failures and shortcomings - it’s to use that understanding to build a better industry.

“After rebirth comes renewal,, and after renewal comes the reward,” Fort said. “The reward belongs to every community that can finally recognize themselves in the story of America.”

“Freedom, our ability to speak, has never just been granted”

Attiah began her speech by discussing the American Dream, and how it inspired her parents to immigrate to the United States. While she would not exist without that story, she talked about how the stories America tells about itself has many flaws and shortcoming - such as the fact that the history of Black America begins with slavery, as if Africa doesn’t have thousands of years of rich, complex history.

“We were told we were nothing before slavery - [the story] we were told by people who benefited from a story where [Black people] were inferior,” Attiah said.

She echoed Fort’s comment about how the newspapers and other media historically depicted Black communities, and how Black-owned media emerged out of necessity, because white-owned media outlets didn’t provide coverage the community deserves. And she drew a direct parallel to her own firing, noting that she didn’t start her Substack because she was looking to do until circumstances made it necessary.

Attiah talked about how wanting to make sure Washington Post’s editorial pages reflected more than American perspectives led to the paper’s global opinions section. And, in another example of a disconnect between the American Dream and American realities, she talked about one of her writers, Jamal Khashoggi.

“Jamal believed that being in United States and writing for Washington Post would keep him safe. I believed that too,” Attiah said.

Suffice to say, hey were both tragically wrong on both counts.

“For me, I know first-hand that asking questions is a matter of life and death,” Attiah said. “Our freedom, our ability to speak, has never just been granted. People have fought and died for it.”

She talked about the incident that led to her firing, and while she couldn’t elaborate on where the arbitration stood, she said that she was “confident we argued our case well.” Attiah talked about the importance of pushing back against censorship and pressures to self-censor, and how “sometimes, it means standing against your own industry.”

She gave the example of Donald Trump’s ill-fated interview at the National Association of Black Journalists’ 2024 convention, which was held in Chicago, as an example of how the conventional journalistic wisdom - to present facts (in this case, Trump’s own comments) and let the audience draw their own conclusions - was not worth the price of exposing Black journalists to harassment and platforming falsehoods.

Attiah also decried the “assault on DEI” - which, in practice, has often translated to fewer opportunities for Black journalists and pressures to avoid certain topics.

“We still need to speak up for for those who’ve been censored,” she said. “And, sometimes it means going against everything you’ve been told about Journalism.”

Attiah concluded her speech by saying that “hope is necessary, but it’s not sufficient.” But even so, she said that, while she didn’t have faith in journalistic institutions, she has faith in the craft.

“I believe that storytelling, storyfighting and storyshaping is a calling,” Attiah said. “The Jobs will come and go, but your mission must remain.”

Chicago journalists panel

By the time we got to the first panel, the event was running significantly enough behind schedule that Ihejirika gave strict orders to only ask three questions and forego the audience Q&A. But there were still a lot of noteworthy points.

Attiah asked the panelists about the challenges they were facing. Kelly talked about how, shortly after starting her current job, the CPM newsrooms were plunged head-first into Operation Midway Blitz. She noted that her experience of working for WaPo during the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt helped.

Boyle talked about how federal immigration agents shot him with pepper balls with impunity at the protests around Broadview processing center turned detention facility, which he said was “jarring,” while also emphasizing that what he experienced was a “tiny fraction” of what other journalists covering the protests had.

Boyle also said that he saw the journalists’ role as countering ICE agitprop, talking about “their own little propaganda brigades” who followed Greg Bovino’s caravans and filming their “social media sizzle reel.”

Sanchez also talked about DHS agitprop, pointing out that, in the infamous raid on the apartment building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood only had men (who implicitly fit the narrative that the detainees were gang members) being detained.

“They didn’t show the women, they didn’t show the children, they didn’t show Americans,” she said.

And while Sanchez said that DHS has never exactly been a model of transparency, finding out information got harder then ever.

“I covered immigration for 10 years, and it’s never been this bad,” she said.

Yin talked about the challenges of sifting through large volumes of city data and dealing with redactions to get to a few morsels of data that translates into news stories. She noted that, sometimes, the easiest way to hide the story is to claim that the information was not FOIAble due to an ongoing investigation - the phrasing that could mean a lot of things.

Attiah asked about collaborations between newsrooms. Every panelist talked about how newsrooms worked together, and how journalists from what would normally be competing outlets supported each other.

Kelly talked about providing advice to newsrooms in cities that were targeted by immigration raids. Yin talked about the shrinking City Hall press corps that have the knowledge and the experience to dig through a lot of terminology and nuances specific to that beat.

“I think it behooves all of us to help out the competition,” she said. “If our colleagues are being attacked or ignored, we need to stand up.”

“I wouldn’t have gotten through the Midway Blitz without [Sun-Times photojournalist] Ashlee Rezin,” Boyle said. “We [Chicago area photo journalists] did a damn good job covering it because we were in it together.”

Open Mic

Even with the smaller time limits, there were a lot of people who spoke, and not everybody who spoke talked about journalism. Much like some of the speakers had to scramble to cut their planned remarks, I had to figure out how to distill it to a few highlights.

NABJ Chicago President Brandon Pope decried the “unbalanced balance culture” and “the colorblind objectivity that’s not so colorblind.” He talked about scholarships and other opportunities his chapter provides for Black journalists, and emphasized the importance of free press “for everyone, not because journalists deserve special treatment, but because America deserves the truth.”

Asian American Journalist Association Chicago Partnerships Director Amirah Zaveri talked about how her immigrant parents nurtured her interest in news as a child, as well as encouraged her “to read beyond the headlines and always question” information, “ad be curious about the experiences that are different from yours.”

National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) Chicago chapter president Jose Baltierra, a producer at ABC 7 Chicago, spoke about how the Trump Administration is using the power of FCC to retaliate against ABC/Disney by forcing the early license review, even after the company cut back on DEI initiatives in response to administration pressure. And he lamented that, even though ABC 7 has the highest viewership in the Chicago market, “our numbers are dropping like crazy.”

“This is so upsetting, to see the numbers drop,” Baltierra said. “We need to watch TV, and we need to have our kids watch TV, because when the shit hits the ban, you’re turning the TV back on. […] We need to fight, fight for our livelihood.”

WGN Radio anchor Silvia Showden, who also serves as the board member of the Journalism & Women Symposium, was yet another speaker who argued that media needed to take a harder, stronger stand against the Trump Administration.

“My concern as a member for the media is - why are we in a gun fight with butter knives, wondering why we’re getting our asses whooped?” she said. “Statements are nice, statements are important, but we need to [do more] where the statements won’t cut it, where the statements are just the beginning.”

Showden argued that what could turn the tide was Americans at large realizing that restricting what reporters can’t and can’t say affects everyone’s freedom of speech - and she brought up that the backlash to ABC suspending Jimmy Kimmel as an example of that

Chicago Headline Club president Jeff Arnold talked about the organization’s role in Chicago Headline Club vs. Noem lawsuit, and emphasized that the it would be ready to pursue legal challenges in the future.

WBEZ Projects Editor Alden Loury recalled his experience of working for The News-Gazette, of Urbana-Champaign area, and how he quickly realized that, even if the area’s Black community was willing to trust him as a Black journalist, they weren’t willing to trust the paper. At first, he didn’t understand that, but a dive into the paper’s archives revealed that headline after headline of the Black residents being reduced to “Black male” or “Black female” who were victims of a crime. As Loury pointed out, that not only reduces a community to crime victims, but it’s dehumanizing.

“Even when we were reporting on the community, we were ignoring the humanity of the people who live there,” he said. “And that’s just a small piece of a long legacy of bad behavior and irresponsible journalism.”

Windy City Times managing editor and NLGJA Chicago chapter president Jake Wittich talked about media’s long history of maligning LGBTQ+ individuals.

“Thankfully, today, mainstream mead made a lot of progress in covering LGBTQ communities, and that’s something worth celebrating,” he said. “But the need for dedicated LGBTQ press remains just as vital. When we tell our stories, we tell them with the care and dignity they deserve.

The event ended with Axios Chicago reporter Monica Eng giving a profanity-laden rant against the “fucking AI,” noting that any journalist “who is wrong 10% of the time” would be fired, and made a dig at the Trump Administration.

“When the fascists came for the journalists, they’ll her fucking silence,” she said.

Reflections on the reckoning

Listening to the many speakers and panelists, I found myself reflecting on several things. When I started covering Chicago West Side’s Black neighborhoods, I got a crash course in a lot of issues that were discussed - the coverage that, even if not overtly racist, reinforced certain narratives, the focus on crime at the expense of everything else, the issues Black journalists run into when trying to communicate their concerns and give suggestions in white-owned newsrooms. It was far from a smooth process. I had to acknowledge some biases, learn to bite my tongue and listen when people were trying to educate me, and not take a lot of things personally. I like to think of it as a constant learning process, because there is no point where one achieves some kind of post-racial conscience nirvana. You learn from your mistakes, and you try to avoid making the same ones, and you try to keep learning.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that a lot of what I heard was not exactly surprising - and I do think it was necessary.

And then, there’s the other big theme.

For those who are new here, or who might not be able to guess from my name, I am Russian. I watched my home country backslide into authoritarianism, then outright dictatorship. I watched as independent TV stations got shut down or bought up by the government, watched as repression came for radio stations, newspapers and news sites. The last national opposition newspaper, Sobesednik, shut down in September 2024 after the Russian federal government designated it a “foreign agent,” which made it impossible for it to generate revenue.

Independent Russian media outlets still exist, but many of them operate outside Russia, and Russian government does its best to block them.

A lot of what the second Trump Administration is doing, and not just when it comes to media, is familiar to Russians. The denigration of investigative reporters (complete with childish insults), Putin-friendly oligarchs purchasing opposition outlets, the self-censorship independent media outlets that are not state-owned, legal proceedings against journalists…. We’ve seen it all before.

A lot of Russians thought that, after the Soviet Union collapsed, there was no way things would get that oppressive again. We comforted ourselves that independent media outlets still existed, even as the Putin regime made it harder for them to survive. This is why a lot of this post uses some harsh, uncompromising language.

Authoritarian tendencies need to be called out, and named as such. Agitprop needs to be named as such. As a Russian, I know how this story can end. And, while we may disagree on what to do, I know that one thing that won’t work is watching our language and hoping for the best.

Share

Leave a comment

This is, as I wrote last time, a special “catch-up” missive, several items that were meant to go up earlier, but didn’t, for variety of reasons. I also included a handful of new items in “bits and bites” that, so long as I was putting out a post, I saw no reason not to include.

Next post should be the coverage of the Field Foundation’s America [@] 250: A Journalism Reckoning" event, which is happening later tonight. I’m not sure if I will write another missive this weekend. Might just wait until the following Monday, when there are more news items to write about. We’ll see where things stand by Sunday.

Either way, I want to get out another feature piece next week (week after next week at the latest) that has been in the backburner for quite a while. And, coming in the next week or two, a major announcement about something I’ve been thinking about, but which I’m starting to commit actual time to. If you’re a paid subscriber, you can guess what I’m talking about, since I wrote about it in the paid subscriber area.

Finally, in the spirit of posting something that has been in the works for a while, this post includes a “Thoughts and Ends” item that has been in various drafts since late May. For those of you who haven’t seen it - and I’ve gotten quite a few new subscribers since the last time I did one - that is me writing about something happening in my personal life that, while relevant to journalism, isn’t really journalism news. I put it at the end, so that it’s easy to skip.

This one deals with themes of suicidal ideation. So, not only did I put it in the end, but I put the sponsorship banner right before it to create a natural separator. I know that this is a difficult topic, and I want to give those who don’t want to read about it as clear of a stopping point as I can.

But first…

Streetsblog Chicago’s fundraising falls short of goal, makes just enough to get through the year

Streetsblog Chicago occupies an interesting niche in the Chicago area media landscape. It is a part of the Streetsblog network of city-based blogs that focuses on environmentally sustainable transportation (cycling and public transit), as well as issues affecting pedestrians. Like many 19th century-early 20th century newspapers, Streetsblog Chicago approaches transportation issues with a clear point of view it clearly and unabashedly advocates for. I have written for the site since May 2018, and one of the points of contention is I always tried to do straight news (except for a few times when I was clearly voicing opinions), while editor and lead writer John Greenfield wanted more opinion. But it was the price and have been willing to pay (sometimes through gritted teeth), because, for a while, Streetsblog took public transit related pitches no one else would take and paid decently for it.

(Interesting fun fact that will become important in a bit - Streetsblog is the only media outlet I wrote for where the rates went up every single year).

In 2025, Streetsblog Chicago lost one of its major funding sources. As part of its pivot toward channeling its media-related giving through Press Forward Chicago, it stopped offering grants to cover editorial expenses. By Greenfield’s account, the trust tried to be be nice about it, and even directed him toward other grants.

Streetsblog Chicago trimmed expenses (most notably laying off a part-time staff writer), and it was able to secure extra donations and support from long-time advertisers. In November 2025, it launched the annual fundraiser, with the goal of raising at least $50,000 via “other major donations, ad sales, and contributions from readers.”

I do need to note that one thing that wasn’t on the table was cutting the rates for stringers. We got a rate bump in January, even if it was smaller than in the past.

On June 30, Greenfield announced that he is ending the fundraiser, which, he wrote, raised around $36,000, $14,000 short of the goal. There is still a donation button, and people and businesses are still welcome to advertise, but the active fundraising is paused for a few months.

“[$36,000] is enough for us to make it to New Year’s Day on a shoestring budget, but obviously it’s not what I hoped for,” Greenfield wrote “That’s largely due to another major contribution we’d gotten the previous two years not materializing so far in 2026. Whether or not that donor chooses to help out again this year, we’re very thankful for their past support.”

To give folks an incentive to keep donating, he wrote would it would mean for Steetsblog to have more funding then just what it needs for basic survival. Raising the missing $14,000, Greenfield wrote, would allow Streetsblog to publish more freelance work than what the severely restricted freelance budget currently allows for. And it would allow Streetsblog to offer health benefits to its employees (at the moment, Greenfield and co-founder Steve Vance) - something that isn’t a trivial concern, given Greenfield’s history.

Overall, what we are seeing here is kind of what we see with The Woodstock Independent. There are people who believe in Streetsblog’s mission enough to chip in financially, whether it’s via donations or advertising - but that kind of support has its limits. And there is no obvious solution to have to expand that support.

Why it took me so long to write about Chicago area 2026 “INNY” Nonprofit News Awards winners

Every year, the Institute for Nonprofit News honors member news outlets at The Nonprofit News Awards, or the INNYs. This year’s winners were announced at the INN Days conference, which was held in Pittsburgh, on the evening of June 16.

This year had a few Chicago winners. Injustice Watch won the Best Investigative Award, medium division, for Forensic Failures by Maya Dukmasova. A judge praised the work as a “fantastic piece of investigative journalism.”

South Side Weekly won the Community Champion Award, Medium division, for Fraudsters Target Immigrants Seeking Legal Help by Alma Campos and Max Blaisdell. The judges touted the piece as a “thorough investigation [that] put an actual price to the fraudulent practices it uncovered while capturing the human cost through impactful storytelling,”

Francia Garcia Hernandez, Block Club Chicago’s lead immigration reporter and Southwest Side communities reporter, won the Nonprofit Newcomer of the Year, an award that honors “an individual who is new to the field of nonprofit news (less than two years) and is contributing to the success of their organization through innovation.”

Which is where we run into a problem, and the reason why it took me so long to report on this. The “less than two years” bit.

Garcia Hernandez worked for nonprofit Growing Community Media between mid-March and early November 2023. She was hired by Block Club in September 2024, but she did some freelancing for both Block Club and GCM before then throughout 2024. She also had a show for CAN-TV, which is also a nonprofit, in the interim. Bottom line is, by the end of the nomination period, Garcia Hernandez has definitely been working for nonprofit outlets for more than two years.

I struggled with this one, readers and subscribers. Garcia Hernandez won many awards, and deservedly so. Should I potentially raise a fuss about the one award that she might not have been qualified for? My relationship with Block Club Chicago has been tumultuous at times, but things do seem to be in a good place for now. Plus, there is a more personal reason why I hesitated to kick that particular can of worms.

After consulting with some fellow journalists, who pointed out that, in journalism, there is one right answer. If something is unclear, you go straight to the source I reached out to INN.

In an emailed response, INN Chief Network Officer Jonathan Kealing responded that, while he understood my concerns, the institute didn’t think any rules were broken.

“The INNYs for this year were judged based on an entry period that covered 2025, so we’d be looking for someone with two years or less of work in nonprofit news as of the end of 2025,” he wrote. “While we just announced the words, that was primarily to allow for news organizations to enter their best people and work, and our judges to review the nominations. I think the total work you describe still sounds like about two years.”

I suppose this just goes to show you that, in our field, it is helpful to consult with someone who isn’t as involved in a thing you are trying to report on. For all of the discussion about whether unbiased journalism is truly achievable, or even desirable, distance is definitely an asset.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• Hillary Flores has been promoted to Borderless magazine’s Editorial Director. She first started writing for the magazine as a freelance investigative reporter in October 2024, becoming a full-time deputy editor a year later. Flores wrote on her LinkedIn in page that she was “excited for what's ahead”

  • “I look forward to shaping our editorial vision, learning from my talented colleagues, building meaningful relationships, and working together to grow Borderless in ways that deepen our impact and better serve our communities.” Flores wrote.

• Encyclopedia Britannica Social Media Producer and Asian American Journalists Association Chicago chapter president Casey Mendoza announced on social media that she was piloting “TALLFORM: Chicago's first vertical video film festival.” The event is being sponsored by Press Forward Chicago. Mendoza wrote that she’s looking for submissions “from Chicago-based journalists, filmmakers, and independent creators with reported pieces, personal essays, experimental docs — as long as they're nonfiction and shot vertically. No cropping or re-filming necessary.”

  • The reason why this is media news (aside from Press Forward sponsorship) is that there has been growing discussion about how media oulets can capitalize on short vertical video clips. Me, I remain skeptical - I lived through one “pivot to video” gold rush already - but I think the format itself is her to stay, at least for a while. There is something to be said for a festival that showcases what can be done with this format, and I got to admire the sheer chutzpah of showing something meant for a small screen at the Music Box Theater’s enormous movie screens.

• U.S. Reps Jonathan Jackson (D-01), Delia Ramirez (D-03), Jesus “Chuy” Garcia (D-04) and Jan Schakowsky (D-09) sent a letter last Friday, July 10, to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul “expressing grave concerns about the proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) and supporting any involvement by the Attorney General’s office in the investigation and potential litigation to block the merger.”

What I’m listening to

• Chicago Public Square posted an audio recording and a video recording of the June 26 “Life After Broadway 6” panel discussion sponsored by the Wednesday Journal. Chicago Public Square proprietor and Growing Community Media board member Charlie Meyerson served as a moderator.

Share

Leave a comment

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Thoughts and Ends

As I said, this was something that has been revised, again and again,for a while. I was originally going to include it in the tail end of the May 25 round-up. I was already dealing with a huge backlog in the May 18 round-up, and journalism news and updates took priority over what’s going on with my personal life. But then, the Daily Herald sales announcement happened, which threw everything off, and this just kept on getting pushed back and back.

For those who are new here, I have been struggling with some pretty dark, suicidal thoughts… Well, if I am completely honest, since January 8, 2025. I came pretty close to killing myself on June 5, 2025. A few days later, my attempts to get into therapy finally paid off, but it hasn’t always been a smooth sailing.

May 14 was a pretty bad day. I couldn’t help but think about how, when I was getting chemo back in 2014, I would wonder why I put myself through it, again and again, and how I had to remind myself that it wasn’t forever. I’d have 12 chemo sessions, and either it would work or it wouldn’t. But there was no end point here, none that I could see.

I made an Instagram Story talking about the sheer hopelessness of it, and how it felt like I’d always end up at one of the Belmont ‘L’ stations, thinking about killing myself. It was a “close friends” IG Story, so only a handful of people saw it. I hoped putting it out there would be cathartic. It wasn’t.

Talking to my sister put me on a better headspace, but, the next day, I wasn’t doing much better. I went to my part-time job in Des Plaines, because I didn’t think I could get away with taking a mental health break, not without losing pay. And besides, my regularly scheduled therapy session was the next day. I just figured I would try to get through the next few hours, head home and take it easy.

Which was easier said than done. I was struggling. I ended up texting a friend, sharing some pretty dark and dire thoughts. Ironically, given what happened next, the chat did help, eventually. Put me on a better keel. Made things feel not quite so hopeless, and reminded me there were reasons to live for, and things to look forward to.

But, some time later, Des Plaines police officers showed up at the office, saying that my mother called Chicago police to request a welfare check because I threatened to jump in front of the train. CPD pinged my phone, and once they found out I was in Des Plaines, contacted their local counterparts.

My mom, as I would find out hours later, didn’t call anyone. In retrospect, I should have known something was amiss, because if she really thought I was a danger to myself, she’d try to contact me first. But, in that moment, it just didn’t occur occur that someone would impersonate my mom and call CPD.

I tried to explain that, while I was in a bad place earlier, I was better, but that fell on deaf ears. And, to make a long story short, it was made clear to me that I was going to the ER, and we could do it the easy way or the hard way.

When I had to do a police blotter for Forest Park Review, I got to read a lot of police reports. Between that and some of the reporting on mental health disparities on the West Side of Chicago, I knew that my best hope of getting out of it was to be calm, to be peaceful, and cooperate.

At the ER, I was stripped of all of my belongings and every single piece of my own clothing. It kind of drove home how, even with my occasionally Luddite ways, I’ve come to rely on technology. Without a wristwatch, I had to rely on hospital clocks to get any sense of time. Without my phone contacts, I had to rely on the phone numbers I memorized - so I asked the hospital called my mom simply because I couldn’t remember my sister’s phone number. I never had to memorize it.

While I’m too young to really experience Soviet Union, but I have family members who survived Soviet prisons and labor camps. I was old enough to remember the early 1990s, post-collapse Russia, where everybody knew police was corrupt and abused its power with impunity. I talked to people who dealt with police beatings and worse in Putin’s Russia. Being stripped of agency, in more ways than one, hit me harder than I expected - and I knew it would hit me hard. But, like I said, I knew the only hope of getting out was to act calm and be patient. So I leaned into the fact that, for the next few hours, I would be unplugged from the constant stream of news and press releases we journalists have to stay on top of. I wouldn’t have to worry about deadlines and reaching out to anyone. That would count against me. So I did my best to stay calm and tried to relax. It was nice.

After a few hours, some tests and a conversation with the hospital social worker, I was released. And, suffice to say, I had a lot to talk about in therapy the next day.

It was interesting, coming to the office after all of that. One employee made a point of checking on me when our days in the office overlapped for a couple of weeks. Another employee was shocked by all of it. “You seemed so nice and smiley,” she said. And I was reminded of something I already knew, but what the past two years have reinforced. Many times, when people ask you how you’re doing, what they really want to know is what you’re doing okay. And sometimes, it’s easier to just go along with it.

Getting a bill from the City of Des Plaines for an ambulance ride I didn’t get a choice in, to say nothing of the hospital bills, was… a lot. But the hospital bill got taken care of after I explained exactly what I was earning between my part-time job and my freelance gigs. Still need to deal with the ambulance bill.

Then, there was the fact that someone pretended to be my mom and called the police on me. Like I said, the reel was visible to the “close friends” group, and I knew exactly who watched it. The list of suspects is pretty small.

I have one theory about who it is. My sister has a pretty compelling alternative theory. There is an easy way to check it - just ask either of them - but I still can’t bring myself to do it.

It’s hard to think about how someone would go to such weird lengths to…. Like, even if they thought I was a danger to myself, why pretend to be my mom? If it was, as I originally thought, a family member, I can understand it, even appreciate it. But if was someone outside my family, it feels like, for the lack of a better words, trespassing.

I have been on the other side of this. I know what it’s like to have someone you care about talking about ending their life. I know that it’s a fraught and terrifying position to be put in. I can’t quite bring myself to judge it too harshly… but I am still struggling with this.

As for my mental health… I take it day by day. Try my best to apply coping skills my therapist and I have been working on.

A week after May 14, to the day, I went to a storytelling open mic and told a bunch of strangers exactly what has been haunting me. I didn’t say “and this is why I want to kill myself sometimes,” but I talked about regret, and shame, and what I lost. It felt like taking a bit of power back. Getting some control over something that feels so out of control. And I was surprised to realize how nice it was to talk about it without the threat of death hanging over my head.

Which I suppose is a reminder that the path forward is to get to the place where suicide is really and truly off the table. No matter how long it takes.

I have recovered from whatever flu-type thing waylaid me last weekend, but that did mean I have a lot of catching up to do. And while I hoped to use this missive as a catch-up missive, we continue to get media news. So, after thinking it over, I decided to split the missive in the half. Some new items and one item that was was supposed to run last week. The other two items that didn’t run last week will be posted either Wednesday or Thursday, and that missive will include whatever news comes out by deadline.

We’ll see how that works in practice.

Speaking of the timing of the missives, according to my analytics, and what I heard from some subscribers, my posts tend to have a pretty long tail. Some people read it the day the post goes out, but plenty more read it later during the week, or even over the weekend. So I wanted to ask you, readers and subscribers, more directly - when do you usually read Chicago Media Journal?

My posting schedule is mostly dictated by where I can fit it in with my other commitments, but the survey may influence when I post feature stories, event coverage and other extras.

The dubious relaunch of chicago.com

Last Wednesday, July 8, Chicago Public Media announced that it was relaunching chicago.com as “a new digital home for Chicagoans — one designed to help people discover what's happening around them, connect with their communities and participate in the life of the city.”

As the press release and subsequent Chicago Sun-Times coverage acknowledged, this is “a homecoming of sorts.’ In 2013, Wrapports, then-owner of Sun-Times Media, bought the domain name from local entrepreneur Josh Metnick, Owner Michael Ferro wanted it to become the city’s primary activities and event information hub, while also trying to sell chicago.com as a cool and hip email domain name. None of that went very far and, four years later, he transferred the domain name to the Chicago Community Trust. The organization talked about using it as an information hub for Chicago philanthropy, but ultimately didn’t do much with it either. As recently as two weeks ago, chicago.com simply redirected to the trust’s home page.

I first heard about CPM plans two weeks ago off the record, and it was described as something similar to Chicago Immigration Hub - a landing page that would aggregate news and share resources. The press release suggests that and more, talking about the site having “trusted local information, community knowledge, civic and cultural resources, and new opportunities for participation.”

We journalists see this kind of language all the time in press releases. Lots of nice-sounding buzzwords, glaring shortage of specifics. It’s the kind of thing that begs for a whole bunch of follow-up questions.

The Sun-Times article about the launch confirmed that the site “will also curate headlines from the Sun-Times, WBEZ and other news sources” from the city and potentially a handful of suburbs. It also described how CPM CEO Melissa Bell “cited other media outlets around the world as models for chicago.com” such as “Village Media in Canada, Front Porch Forum in Vermont, Zetland Media in Denmark and Daily Maverick in South Africa.’ Which is interesting, since the examples Bell cites vary quite a bit in format. We got a news site network with social network components, an online forum with some Nextdoor-eque touches, a news site that licenses out its tech to other outlets, and a newspaper with a membership program. In fact, the one element all four examples seem to have in common is the importance they place on memberships.

I think there is something to what Bell talked about in the Sun-Times article, and what the press release was alluding to - the idea that Chicagoans want information they can trust in one place, where it’s not curated by ever-shifting algorithms.

For independent journalism to “truly service the public … we should have digital infrastructure that is also steered by public media companies,” [Bell] said. The news industry “has ceded a lot of distribution to places like Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, and I think that has done a disservice to centering civic discourse in a healthy way.”

Chicago.com is inviting readers to weigh in, and talks about how they “want to design [the site] with your input, and we want to partner with the many civic institutions across the region that work toward making this city better every single day.”

But here is the thing, readers and subscribers… Chicago Immigration Hub gave us a pretty clear sense of what it would be from the jump, and it lived up to that basic concept. The press release struggled to answer the basic question of “that sounds nice in theory, but what will it look like in practice?” At this point, I can’t really judge whether it has a chance of succeeding or failing if I’m not even sure what it even is.

Then, there is the fact that anything that does not rely on algorithm would require human curation, which would require people to spend hours looking through content and deciding what they should include. According to Sun-Times, “Chicago Public Media will not hire new editorial staff for the site but will enlist current employees” to run the site. It’s not clear whether they will hire someone to handle site development and outreach, but if they are also using existing employees for that as well, that’s a recipe for overstretched workforce.

The Chicago Immigration Hub is grant-funded. Meanwhile, the Sun-Times piece indicated that chicago.com “is funded by ongoing fundraising by Chicago Public Media.” In other words, regular revenue. As the article noted, both the paper WBEZ have been losing revenue. The fact that Bell said that “2026 financial projections indicate Chicago Public Media will be ‘close to break-even.’” is not exactly reassuring.

The picture that is emerging is that CPM is trying to take on an ambitious project without investing extra staff and resources. If the idea was to generate generate extra revenue on the long run, it might be justifiable, but the statement chicago.com mentions (emphasis mine) that “we are the public, we serve the public, and we are motivated by a mission, not a profit. We value you as our neighbor – not as a number.”

I’ve been in this field for 14 years. I’ve seen plenty of instances when media outlets launch lofty-sounding initiatives without investing extra funding and staff. They rarely lasted long. Remember the Sun-Times cities network? For that matter, remember the Wrapports version of Chicago.com?

I’m not saying chicago.com is doomed to be one of those. If nothing else, I would like to see what this will look like in practice first. But, so far, I see plenty of reasons to be leery.

NEWSWELL Chicago announces new grant-funded positions

NEWSWELL announced on Friday that their Chicago area newspapers will bet three new full-time reporters and “additional editing support” as part of the three-year, $2 million MacArthur Foundation grant. A subsequent report that appeared in all four NEWSWELL Chicago newspapers clarified that “editing support” means hiring one new editor.

To be clear, not all of that grant funding is going to NEWSWELL Chicago. Some of that will go toward expanding Spanish-language Whatsapp-based news channels for their San Diego area papers. The announcement doesn’t elaborat eon how funding will be split.

NEWSWELL Chicago General Manager Max Reinsdorf confirmed to Chicago Media Journal that one of the new positions is the full-time Austin Weekly News reporter position he talked about at the June 10 town hall. But he was vague about the other two.

“We'll hire reporters where there is the most need, and where our community and readers will get the most value,” Reinsdorf said, adding that they will hire the Austin Weekly reporter first, then work out the other two.

As someone who has been involved with Wednesday Journal Inc./Growing Community Media/NEWSWELL Chicago for quite a while, I, of course, have opinions about where the other two positions should be.

• A dedicated River Forest reporter for the Wednesday Journal. This is something that has been discussed many times over the years, and, much like the lack of a dedicated Austin Weekly staff reporter, is a long-time Known Issue. Wednesday Journal is supposed to cover both Oak Park and River Forest, but while it had a dedicated Oak Park reporter, it haven’t had a dedicated River Forest staff reporter (who also wasn’t doing something else for the company) for at least two decades at this point. Long-time stringer Robert Lifka has been providing pretty regular and consistent River Forest government coverage, but everything else has been covered less consistently. The fact that there is a dedicated Oak Park reporter only emphasizes the disparity. Pragmatically, having more consistent River Forest coverage could also encourage more River Foresters to subscribe and/or donate.

• A dedicated suburban education reporter. From what I understand (and I may be misremembering it), this position was funded through a multi-year donation. When the last staff education reporter, Amaris E. Rodriguez, resigned in September 2024, the position wasn’t filled. There are stringers who do education coverage for the suburban school districts, but some school districts (most notably Proviso Township High School District 209) to say nothing of local community colleges, no longer get consistent coverage. An education reporter would fill some of the gaps, and could potentially pave the way for more consistent West Side education coverage.

I have other ideas, but if I was in Reinsdorf’s shoes, these are the two I would prioritize.

Whatever he decides, more reporters means the papers will be able to cover more ground and cover more stories that currently slip through the cracks. And hiring another editor will definitely help, especially with more journalists writing more copy.

One obvious issue is that the positions are grant-funded. The last time Austin Weekly had a full-time reporter, it was funded by a one-year Field Foundation grant, and the position ended when Growing Community Media couldn’t find another source of funding to replace it. The three-year duration of the grant gives NEWSWELL Chicago a longer runway, more time to increase revenues through some combination of subscriptions, advertising and donations. But the history of now-NEWSWELL Chicago papers alone gives a warning about what happens when the runway runs out.

Reflecting on the Block Club Chicago/BUILD Chicago workforce development event

Almost a month ago, I wrote about the workforce development event Block Club Chicago and Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development (BUILD) Chicago were organizing in the Austin community, and how that fits into the broader strategy of putting on events that fit the issues Block Club readers cared about. I was invited to check out the event, which took place on June 27, and I decided to do my best to make it.

I ended up missing the first two hours, but based on what I saw, Austin Weekly News and Block Club Chicago’s coverage was pretty spot on. It was a well-organized event that lived up to what Christine Schmidt, Block Club’s Partnerships Associate, described to me, and what Block Club described in its own marketing materials.

I was impressed by the panel about the realities and challenges of finding work and workforce development in the community. Block Club West Side beat reporter Michael Liptrot was a good moderator, and I found it interesting how various panelists realized that the issues they are facing are the same, and were able to sort of compare-contrast their own approaches and discuss potential collaborations.

Because I arrived two hours late, I wasn’t sure if the attendance really was lower than expected, or if most people showed up early. Schmidt confirmed in the follow-up email interview that it wasn’t just me.

As someone who covered a lot of West Side events, and took part in organizing some events myself, I’m inclined to cut Block Club a lot of slack. I think they did everything right in terms of outreach, with social media outreach, promotion on its website and its newsletters, print ads and flyers at strategic locations. The information about the event got circulated in several major West Side Facebook groups. I have seen other organizations do all of that and still get underwhelming attendance. Sometimes, for whatever reason, things just don’t pan out.

In the July 2 Block Club general newsletter, Maple Walker Lloyd, the news outlet’s Vice President of Partnerships who, among other things, spearheads its events strategy, wrote that “attendance was more modest than we anticipated, but the impact of the day far exceeded any attendance number.”

A volunteer overheard two attendees talking about how grateful they were that there were no long lines. They had attended other workforce events where crowds made it difficult to have meaningful conversations with community partners.

Another volunteer helping with the pop-up closet shared that an attendee was in need of soap and shampoo, something that so many of us take for granted. It was a reminder that workforce development isn't just about finding a job; it's about meeting people where they are and responding to the realities they face.

During the panel discussion, a young man asked where he could find information about a program that had just been mentioned. The panelists immediately directed him to an organization that was onsite.

Success isn't measured only by how many people walk through the doors. It's measured by where people feel seen, whether they leave with resources they need, whether they make a connection that could change their trajectory and whether our community knows that someone showed up for them.

Which I am inclined to agree with. One shouldn’t overlook that there were plenty of people who did apply for jobs and did get access to resources. And, as I wrote in the original piece, Block Club benefits from having its name out there, and having its name associated with something that helped the community.

I would be interested to see what the fall health disparities event will be like, and what sort of events Block Club does next year.

In the meantime, Block Club’s annual block party is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 3 at Half Acre Beer Co., 2050 W. Balmoral Ave., between noon and 9 p.m. tickets are free with RSVP.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• Medill’s Local News Initiative takes a deeper dive into the chain of events that led to Tribune buying the Daily Herald. I would recommend you read the whole thing, but there are a whole bunch of revelations that cast everything in the new light. Notably, it was Paddock Publications, not Shaw Media, that started the chain of events, and the company’s printing and delivery contract with the Tribune was a major previously unreported factor in the decision-making.

• Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt announced on social media that he’s have a regular gig on Fox 32 Chicago during the Monday 9 p.m. newscasts, “talking about our reporting at the Tribune and local affairs.” This, to be clear, is in addition to his regular job at the Tribune.

• Speaking of Fox 32, long-time news anchor, Dawn Hasbrouck, has left the station after nearly 17 years. According to Axios Chicago, she hasn’t announced what she plans to do next. The explainer sit also notes that “Hasbrouck is the latest personality to depart Fox 32 this year, joining sports anchor Lou Canellis, political reporter Paris Schutz, and longtime anchor Sylvia Perez.”

• Chicago Reader and Gertie, a self-described “a platform for contemporary art and performance in Chicago” (like a lot of startups, they use a lot of words to sort of talk around what it is that they actually do, but they seemed to be some type of membership based arts experience thing) are teaming up to launch a a newsletter where subscribers “learn about the exhibitions, artists and shows we at Gertie are most excited about in Chicago and beyond.” The letter is only accessible to Gertie members and existing Reader subscribers.

• Block Club Chicago Director of Photography Colin Boyle had his photo of Skate Englewood founder Nakiya’h Longstreet featured in a United Airlines’ ad campaign. By the sound of things, it was with Boyle’s/Block Club’s permission, something that 72andSunny advertising agency worked with them on.

• Russ Stewart, the former political columnist for Chicago Far Northwest Side’s Nadig Newspapers, passed away on June 23. He was 76.

What I’m reading

• In an op-ed republished by NiemanLab, Andy Cheatwood is VP of product at Southern California Public Radio, wrote about how LAist 89.3 (a public radio station that acquired Gothamist network site LAist), instituted a paywall for certain content, and how they persuaded the readers to pay for access.

Journalism Opportunities

• National Association of Black Journalists Chicago chapter is offering high school and college students an opportunity to do red carpet interviews at the the July 23 WNBA All-Star Weekend. Interested students must submit a 250-word essay explaining why they are ideal candidates for this opportunity, as well as information about their school/college and links to their published work. The deadline is end of day this Friday, July 17. Send all application materials to chapter president Brandon Pope.

• Association of Asian American Journalists Chicago and Block Club Chicago are teaming up to offer to offer college students and recent graduates an opportunity to get a part-time internship at Block Club. The internship will last for 10-12 weeks throughout this fall, with the interns working at least three days a week, earning $22 an hour. All candidates must submit a resume, a cover letter, contact information for two references, and two to four clips or other work samples. Must apply by end of day next Friday, July 24. To find out more, and to apply, click here.

Journalism events

• On Thursday, July 16, Lumpen Radio will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the News From the Service Entrance show. The celebration, which will take place at Co-Prosperity Sphere’s Studio A, 3219 S. Morgan St., will feature the live broadcast of the anniversary episode at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., followed by a reception at 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event is free, but registration is required ahead of time.

• AAJA Chicago and the Chicago Journalists Association will hold a joint networking event next Wednesday, July 22 at 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at The Northman Beer & Cider Garden, 233 E. Riverwalk. The event is free, but RSVPs are encouraged.

Share

Leave a comment

The last couple of days sure have thrown curveballs. By July 1, I knew this week’s missive was going to be busy - five, possibly six items worthy of multiple paragraphs - so I would have to make some hard calls about what would be included in this one, and what can wait for another missive. Which was going to be tricky enough. But then, I got sick over the weekend. I am feeling better as I’m putting together this post, but I still haven’t fully recovered.

This is one of those situations where being a one-person shop kind of sucks. I have no one to delegate this to, no one who can finish a post for me. But I also don’t want to delay the post too much further, because then I’d have even more to catch up on. So I did my best to put together the pieces I had, and I’m putting this out with hope that I don’t sound too loopy.

Hopefully, I will feel better by next week. Like I said, there’s a lot of stuff that didn’t make it in that I want to put out. Expect something about Streetsblog Chicago’s not entirely successful fundraiser, how the June 27 Block Club Chicago/BUILD Chicago workforce development event went, a write-up of the results of a journalism contest that I had to delay reporting on because of some fact-checking (you’ll understand what I mean once you read it) and… well, I’m sure something else big and important is going to come up.

In the meantime…

The Plotter online theater criticism magazine launches

Last Monday (June 29) the first issue of the Plotter, the Chicago-based online theater criticism magazine, officially launched.

It is the brainchild of two Chicagoans with plenty of connections in the city’s theater scene - playwright Connor Ermir Bradshaw (who does marketing for a living) and Alan Todd Crawford, “writer, editor, designer, photographer, director, and choreographer” who is alsothe co-owner of the Understudy, the Andersonville-based bookstore and cafe that focuses on plays and play-based works.

Now, the term “online magazine” can encompass anything from an online media outlet that does magazine-style journalism, to something that looks like a physical magazine that just happened to be not printed, to something like what The Plotter did - several articles grouped into an “issue.” There is a cover, but no attempt to emulate the look of a physical magazine. Rather, it emulates the magazine structure, in the sense that it is supposed to be read as a package rather than individual pieces, something that’s meant to capture a moment in time rather than be updated on an ongoing basis.

The co-founders described their mission thusly (emphasis theirs):

This magazine is the brainchild of countless conversations with artists, viewers, and believers of/in the Chicago Theatre Community.

Born from a desire to do better for artists who want to do better, The Plotter seeks to frame criticism not as a negative nor as a make-or-break factor for ticket sales.

Criticism should be the long-term memory of an arts community. It is how we can remember what came from before and engage deeply with what’s in the present. Every review, every production, every installation is a point on a plot. Over time, as credits roll and sets go up and come down, we see more points populate the chart. We see the trend they form.

That is why we launched this magazine: to plot our past so we can chart our future.

I didn’t have time to delve into it as deeply into the articles as I like, but from what I saw, the Plotter’s mix of essays, criticism and interviews looks promising. And I definitely think there is room for something like this. The daily and weekly papers don’t do nearly much theater criticism as they used to, especially these kinds of essays and deep dives.

The magazine makes it clear (if you scroll down a bit) that they’re not paying their writers with money. Rather, they use what they call “barter system,” which is described as “services, favors, access, or introductions roughly commensurate with the rates an indie mag would otherwise offer.” Which, if you keep reading, means they will offer the writer something, the writer will decides if that’s a worthy compensation, and, if not, they try again until they hopefully find something that works for both parties, if they can. (There is language about them making “good-faith attempts to match the exchange to something you actually want.)

There is also a bit about how “all donated funds are allocated to the contributor base,” and those funds will be shared with the public. But this does raise the questions on how the funds will be split - in equal portions, in portions based on the value of their articles in terms of time spent and research required, or some arbitrary measure the editors make up.

If that seems harsh - I’m a freelancer, readers and subscribers. Trying to figure out how a contract can screw me over is a big part of a freelancer’s job.

In fairness, they are hardly the only publication in Chicago area that doesn’t pay writers actual money. The Pub print-only quarterly newspaper immediately comes to mind, as does Streetwise. So long as they are up front about what the contributors are getting into, people can make their own choices. But it does mean that, until the money starts coming in, The Plotter will succeed or fail based on the contributors’ willingness to give their time and effort.

Will this be enough? I suppose, for now, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Aspiring newspaper baron forces clumsy puff piece on his newspapers

I’ve written a few times about David Hoffmann, the current majority owner of Lee Enterprises newspaper company, who separately owns Hoffmann Media newspaper group, along with a whole bunch of other companies. In the greater Chicagoland, Lee owns The Times of Northwest Indiana and Kenosha News, and it owns a bunch of newspapers elsewhere in Illinois and Wisconsin (and quite a bit beyond).

Now, back in the early 20th Century, newspaper magnates shamelessly using their properties to advance their agendas was common. But today, in a very different industry, Lee executives ordering the papers to run a flattering profile of Hoffmann on the front pages of July 4-5 issues, out of all weekends, is pretty unusual and, to put it mildly, pretty dang heavy-handed.

Running a profile of a majority owner would raise eyebrows even if it did it best to be objective, disclosed all of the conflicts of interest and fact-checked everything. But this, readers and subscribers, is not really trying to be objective. Here is a sample (emphasis mine):

It’s funny, the events that change a life.

When he was just 9 years old, Hoffmann pitched a no-hitter for his Little League team. The life-changing moment, though, came afterward.

The local newspaper, the Missourian, wrote a story about the no-hitter and ran it with Hoffmann’s picture. 

The Missourian newspaper in Washington, Missouri, ran a story about David Hoffmann’s no-hitter when Hoffmann was 9 years old. The experience stuck with him, and now Hoffmann is chairman of the board of Lee Enterprises.

“That made a huge impact on me,” Hoffmann says. “It piqued my interest in the newspaper, and I started reading it.” 

He never stopped. 

But what really struck me was that the article repeated an error that appeared in a similarly flattering Forbes magazine profile. As you may recall, that article talked about how the shutdown of the Pioneer Press newspapers (specifically its Glenview newspaper) inspired Hoffmann to get into the newspaper business. We know, of course, that Pioneer Press is still around - but we also know that 22nd Century Media, which also had a Glenview newspaper, did shut down during the pandemic. Occam’s Razor suggests Hoffmann mixed up the newspaper chains, and everybody just took him at his word.

Since then, theree were plenty of opportunities to get it right and avoid repeating that mistake in the future, yet her it is again in the advertorial (emphasis still mine):

Five years ago, Hoffmann wanted to read about the athletic exploits of his grandchildren in the Chicago area. Unfortunately, that type of local sports coverage wasn’t as plentiful as he had expected, Hoffmann remembers. He found out that the Pioneer Press in Glenview, one of Chicago’s northern suburbs, had recently closed up shop.  

“It made me realize what that meant for many small communities across America,” he says. “The newspaper builds the fabric of a community, celebrates it. What’s going to take the place of that?”  

This is a ridiculously easy thing to fact check. The fact that nobody did, and this was allowed to go to print in multiple newspapers across multiple states… If I was working for any of the Lee newspapers, I would be mortified.

Poynter, which broke the story, quotes Mark Plemmons, an editor at the Independent Tribune in Concord, North Carolina, framed the editorial as a the way to give the markets the papers serve some confidence in their long-term future.

““The biggest thing I fight in my market is people thinking we are going out of business or have gone out,” he was quoted as saying. “This should give our readers more confidence.”

Hoffmann is hardly the first millionaire who seemed to genuinely believe in newspapers and feel that he knew the secret sauce for how to fix the industry’s woes. The only thing that’s different is the sheer scale of his ambitions and how many papers he managed to control. But the fact that Lee Enterprises carries debt from buying Berkshire Hathaway newspapers is a reminder of how easy things can go sour.

Nice words about long-term commitment don’t give confidence, especially when delivered in such heavy-handed way, with at least one factual error allowed to slip through. Actions - like, say, willingness to invest in the paper by investing in its employees - do.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• Three men are facing multiple criminal charges after attacking a CBS2 Chicago crew near Adler Planetarium on June 29. Jon Twist, 37, was charged with one felony count of a hate crime, one felony count of criminal damage to property, and one misdemeanor count of resisting an officer. William Huerta, 41, was charged with one felony count of fleeing and attempting to elude officers, two misdemeanor counts of aggravated assault of a state of Illinois employee, one misdemeanor count of reckless driving, and leaving the scene of a crime. Rafael Salinas, 29, was charged with one felony count of aggravated battery to a peace officer, one felony count of criminal damage between $10,000 and $100,000, as well misdemeanor charges of reckless conduct and resisting police. We still have no idea what motivated the attack in the first place.

• Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a the bill last week aimed at protecting the editorial independence of public radio and TV stations affiliated with the state’s colleges and universities. The law will take effect at the start of next year.

• The Capital B, which has a Gary, Indiana bureau, has launched a Black oral history archival project. The project contains “100 firsthand stories from Black Americans across regions, generations, and identities” the reporters across its bureaus and partners collected last year - and it is still open for further contributions.

• Harvey World Herald, a digital news outlet covering Harvey, Illinois, will hold a digital skill and journalism summer enrichment camp for Harvey youth aged 14 to 18. The outlet is responding to Harvey youth complaining about the lack of opportunities, and a feeling that they’re not being heard. The goal is to make the youth more civically engaged (and, while it goes unsaid, it’s not a bad way to develop local talent who could go on to before future stringers/staff reporters).

• Chicago Reader social media manager Katrina Pham received the Asian American Journalists Association-Medill Innovator Award for what she did at her previous job as the Audience Engagement Reporter at Borderless Magazine.

  • "I'm so honored to receive this recognition that represents the intersection of two institutions central to my journalism career: Medill and AAJA," she was quoted as saying. "More and more people are getting their news on digital platforms, and as storytellers and torchbearers of truth, journalists should feel responsible for meeting people where they are on social."

• One of the consequences of Chicago Reader once again being part of a chain is that it gave designers an opportunity to create a triptych out of the covers of June issues of the Reader, The Stranger (of Seattle) and Portland Mercury. I am curious if someone out there goes through the trouble of getting all three issues together (I know I would if money wasn’t an object and time wasn’t an issue).

• Last week saw Mount Prospect & Prospect Heights Journal, a weekly newspaper published by Journal & Topics Newspapers that normally come out on Wednesday, come out on a Tuesday, for reasons that are entirely bureaucratic. The Village of Mount Prospect Treasurer’s Report is legally required to be published in a newspaper by the end of June, and something went awry when it was published in the previous week’s issue, so they had to republish it ASAP before deadline.

Journalism opportunities

• The Association of Heath Care Journalists/Center for Excellence in Healthcare Journalism is seeking a full-time journalist-in-residence “to serve as both a working reporter and a trusted editorial coach for health journalists nationwide.” This being a residency, the position will last for a one year (until about July 2027). Candidate with at least 10 years of journalism experience and “significant experience covering health, health policy, public health or science” preferred. The position pays $80,000 a year, plus a fully AHCJ-paid health plan and other benefits. Oh, and it’s fully remote.

Journalism Events

• On Thursday, July 9, Oyez Review, Roosevelt University’s literary magazine, will have a release party for its latest issue at The Pub’s office/community space, 2015 W. Armitage Ave., at 7 ap.m.

• On Saturday, July 11, New Lines Magazines political editor Danny Postel will moderate a panel discussion called, straight to the point, “Why the World Ignores Genocide in Sudan.” Panelists include Samir Abdul, Darfur genocide survivor, stand-up comedian and Artist-in-Residence at Northwestern University, Loyola University associate professor of African history Kim Searcy, and Ragaa Abdallah, Sudan native and a Chair and Distinguished Professor of the Computer Technologies and Information Systems Department at Oakton Community College. The panel is part of Juxtapositions: Conversations on Art, Ideas and Global Cross-Currents, a series co-organized by the New Lines Magazine and Nighthawk bar, 4744 N. Kimball Ave., which hosts the event. The panel will take place at 3 p.m., and it’s free and open to the public

• Next Wednesday, July 15, Chrystalis, “a literary magazine by trans youth, for trans youth, created with a little help from trans adults” will have a launch party for its second-ever issue at Pilsen Community Books, 1531 W. 18th St,, at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Journalism Jobs

• Chicago Sun-Times is hiring a White Sox beat reporter. Pay is $61,953.84 to $72,153.12 per year, as well as “night differential pay of 10 percent of your base salary.” Apply here.

• Bloomberg News is hiring the Chicago Bureau Chief, to lead the news service’s Chicago bureau. Must have “significant experience leading journalists and newsroom teams” and “exceptional news judgment and editing skills.” Salary range is $150,000 to $205,000 a year, plus benefits. Apply here.

• The Woodstock Independent (yes, that one) is hiring a part-time graphic designer to do newspaper layout and ad design. It’ also looking for (paid) stringers to do some local coverage. To apply, email publisher Rebecca McDaniel.

• CAN-TV is hiring a production manager. Must have a Bachelor’s Degree and/or 3–5 years of experience in television, video production, or media operations. Salary is $65,000 a year, plus benefits. Apply here.

• The Times of Northwest Indiana is hiring a public safety reporter, mostly focusing on breaking news crime reporting and courts reporting. Pay is hourly, but they don’t specify the rate. Apply here.

• The Times of Northwest Indiana is also hiring a sports reporter to cover high school sports in the region’s Lake, Porter and La Porte countries. The pay is also hourly, and the application doesn’t elaborate on the rate, either. Apply here.

• Ad Age magazine is hiring a digital editor. Must have at least three years of editor experience. The salary range is $70,000 to $80,000 a year. Candidates who live in Chicago and New York City area preferred. Apply here.

Share

Leave a comment

Chicagoland has many newspapers that seem to exist on sheer inertia. Lots of reprinted press releases and wire copy, little in the way of original, local context.

The Woodstock Independent, a weekly newspaper covering Woodstock, Illinois up in McHenry County, is definitely not one of those.

Since 1987, it reliably covered the city best known as a shooting location for the Groundhog Day, as well as the nearby villages of Wonder Lake and Bull Valley. It was always locally owned, and it did the kind of thing all good community newspapers do, covering local happenings, people, businesses, events and issues on the ground, with passion and fairness, I’ve seen so many papers take a nosedive in quality as budgets shrank, but Woodstock Independent still offers value for the $1.60 newsstand price.

Alas, it’s not immune to the economic forces that affect our entire industry. In late October 2025, Woodstock Independent launched a GoFundMe campaign to try to raise $11,000. They remain tantalizingly short of that goal. The paper also launched a sponsorship program, which helped, but it hasn’t brought in quite as much revenue as they hoped for.

Back in May, I talked to publisher Rebecca McDaniel about the challenges Woodstock Independent faces, her deeply conflicted feelings about launching a fundraiser, her determination to keep the paper going and her struggle to try to expand its appeal. While it doesn’t offer any easy answers, or solutions, it does highlight just how much difference community support can make.

After all, if nobody in the community cared about Woodstock Independent, we’d probably be talking about it in past tense.

Woodstock media landscape

McHenry County is the most rural of the six counties that make up the traditional Chicago region. Taking a bus from Woodstock to Fox Lake, and watching miles and miles of cornfields pass by, really drives it home. Woodstock is the county’s second-largest city, and the county seat. Its downtown is as picturesque as it was when Groundhog Day location scouts found it, with a nice movie theater and some interesting local stores (I would personally recommend Read Between the Lynes bookstore, which happens to be one of the more reliable places to buy the latest issue of The Woodstock Independent).

Northwest Herald, a Shaw Media owned daily, tries to cover the entire county. There are some Woodstock-related stories here and there, but its emphasis is on Crystal Lake, the county’s largest city and home to its newsroom. Chronicle Media’s McHenry Chronicle does some local coverage, but it never had a local stringer, let alone a staff reporter, and I struggled to find physical copies of it (the consensus among the locals I talked to is that it doesn’t get much distribution outside the City of McHenry).

Like the best community newspapers, Woodstock Independent punches above its weight. It has a news section, regular schools coverage, a sports section, a business section, an Arts & Entertainment section that sometimes does local play reviews, an Opinion section with unsigned editorials and columns, and a community events calendar.

“There are a lot of people in town who still enjoy Woodstock Independent. Not as many as we would like,” McDaniel said. “It’s important to me, I think we have an ambition to report anything that’s going on in town, whether it’s good or it’s not good.”

A lot of the writing this day is done by editor Larry Lough and a dedicated group of stringers - and, to be fair, they do republish press releases sometimes.

McDaniel is only the second owner and publisher Woodstock Independent ever had. She worked for the paper since 2015 as an office administrator. According to the paper’s article about the ownership transition, in 2023, co-founder and publisher Cheryl Wormley grew concerned about succession. She didn’t want the paper to close or get bought up by a chain (which she saw as basically the same thing, but slower). As the year wound down, Wormley decided to pass the baton.

At a regular meeting with McDaniel and Lough [in November 2023], the 79-year-old Wormley found herself popping the question, as it were. Would either be interested in owning the paper? Lough demurred, citing his own age, but McDaniel gave an unequivocal “yes.”

Wormley is officially listed as “publisher emerita.” She contributes a monthly column, and, McDaniel said, is always available for advice.

Woodstock Independent also has one of the hardest paywalls I’ve ever seen in the Chicago area media. Every single article is behind a paywall, and it has been that way for as long as I can remember. At the same time, it has been putting out one issue a month online, as a free sample of sorts - what they call a “total market issue.”

McDaniel explained that they used to mail total market issues to “5,000 residences, businesses, and P.O. Boxes in Woodstock” on the third week of every month - but that it was costing thousands of dollars, which became financially unsuitable.

“We were giving newspaper away one a month for I don’t know, 15 years,” she explained. “With postage being expensive as it was, it got too expensive for us. My hope was that, when we had to stop that, there would be people who were getting the newspapers who’d subscribe. Some did subscribe.”

The GoFundMe campaign

McDaniel said that Woodstock Independent’s subscriber and advertising revenue has been declining for a while. At the same time, the cost of postage and printing has been going up. The numbers simply weren’t adding up.

Starting a GoFundMe campaign, McDaniel said, was not and is still not easy.

“It took me a long time,” McDaniel said. “I’m still not comfortable with it. [But] the fact of the matter is, we have bills to pay, we have people who deserve to be paid when they write for us, we have overhead.”

Later during the interview, she elaborated on why she was uncomfortable asking for help.

“I don’t like having to ask [our readers] to do more than subscribe,” McDaniel said. “That’s a difficult thing, because we owe them a solid newspaper, and they paid for it, and I’m going to continue to do that.”

Another part of it is that she sees Woodstock Independent as a business - one that is deeply invested in the community and tries to do right by its customers, but a business nonetheless, “no different than a store that everybody loves and goes to.”

“I want us to stand on our own and get people what they want, and I want to pay for it [on our own],” McDaniel said. “It was tough. It was a tough decision to make.”

As of July 1, the campaign has been at the same spot it’s been since April, raising $10,795. It needs $205 to reach the $11,000 goal.

“We have pretty loyal subscribers who have gone pretty far to support us,” McDaniel reflected. “I appreciate it, and it’s for that reason that I want to keep this newspaper alive.”

Another way to meet the $50,000 goal was a partnership program. For a one annual payment, the participating individuals, businesses and organizations get perks. Suffice to say, the higher the partnership level, the better the perks get.

McDaniel said that she likes the partnership program because this was small, independently owned businesses helping each other out.

“That is something that means more to me, because it is a partnership, because it is a partnership with other businesses,” she said.

The latest Total Market Issue listed five Headliner-level supporters, four Newsmaker-level supporters, 11 Super Sleuth-level supporters, and 24 Reporter-level supporters. That translates into $19,500 - which isn’t nothing, but still $19,500 short of the $39,000, non-GoFundMe portion of the $50,000 goal.

“No, the answer is, we haven’t reached the goal,” McDaniel said. “But people are still supporting us, we’ got a lot of encouragement, and I’m doing everything I can to keep it afloat and I will do it as long as we can.”

And she emphasized that the money Woodstock Independent did get helped.

“Without the GoFundMe and without the partnership program, we would not be here,” McDaniel said. “So, both of those have helped us immensely.”

“It’s a struggle. I can’t emphasize it enough.”

It used to be that, whenever I visited a different town, I would try to get a local newspaper. It used to be a good way to get a sense of what the place is like, what is there to do, what people care about and, sometimes, what makes it interesting and/or unique. But as our industry continued to struggle and many locally owned newspapers were absorbed by chains, the papers were hollowed out.

Michigan City News-Dispatch, of Michigan City, Indiana, passed that test until… I’d say around the time it folded into its sister paper, La Porte Herald Argus, to become La Porte County Herald-Dispatch. Kenosha News used to pass that test until Lee Enterprises bought it, and now, you only get flickers of past greatness. At some point, I just stopped buying them, because I realized that they weren’t worth the growing cover prices.

There are still papers that meet that test. Here in Chicago, The Beverly Review and Hyde Park Herald pass that test. NEWSWELL Chicago papers do their best to pass that test. Some Journal & Topics newspapers pass that test better than others. And Woodstock Independent, for all its challenges, passes that test.

The fact that it came pretty close to meeting its GoFundMe goal and that it got multiple people willing to pony up some money for partnerships shows that people appreciate it, and care. It’s just not quite enough.

And that isn’t just about one media outlet operating. As I’ve written many times before, if Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune and Block Club Chicago vanished tomorrow, there would be plenty of journalists who would put together something to replace them, just because Chicago is a big city and there is a lot of talent and sources of financial support. The same isn’t true for a town that many folks reading Chicago Media Journal may not have even heard of until today.

In western Illinois, when Register-Mail, of Galesburg, Illinois, eliminated local staff in 2022, nonprofit, online-only Galesburg Community News was founded to fill the void. But there was no one to step into the void when Michigan City News-Dispatch declined (And before anyone who might be familiar with The Region media market asks, The Beacher, a local weekly, has many things going for it, but no one reads it for hard news).

Woodstock, Illinois has a population of around 25,630 people. If every single resident donated $5 a year, there would be enough to meet the goal, and then some. That never going to be a realistic ask, and not just because those numbers include children. Still, there is room to grow. Not as much as in Chicago, but there is room.

I asked McDaniel about subscriptions - a source of revenue that can be sustainable, and, as she points out, helps attract advertisers. Woodstock Independent offers monthly and annual print and/or online options, with the print options including a special rate for “snowbirds.”

“I think… I think we have good reputation, because we talk to a lot of people, but it doesn’t mean they’re going to go out and buy the paper,” McDaniel lamented. “It is a struggle. I can’t emphasize it enough.”

She said that she is open to trying things to bring in more subscribers - she just isn’t sure what that would be.

“It is one of the hardest things - what is that we can put it in the paper to bring in more interest?” McDaniel said. “And there are other people out there, maybe they haven’t read it, so they don’t know they need it, and I don’t know how to get them interested in it. If we could get more subscribers, it would help everything.”

But, as she said many times during the interview, she isn’t about to give up. And McDaniel said, without any prompting, that going online-only isn’t the answer.

“Obviously, there’s a concern that print media is not going to be around much longer,” she said. “I don't necessarily believe that. I know that people who subscribe to this newspaper want to see a print edition every week.”

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Share

Leave a comment

“

I found that there is seldom a dull moment in Chicago media. I started Chicago Media Journal in early December, usually a slow news month, and January tends to be all but dead - but, even during the slow weeks, I never struggled to find something to write about. And the past week, readers and subscribers, has not been a slow week.

A small bit of housekeeping I forgot to mentioned last time. While I had a notion of having a dedicated journalism jobs page, I realized that, as I try to grow Chicago Media Journal, something had to give. So, for now, that tab links to Chicago Headline Club JobFile. I don’t think anyone would mind, since it basically accomplishes the same purpose and, because I’m one of the contributors, the jobs I post here end up over there anyway.

Paddock Publications, Tribune Publishing finalize Daily Herald sale

Sometimes, getting a story is about being at the right place at the right time.

As I hinted at the start of the last post, last Sunday, I happened to overhear, from the person who was in the position to know, that the sale was definitely going through.

Up until then, I thought there was a good chance that employee-owners would balk at having the paper sold to Alden Global, those reputation notably torpedoed the Dallas Morning News purchase. But both the Daily Herald and Crain’s Chicago Business reports indicate that the deal was approved “by a substantial margin.” Crain’s reporting points to a potential reason why - Paddock Publications CEO Doug Ray’s memo to employees reportedly “said a portion of the sale proceeds will be distributed to employee-owner accounts and transferred into the company’s 401(k) plan, with funds expected to be available in July.”

Which begs the question of how big of a portion it is, and where else the money might go.

One interesting nugget from the Daily Herald article was that the paper is profitable. Paddock apparently only considered Shaw’s offer because “the company was required to consider the offer because of [Employee Stock Ownership Plan] fiduciary obligations.” Then, as we already knew, Tribune/Alden made a bigger offer, and they were required to consider it, too.

Bear in mind that the sale is happening after Paddock closed 13 out of its 19 downstate newspapers and one of its printing plants. That begs the question of how much money Southern Illinois LOCAL Media Group, the division controlling the company’s downstate newspapers, was losing, or if the sale was a symptom of larger, company-wide issues.

With the Daily Herald purchase, Chicagoland six-county region is a hair’s breadth away from a daily newspaper duoploy. Aside from Chicago Sun-Times, every single daily newspaper is now controlled by either Tribune/Alden or Shaw Media. There are still plenty of suburban weeklies, whether they are small chains or individual independent newspapers.

According to the Chicago Tribune report on the sale, Par Ridder, publisher of Chicago Tribune Media Group, said that the company already “hired every employee” at the Daily Herald.

“These guys have done an amazing job of producing a paper that covers communities at the northwest part of our market extremely well, and they have been successful for a long period of time,” Ridder said. “I would expect that as a part of our group they’ll continue to have a lot of success.”

The Daily Herald piece quotes Ray as saying that “the combination of the Tribune’s commitment to hire all Daily Herald employees and the smooth transition bodes well for the future.”

Nowhere in any of the coverage is there a mention of any kind of commitment to investing in the Daily Herald newsroom and giving it more resources - just that it preserves the pre-sale status quo. And even then, it is only guaranteed until the end of this year.

With the sale complete, the fate of Aurora Beacon-News and Elgin Courier-News, the dallies that competed with Daily Herald, looks more precarious than ever. And we have no idea what the sale will mean for the content sharing agreements Daily Herald has with the Sun-Times and Shaw Media. According to Local News Initiative, Shaw President and CEO John Rung isn’t optimistic.

“Probably the biggest loss for the market is the Daily Herald and Shaw working together to make sure things were covered in the suburbs,” Rung said. “It’s unlikely that we’ll have the same arrangement with Alden, … [and] the truth is that that is disappointing.”

And I do have to wonder about what’s next for Shaw Media. While the Chicago area dailies market is locked in, at least at the moment, there are plenty of weekly newspapers it might want to acquire. I also think there’s a small possibility that they might try to expand to central and southern Illinois.

Interestingly, the Local News Initiative article states that “Rung told Medill it would’ve kept all of Paddock’s Downstate publications operating” - even though, as far as we know, Shaw only tried to buy the Daily Herald.

As for Paddock… at this point, I wouldn’t be too surprised if it tries to unload its remaining papers and focus on the Town Square custom publishing division. But we’ll see.

Field Foundation to hold semiquincentennial journalism event

This is something the Field Foundation, which has become a major player in the Chicago area journalism funding scene, has been teasing since March - a journalism event to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was scheduled for July 16 (so three Thursdays from now) at 7 p.m. at Impact House, a business incubator on the third floor of the Loop highrise at 200 W Madison St., where the foundation has a regular presence.

For a while, we didn’t hear much beyond this description.

In 1776, American colonists declared independence and set forth a bold vision. In 1787, our founders signed the Constitution. In 1791, the Bill of Rights enshrined essential freedoms — including freedom of the press. Over time, a free and independent press became recognized as the Fourth Estate: a vital check on power and a cornerstone of informed civic life.

Today, that cornerstone faces real pressure. Across the political spectrum, many Americans share concern about the state of public discourse, trust in institutions, and the health of local and national journalism. Journalists across the country have faced mounting challenges — and the U.S. now ranks 57th among 180 nations on the World Press Freedom Index.

So where do we go from here?

"America @ 250: A Journalism Reckoning" invites Chicago's entire journalism ecosystem for an evening of honest conversation — reflecting on journalism's past, engaging journalism's present, and reimagining its future.

Making of a Nation. Unmaking of a Narrative. Who Gets to Tell the Story?

As the event approached, Field Foundation opened the registration and began revealing speakers. They include Chicago Public Media EIC Kimbriell Kelly, ProPublica Chicago area reporter Melissa Sanchez, Block Club Chicago Director of Photography Colin Boyle, Chicago Tribune City Hall reporter Alice Yin, Medill associate professor Jon Marshall, presenter and National Association of Black Journalists Chicago chapter president Brandon Pope, ABC7 producer and National Association of Hispanic Journalists Chicago chapter president Jose Baltierra, WBEZ Projects Editor Alden Loury, Axios Chicago reporter Monica Eng, WGN-TV Daytime Chicago co-host Tonya Francisco, attorney Merrick Wayne (a familiar figure to Chicago journalists when it comes to Freedom of Information Act issues and such) and Seth Stern, Director of Advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

Overall, every speaker brings something to the table. It will be interesting to see how they fit into the event itself, and what format exactly the event will take.

Whatever it is, I hope there will be opportunities for attendees to talk to the panelists and each other.

The event is free, but you must register ahead of time.

Journal & Topics Newspapers old post office headquarters demolished

Last week saw the demolition of one of the more distinct newspaper buildings in the Chicagoland area.

Located at 622 Graceland Ave., it was originally built in 1940-1941 as a new Des Plaines post office. After USPS moved out in 1974, the building was purchased by Norfin International, a Seattle-based manufacturer of paper collating equipment. Their plans to use it as an office never panned out. The Wessell family, which owned the Journal & Topics Newspapers, a chain of northwest suburban weeklies, since 1947, purchased the building in 1987.

The Wessells built a printing press for the papers on the property, a little west of the building. The press closed down in October 2021 to cut down costs (for those who might be curious, the papers have since been printed by TopWeb since then).

I don’t think that, even at its best years, Journal & Topics ever had enough staff to quite justify the building of that size. But I stopped by there a few times when I was stringing from them between 2017 to 2022, and the lobby was impressive. The big “Journal & Topics” sign above the door made it impossible to miss. It projected gravitas and influence.

By the accounts of people who actually worked there, the day-to-day reality was less glamourous - leaks, mold and even pieces of ceiling falling down.

The Wessells sold the property to Mylo Residential Graceland Property LLC, which planned to redevelop the site to house a multi-unit residential building, in 2023. The newspaper group moved to a leased space on the first floor of the nearby office building two blocks away, at 770 Lee St.

The original redevelopment plan didn’t work out, and another, Utah-based developer purchased the property. It’s not clear what they plan to do with it, but keeping the post office was never in the cards.

At this point, I think a lot of long-time employees are kind of relieved that the developer finally pulled the trigger. But it is an intersecting sign of the times. A big symbol of the newspaper’s presence, torn down, and a smaller, much less visible office remaining.

You can see more photos of the demolition on the Chicago Media Journal Instagram, the Journal & Topics’s website and its Instagram.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• New York Times announced the 2026-2027 Local Investigations Fellowship cohort, It includes investigative reporter Farrah Anderson, who most recently wrote for the Invisible Institute. She will be working under the auspices of the Investigative Project on Race and Equity. Her fellowship is funded by the Field Foundation, a private and independent foundation that supports community power building in Chicago.

• Press Forward Chicago is asking Chicago area media outlets about their needs and what kind of services they would benefit from. The responses will help guide the development of shared services that multiple media outlets can benefit from. The survey responses are due end of day next Friday (July 10).

• Chicago Reader Union continues to send dispatches from the ongoing contract negotiations with new owner Noisy Creek. The latest update claims that “many policies and benefits are worse than the current contract.” The dispatch promises that the union “won’t accept unnecessary concessions,” which does leave some wiggle room.

• ProPublica Guild released a series of videos from members detailing why they are fighting for their contract (too many videos to link here individually, so I’ll just send you to their Instagram account)

• Cicero Independiente received the Catalyst Award for Local News Innovation at the The Glen Nelson Center Next Challenge for Media and Journalism National Awards. The $50,000 award recognizes a groundbreaking news organization that represents a new way forward for local journalism in the United States. In addition to the award, Cicero Independient will receive a stipend, free training, and opportunities for mentorship.

• NABJ Chicago announced that Chicago White Sox committed $5,000 to the association’s scholarship fund.

  • “Thank you to the [White Scox] team and front office for believing in Black storytellers and investing in the future of our industry,” the association wrote in a statement. “We’re excited to continue growing this relationship and look forward to what’s ahead. 👏🏾”

• Get Griefy, a Palatine, Illinois-based magazine about, as the name suggests, dealing with grief, is planning an issue focused on what grief looks like for kids. They’re currently looking for sponsors to make the issue happen.

• NEWSWELL Chicago hired De Sergio Villalona to help with the design for its print products (the four newspapers, community guides, standalone special sections/publications like West Side magazine), as well as do the bulk of ad design and some online and social media stuff. While Villalona doesn’t have much experience with periodicals design, his design experience is extensive, and the experience with brand design will definitely come in handy with ad design and social media stuff.

• Julie Simmons, an independent healthcare consultant, announced on LinkedIn that she will be freelancing for Reel Chicago, an online news site for Chicago media production professionals.

What I’m reading

• McLean Chronicle newspaper profiles Route 24 Radio, a central Illinois radio station trying to provide some local radio coverage for rural communities that don’t get much coverage period.

• NiemanLab writes about Porter Square Books, a bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts, launching its own book review website to fill in the gap left by fewer and fewer newspapers and magazines doing book reviews.

  • I should point out that it’s not entirely unprecedented. Backstory, an independent bookstore in London, launched an eponymous digest-size magazine about books and literature back in 2024. I read the second issue (it was on sale at the Old Orchard Mall Barnes & Noble, out of all places) and I liked it quite a bit, but, unfortunately, it only lasted three issues.

Journalism opportunities

• I Care If You Listen, an online news publication about contemporary classical and experimental music, is seeking contributors in several major cities, including Chicago. For some reason, there is a deadline (July 13 at 1:59 a.m. Central Time). The social media comments indicate that it is a paid opportunity, but they are not giving any figures. For more information, and link to the application form, click here.

• National Association of Hispanic Journalists is inviting high school journalists (as in journalists who are attending high school) to submit their reporting for its annual High School Publication contest. The reporting “must focus on Hispanic or underserved communities.” Winners will receive a $250 cash price, plus a free 1-year NAHJ student membership. Journalists must submit their work by next Monday (July 6)

• Build Coffee & Books, which shares the building with Hyde Park Herald/South Side Weekly another some other entities, is looking to refresh its zine offerings, The coffee shop has been selling zines pretty much since inception, but it has always limited it to zines that align with the mission of “supporting our community and building networks of nourishment, strength, and resilience for collective power.” (Which, if you ask me, gives them a lot of room for interpretation). If you have a zine that you think might be a good fit, fill out this form to be considered.

Journalism Events

• This Wednesday, July 1, Respair Production & Media is holding a release party for Quantum Entanglements, a new multimedia investigative feature about the community response to the proposal to build a quantum computing campus on the old Southworks steel mill site. The party will be held at The Quarry event venue, 2423 E. 75th St., at 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The event is free, but RSVP is required.

• Next Tuesday, July 7, Raging Opossum Press will have a launch party for the 9th issue of its eponymous magazine at The Whistler, 2421 N. Milwaukee Ave., at 6 p.m.

Journalism Jobs

• NEWSWELL Chicago officially put out a job posting for the staff reporter for its flagship newspaper, the Wednesday Journal (of Oak Park and River Forest). Essentially, it’s a community reporting position that mostly focuses on the Village of Oak Park, especially government reporting, crime, business profiles, event coverage and features. Salary is $51,000 a year, plus benefits. Apply here.

• Daily Southtown, a Tribune Publishing newspaper covering Chicago’s South and Southwest suburbs, is hiring a general assignment reporter. Pay rate is $19.23 an hour, plus benefits.

• Chicago Reader is looking for an art director. Notably, the position will report to Noisy Creek creative director rather than the Reader publisher or EIC. Must have at least three years of design experience, preferably with periodicals, Salary is $90,000 a year, plus benefits. Apply here.

Share

Leave a comment

By the time this post is up, we may know whether the sale of Daily Herald to the Chicago Tribune will go through. I did consider holding this post until then, especially since, as of this writing, signs point to “yes,” but I decided that, whatever happens, it will have to be a top story, and I don’t want to overshadow the stories here that I do believe deserve attention.

Depending on what we may or may not hear today, I may cover it in a standalone post anyway.

A bit of housekeeping. A Chicago area publication asked about the Chicago Media Journal policy on submission calls, and I realized that I never articulated something that was my guiding principle whenever I shared anything on socials and earlier blogs — that I only promote freelance opportunities that are paid, even if the payment is small.

I spent much of my journalism career as a freelancer. Early on, when I was trying to break in, I’ve contributed some stuff for free, and I had nothing to show for it. It was my first paid gig with the Chicago Journal that got the ball rolling - and I don’t think I would have any paid subscribers here if I didn’t have 14 years of professional, paid journalism experience to back it up.

That said, I want Chicago Media Journal to be a resources all journalists can use. If you think I should share unpaid submission opportunities, let me know.

National Labor Relations Board rules against One Triibe United

The National Labor Relations Board investigated the Chicago News Guild/One Triibe Union allegations that The TRiiBE fired reporter Corli Jay in retaliation for her trying to unionize her workplace - and found them unfounded. CNG withdrew the unfair labor practice charge on June 8.

This, it is worth pointing out, doesn’t mean the firing was unfair or wrongheaded or unfair - just that NLRB found no evidence that they were connected to Jay’s part in the unionization drive. Illinois is an at will state, and employees can be fired for a lot of reasons, or no real reason at all.

(In an earlier interview with Chicago Media Journal, Jay indicated that the union felt that termination of art director Ash Lane might have had something to do with the unionization. She subsequently said that the firing happened in January, before the unionization drive went public, and not February as previously reported).

NLRB ruling may directly impact the results of the March 25 unionization vote. Jay and the two remaining staff reporters - Tonia Hill and Jerome “Rome J” Johnson - voted. The TRiiBE sought to dismiss Jay’s vote, and the remaining two votes deadlocked, with one person voting in favor and one voting against. (Given that Hill signed a letter announcing the formation of One Triibe United and Johnson didn’t, I think we can make an educated guess as to how the vote broke down, but we don’t know that for sure).

Since a formation of the union requires at least two “yes” votes, Jay’s vote had the potential to swing the entire election. If she wasn’t fired in retaliation for her union organizing, then her vote being dismissed seems assured.

The TRiiBE didn’t comment on it beyond acknowledging what happened in a June 16 post that had comments off.

In a June 18 statement, One Triibe United treated the decision as a defeat for their unionization drive.

“Though the National Labor Relations Board did not find the charge worth pursing, we maintain that [Jay’s] termination was unjust and demonstrates a pattern of behavior by management that led to members organizing to form a union,” it stated. “We stand firm in our belief that management took action intentionally knowing the harm it would have on the unionization drive, leading to the eventual defeat of a union in the workplace.”

The union also posted a clip of Jay performing a spoken word piece that (no pun intended) speaks for itself.

We still don’t know for sure what issues drove The TRiiBE staff to unionize. We can, at most, make inferences. The staff said from the get-go that they wanted The TRiiBE to thrive, and I suppose part of it is doing what they can to not make the publication look worse.

More importantly, whatever those issues are, the question becomes whether the co-founders will address them and work to create a better work environment for current and future staffers. I hope something constructive comes of it, but based on my experience, first-hand and second-hand, it can really go either way.

Southeast Wisconsin newspaper union get support from public, elected officials amid contract negotiations

Meanwhile up in southeast Wisconsin, Kenosha-Racine News Guild Local 34159, a labor union representing reporters for Lee Enterprise-owned Kenosha News and Racine Journal News, continues to push for a contract that includes salary raises and protections against using Large Language Models to create editorial content.

The two sides have been negotiating since at least December 2025. The union has been pushing for the salary floor to be increased to at least $24 an hour, pointing to Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimates of the minimum livable wage based on the costs of living in Racine and Kenosha. The salary floor is currently $19.85 an hour, and the reporters currently make around $20.55 an hour.

In a May press release, the Guild reporters described struggling to afford groceries, taking on part-time jobs and avoiding turning on heat in the apartments unless absolutely necessary. Racine government reporter Holly Gilvary said she couldn’t move out of her parents’ house in another county simply because her salary doesn’t allow her to rent an apartment in Racine.

The union has been urging readers to sign a petition supporting their demands - something that Chicago News Guild boosted earlier this month (which is how it got on my radar).

Last week, the Guild presented a petition with “more than 260 signatures” and a letter of support from area legislators to the management.

Lee Enterprises is facing a decline in print and digital revenues, and it still got $455 million in unpaid debt it settled with when it acquired Berkshire Hathaway Media newspapers. At the same time, its current majority shareholder, millionaire David Hoffmann, has the money to invest in the paper - and he insists that he wants to revitalize local news.

I usually try to grab a copy of Kenosha News every time I’m in town, and I read some recent issues at the Simmons library when I visited two weeks ago. There is some good local content in there, but the papers are thinner than ever, and there’s more wire copy and/or articles from other Lee-owned Wisconsin papers than ever. Which I suppose is what happens when you have one government/crime/GA reporter, one business/GA reporter, one sports reporter and no dedicated education reporter covering the fourth most populous city in Wisconsin.

Based on the local content that was there, Kenosha News still had something worth supporting, But I don’t see how you can expect reporters to do anything but a bare minimum if they barely make enough money to live.

Passion for this industry and the stories you tell only get you so far.

Family, former Pioneer Press journalists mark the passing of Irv Leavitt

I didn’t know Irv Leavitt nearly as well as many of his friends and colleagues. He worked for Pioneer Press as a reporter and a columnist between October 1989 and October 2017. Like many ex-Pioneer folks, he ended up at Chronicle Media newspapers for a while, writing a column until the pandemic caused it to cut several stringers loose. He then launched the Substack.

For the last couple of years, Leavitt has been dealing with many health issues. He succumbed to cancer and MS on June 13.

Chicago Public Square may have been the first media outlet to report on Leavitt’s passing. Tributes poured in online. Over the next few days, his 2018 column about seeing his daughter off to college climbed to the top most viewed stories on the Chronicle Media website (it since went back down, but it was the top story as recently as last Friday).

Like I said, I didn’t know Leavitt that well. We interacted online, occasionally in a person. The obituary that ran in the Tribune made me realize how much I didn’t know about him. But I enjoyed Leavitt’s writing, and I was rooting for him to make it through his health issues. Besides, Irv meant to many of my friends and people I like and respect.

When I was invited to a Celebration of Life his daughter, Megan, organized at the Black Sheep bar, 2535 W. Peterson Ave., on Sunday evening, I was, of course, going to try to attend. Even if it meant finishing this missive up after 1 a.m.

A lot of former Pioneer Press journalists came. Some I knew, some I only knew by byline, some were before my time. There was lots of remising, lots of recollections, lots of catching up. Just the fact that so many people were willing to show up said a lot about what kind of person Irv Leavitt was, and the impact he had.

I might put up some more photos on Instagram later, but I think I will end this section with a group shot of Pioneer Press folks posing with Megan Leavitt.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• In a bit of a follow-up to last week’s Paddock Publications item, Jake Leonard, owner of the Heartland Newsfeed radio station and podcast network/online media outlet, which broke the story of the closure of the company’s 13 of of 19 newspapers, commented on my piece on LinkedIn. He wrote that he would be interested in at least acquiring the Free Press-Progress (the hometown newspaper of Nokomis, Illinois, where his media outlet is based), and, if possible, the other 12 papers, plus some other papers that were part of Paddock’s Southern Illinois LOCAL Media Group division that were closed earlier. Leonard was upfront about not having the funding, but it is something he is seriously considering. He wrote that, if the deal does go through, he would operate the newspapers as nonprofits while keeping his other media assets for-profit.

  • Money may not even necessarily need to change hands. When then-Wednesday Journal Inc. sold ex-Lerner newspapers to Inside Publications, the payment was the share of legal notices revenue the latter was earning. NEWSWELL deal was a donation, so was the transfer of Hyde Park Herald to South Side Weekly. It would depend on what Paddock is or isn’t willing to do.

• Speaking of South Side Weekly, the nonprofit hired organizational consultant Jianan Shi as an interim publisher for both papers. Shi’s professional background has been in education and education-related advocacy - he was a teacher, an executive director of Raise Your Hand advocacy group and Chicago Board of Education president in July 2023 to October 2024 - but nothing even remotely media-related.

  • His predecessor, Malik Jackson, didn’t have a resume that screamed “publisher” either, but at least he had journalism experience before he got the job. Shi has no professional experience in any facet of journalism whatsoever. Which, to be fair is not necessarily a deal-breaker. Publishers have traditionally dealt with the financial (and, in this case, fundraising) side rather than the news side, and Shi’s experience of running Raise Your Hand, a nonprofit, is arguably relevant. And, in a statement, he described his role as transitional, where he will “collaborate to create durable systems & structures [sic], set up the organization for long-term success, and find another great Executive Director.” He’s there to keep the ship steady, not steer it into new waters. But I still wonder about the logic here. Even for a transitional role, there’s going to be a lot of learning on the job, and Jackson at least had some context to fall back on.

  • I could be completely off-base and, if so, I’d be happily eat crow, but right now, I’m dubious.

• CAN-TV took multiple prizes in this years Hometown Media Awards (the industry awards for public access television channels). 11 awards in as many categories, including Best Documentary, is nothing to sneeze at.

  • “We couldn't be prouder of the talented storytellers, advocates, and community voices who continue to make CAN TV a home for authentic, locally-driven content,” the post announcing the wins stated. “To all our winners — and to every producer, volunteer, intern, and staff member who makes this work possible — thank you for keeping Chicago's stories on the air and nationally recognized. We're so proud of you!”

• O’Rourke Media Group-owned DuPage County newspapers left their Elmhurst office at the end of May. The previous owner, Rock Valley Publishing, sold the building to Island Construction last year, and the new owner plans to build 13 townhomes on the site, so this was only a matter of time. There seem to be no plan to reestablish the office elsewhere, at least in the near term.

• The Illinois Press Association Board of Directors voted last Tuesday (June 16) to add two new members to its ranks - Beth Lutgen, publisher of the Galena Gazette (and several Woodward Communications Iowa weeklies), and Sam Fisher, retired IPA President and CEO. The announcement noted that Lutgen’s appointment would ensure the board would have representation from the northwest side of the state.

• In what has been something of a trend among Shaw Media newspapers, closed two of its Kendall County newspapers, Piano Record and the Sandwich Record, on June 4. The Record (of Yorkville, Illinois) will reportedly took on the Plano and Sandwich coverage (and yes, for those who don’t know, Sandwich is a real city). Shaw Media indicated that it was done to “streamline print operations.”

• The Hinsdalean newspaper owners, Jim Slonoff and Pamela Lannom, will serve as Grand Marshals of Hinsdale's 2026 Fourth of July Parade. The paper will mark its 20th anniversary on Sept. 28.

• When most college kids get summer jobs, it’s some retail thing, or a lifeguard. For Ben Somerville, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign journalism student and a senior sports reporter for the university newspaper, Daily Illini, a summer job is working part-time for Des Plaines-based Journal & Topics Newspapers, where he’s mostly helping with Des Plaines coverage and various miscellanea.

Around the web

• Former Lee Enterprises Executive Editor Tom Martin ponders whether newspapers editorials still have a place in the current media ecosystem.

• Charlie Meyerson uploaded his 1993 interview with Pulitzer winner Tracy Kidder about his then-new book, Old Friends, documenting his year spent visiting and observing the proceedings at a nursing home in western Massachusetts.

Journalism resources

• International Women’s Media Foundation is inviting women and non-binary journalists with three or more years of professional journalism experience to apply for this year’s round of The Kari Howard Fund for Narrative Journalism grants. The grants may be up to $5,000. For more information, and to apply, click here. Deadline is July 12, 10:59 p.m. Central Time.

Journalism events

As always, you can read the event listings in chronological order here. Know a journalism event coming up? Let me know.

• On Thursday, June 25, we somehow got two Wednesday Journal related events happening at different parts of Oak Park at the same time, so pick your… I don’t want to say “poison.” Thursday flavor?

  • Oak Park River Forest Museum, 129 Lake St., Oak Park, is hosting From Oak Park to Shrubtown, an “exclusive, behind-the-scenes chat” about the Wednesday Journal editorial cartoon series. Creator Marc Stopeck will be there to share the details and answer questions. The chat will take place at 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students, and free for museum members, and tickets will be sold at the door.

  • At the same time, Wednesday Journal and Oak Park’s 19th Century Club, 178 N. Forest Ave., will host the “Life After Broadview 6” panel, featuring one of the 6, Oak Park village trustee Brian Straw and attorney Chris Parente talking about what comes next, after the charges are dismissed. Charlie Meyerson will moderate the panel. The event is free and open to the public.

• On Friday, June 26, Medill Solutions Journalism Hub is hosting its annual Medill Solutions Journalism Summer Summit at (where else?) Medill’s Chicago campus, 303 E. Wacker Dr., 16th floor. The summit will be held at 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and lunch will be provided. To see the agenda, and to register, click here.

Share

Leave a comment

I have been working on what will most likely be standalone piece that should get posted in a week or two. It deals with something those of us who do community journalism understand all too well - an issue that has a lot of resonance in a very specific locale, but doesn’t matter nearly as much anywhere else.

One of the sources I talked to lamented that they tried to get another media outlet to cover this, but because it is so niche and local, they weren’t sure they would get any takers.

Which goes to one of the major parts of Chicago Media Journal mission. I want to cover media issues, even if it affects a very specific neighborhood, or a very specific suburb. Community journalism taught me how important local stories are to people who do care, and there is no other outlet that’s really doing it on a consistent basis. So, send me your tips and ideas, readers and subscribers. Whether it’s a conflict between a suburban library and a local blog, a tiny newspaper war, some dubious editorial policies - I’m all ears.

We community journalists know that, if something doesn’t get reported somewhere, then people won’t hear about outside the game of telephone that is social media feeds.

Speaking of community news…

Paddock Publications abruptly closes 13 downstate papers ahead of likely Daily Herald sale

Paddock Publications, the owner of Daily Herald and a bunch of newspapers in central and southern Illinois, closed at least 13 of its 19 downstate newspapers, even as the sale of the Daily Herald, which is expected to bring $24 million into the company’s coffers, is potentially weeks away.

Bear in mind that the employee-owners can still vote the deal down ahead of June 22 closing.

As you may recall from the initial announcement, Paddock indicated that, following the sale, it planned to focus “on its niche publishing division, Town Square Publications, and its weekly newspapers in downstate Illinois.” Reducing its footprint from 13 to six is an interesting way of going about it.

The Heartland Newsfeed, an online media outlet based in Nokomis, Illinois, broke the story. Between this and Medill Local News Initiative’s reporting, we know that, in Central Illinois, they are keeping Pana News-Palladium, Moultrie County News Progress (of Sullivan, Illinois) and The Shelbyville Eagle, which Paddock launched six years ago to fill the void left by a local daily, Shelbyville Daily Union, ending its print edition early in the COVID-19 pandemic (it closed altogether a year later.) Paddock closed Nokomis Free Press-Progress, Ramsey News Journal, Blue Mount Leader and Golden Prairie News (which covered Christian and Shelby counties).

In Southern Illinois, they are keeping the Franklin County Gazette, Carbondale Times and the Gazette-Democrat (of Anna, Illinois). Paddock closed Monday’s Pub (also of Anna), Harrisburg Daily Register (which was, the best I’ve been able to determine, published three days a week), The Marion Republican and the Gallatin Democrat (of Gallatin County), McLeansboro Gazette and Vienna Times.

All Paddock newspapers based in Macoupin County - Girard Gazette, Virden Recorder, and Northwestern News - were closed. According to Local News Initiative data (as of 2025) this leaves the county with six more newspapers, which is more than be said for Gallatin, Hamilton, Johnson, Pulaski and Saline counties.

LNI defines news desert counties as counties with “no locally based source of professional news and information meeting basic community news needs.” Which, it is worth reiterating, doesn’t just include newspapers, but every print, broadcast and digital media outlet.

The piece that the Paddock closures mean that “more than half of Illinois’ 102 counties would either be news deserts or have only one remaining news source.”

According to Heartland Newsfeed, Free Press-Progress, Ramsey News Journal, Blue Mount Leader and Golden Prairie News subscribers will get Pana News-Palladium subscriptions, and the paper would take over some of the coverage. Which seems like a dubious proposition unless it is accompanied by increasing staff/stringers and page count. Subscribers from other areas may get subscriptions to the nearest still-operating newspapers.

Newsfeed also flagged that Paddock is also closing its printing press in Virden, Illinois, which “[handled] printing operations for all of central and southern Illinois, as well as client publications” - which begs the question of what happens to the affected client publications. It does note that “all three [Central Illinois] newspapers will be printed by Journal Publications in Hillsboro for the foreseeable future” and “the remaining Southern Illinois newspapers will be printed in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.”

In a message to Free News-Progress subscribers, the staff mentioned that “like many small businesses, we have been affected by higher costs in recent years, including rising prices for gas, paper and other important raw materials. These are tough times for newspapers, and we did not come to this decision lightly.” One of the factors driving the industry decline that doesn’t get enough attention is that those costs have been rising, and the second Trump Administration’s policies exacerbated the problem. But that must be seen in the context of $24 million Paddock would get from the Daily Herald sale.

Reducing the newspaper footprint translates into reducing what Paddock can offer to advertisers. Closing a printing plan takes away a source of revenue.

All of this would make sense if Paddock management knew that the employee owners were going to reject the deal. It could also mean that the deal is on track to acceptance, but whatever financial hole the company faces is so deep that even $24 million can’t plug it, or they decided that whatever losses those particular papers are facing can’t be stemmed even with this investment.

LNI noted that Strengthening Community Media Act, which took effect in Illinois on Jan. 1, 2025, requires news organizations in the state to notify the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, local governments, company employees and potential buyers with 120 days’ notice ahead of a possible sale. But such notification isn’t required if the newspapers are shut down. At least with the notice, someone local who’d want to save a newspaper might have been able to pull together the financing.

Granted, this may not be the last word on it. When News Media Corporation abruptly shut down last August, most of the newspapers relaunched a few weeks after after purchased by local owners. In Illinois, Shaw Media bought most of them. It sold its Iowa newspapers last April to focus on Illinois properties.

Maybe Shaw, or Paxton Media Group, or CherryRoad Media or even Hoffmann Media Group/Lee Enterprises, will see an opportunity to expand.

Nancy Villafranca-Guzmán hired as Borderless Magazine’s new executive director

The six-month search for the successor to Borderless Magazine co-founder and executive director Nissa Rhee is over.

The online magazine announced last Wednesday that nonprofit executive Nancy Villafranca-Guzmán will assume the position effective today (June 15). She served as the Deputy Commissioner of Programming at Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) during Lori Lightfoot’s administration. Villafranca-Guzmán also had “several executive leadership roles at the National Museum of Mexican Art and Chicago History Museum.” She most recently served as Vice President of Impact at PODER, a Gage Park-based workforce development organization that puts a lot of emphasis on helping immigrants (whatever their legal status may be).

Villafranca-Guzmán is a founder Raices Chicago Story Coalition, a Latine storytelling collaborative, so she isn’t entirely a stranger to running an organization that involves stories.

“It is a great honor to join Borderless, especially at a time when Chicago’s immigrant communities have a greater need for reliable and truthful information, and the entire city deserves to hear from many voices and perspectives,” Villafranca-Guzmán was quoted as saying. “I look forward to building on Borderless’ impactful legacy and contributing to such daring storytelling that can inspire positive change in our city.”

“Nancy is a brilliant leader and is coming to us with the management and fundraising experience Borderless needs to expand our impact and drive sustainable community investment,” Rhee was quoted as saying. “But one of the reasons I am most excited about Nancy stepping into the role of executive director is that she lives and breathes Borderless’ mission.”

As Borderless press release notes, Villafranca-Guzmán will preside over the implementation of Borderless' ambitious strategic plan, which includes significantly expanding the number of reporters and the beats they cover, as well as expanding coverage area beyond Chicago. This is something that will require quite a bit of fundraising, and it remains to be seen whether the magazine will be able to pull it off, but let it never be said they aren’t ambitious - and they do make a compelling case that the need is there.

Borderless Board of Directors Chair Maty Ortega Cruz, who led the extensive national candidate search, stated that Villafranca-Guzmán “brings a rare combination of strategic leadership, community-centered values, and a bold vision for the future.”

“As a Chicagoan with deep roots working with immigrant communities, she understands both the challenges and opportunities facing our city,” she was quoted as saying. “Her leadership will help Borderless continue to grow while staying true to the mission and values that have made it a trusted voice in immigration journalism.”

Press Forward Chicago announces journalism sustainability grants

One of the few benefits of running late is that, sometimes, you are able to include Monday morning news in a post.

Press Forward Chicago released an RFP for collaboration and infrastructure grants. What it boils down to is that the grant must be used for something that will either increase revenue and/or increase audience size and/or reduce expenses and/or support professional development for journalists and other staff and/or support journalists/newsroom staff’s health and well-being.

Or some combination of the above. The money can be used for staff salaries, programs/project expenses and certain overhead costs (so long as they account for no more than 15 percent of the overall project budget)

The list of potential uses includes, but is not limited to:

• Collaborative revenue projects

• Collaborative cost-saving projects

• Audience growth/engagement projects

• Creator/influencer partnerships

• Print distribution collaboration

• Subsidized professional services and trainings for individual journalists and newsrooms in the Chicago region

• Mental health, legal, or safety support for journalists and newsrooms

The applications are open “local, independently owned or nonprofit news organizations in the city of Chicago and nearby suburbs.” For profit applicants must have a nonprofit fiscal sponsor.

Applications are due by July 31, and the grantees will be announced on Oct. 29. For more information about the RFP, click here.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• As Chicago Reader Union continues its first-ever negotiations with new owner Noisy Creek, an Instagram update indicates that “progress has been scarce,” but doesn’t elaborate beyond that. The fact that this is the first we heard about how those negotiations are going… isn’t encouraging.

• Bridgeport-based 105.5 FM WLPN-LP/Lumpen Radio found its transmission disrupted by last Wednesday’s storm. If social media updates are anything to go by, they still haven’t quite recovered as of this newsletter’s deadline.

• Axios Chicago reported that Rick Kogan’s Sunday evening show, "After Hours," will no longer be heard on WGN-AM. It’s replaced by two radio simulcasts of NewsNation television shows, "NewsNation's The Hill Sunday" and "Batya!" There is reportedly a podcast in the works.

• The Point magazine launched “Just Like Us,” a monthly Substack-exclusive celebrity and online culture column by Grazie Sophia Christie. She has written for The Point before, and she had a brush with Internet infamy two years ago.

• Harvey World Herald welcomed student journalist Daniel Mitchell as its summer and fall 2026 intern. He writes for The Panther newspaper at his college the Clark Atlanta University, and he’s a Vice President of Print at the university chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists.

• And speaking of interns, we know the first of the three paid NEWSWELL Chicago interns - Emma Bradford, a student at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. She “will be reporting across our four Chicago-area newsrooms.”

What I’m reading

• In a piece for Newcity, veteran journalist Mary Wisniewski looks back at City News Bureau, a news cooperative that lasted for over 100 years and where many Chicago reporters (including her) got their start.

Meanwhile, on Instagram

• Chicago Media Journal Instagram page has photos from Passing Pattern magazine’s Issue 4 release party, NEWSWELL Chicago’s June 10 Town Hall and Chicago News Guild’s Labor Notes conference afterparty.

Journalism Events

• On Thursday, June 18, South Side Weekly will hold a release party for its annual comic book issue. The party will be held at Build Coffee (which shares the 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. building with South Side Weekly, among others), at 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

• Dripp magazine, a South Side lifestyle magazine, will hold a publishing panel at this Saturday’s (June 20) Englewood Summer Book Fest, which will be held at the Wood Street Collective Urban Farm, 6234 S. Wolcott Ave, at 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The panel will be “diving deep into Building Audiences Through Writing, Journalism, Newsletters & Independent Media, with an incredible lineup of speakers who are out here doing the work.”

• Also on June 20, will hold a community conversation on what they want to see from their local newsletter, and what journalism mean to them. it will be held at 3 p.m. and Elmwood Public Library, 1 Conti Pkwy.

• Next Tuesday, June 23, Injustice Watch will hold the Toxic Evidence in the Courtroom, a webinar on best practices for holding forensic labs accountable. The webinar will run from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.. Register here to get the link.

Journalism Jobs

• O’Rourke Media is hiring a community editor/reporter for three of its five DuPage County newspapers - the Elmhurst Independent, Lombardian, and Villa Park Review. 75% of the job involves the reporting, the rest is editing press releases/stringer content. Send resume, cover letter and sample clips to CEO/Owner Jim O’Rourke.

• Free Press Indiana News, an online statewide newsroom launching later this summer, is hiring a Women & Girls Reporter to “cover the well-being of Hoosier women & girls.” Must have at least five years of journalism experience. Must live somewhere in Indiana, candidates outside Indianapolis area preferred. Salary is up to $80,000 a year, depending on experience, plus benefits. Apply by July 1.

• And, since I mentioned the new NEWSWELL Chicago executive editor job posting in the last post, I figured I might as well elaborate here. The editor will handle all the editorial duties. Must have 10+ years of journalism experience, including “meaningful newsroom leadership experience.” Salary range $90.000-$120,000 a year. Apply here.

Share

Leave a comment

NEWSWELL, which took ownership of Austin Weekly News, Forest Park Review, Riverside Brookfield-Landmark and Wednesday Journal (of Oak Park and River Forest) in February, is making some hires.

Austin Weekly News, which hasn’t really had a dedicated full-time reporter for the past 30+ years (more on that in a bit) is getting its own dedicated full-time reporter. Staff reporter Jessica Mordacq currently serves as a staff reporter for both Austin Weekly and the Review. There are some freelancers, including yours truly, contributing to both papers, but she writes a decent chunk of them.

NEWSWELL is also hiring a new Wednesday Journal staff reporter, and a more permanent executive editor. Wednesday Journal founder and former publisher Dan Haley has been serving as interim editor since January 2025.

NEWSWELL Chicago is also looking to open a physical office - something it hasn’t had since Aug. 11, 2025. For now, the plan is to use the current Oak Park River Forest Chamber of Commerce space on Mondays and Tuesdays (the production days for the company), but General Manager Max Reinsdorf is looking for a more permanent, full-time arrangement if the funding allows for it.

Those are the major announcements that came out of June 10 Town Hall event, which was held in Oak Park Public Library system’s main library. During the panel, Reinsdorf, Growing Community Media board member Steve Edwards and Oak Park nonprofit executive and GCM Development and Events advisory committee member Carolyn Newberry Schwartz, talked about how the NEWSWELL acquisition came about and what will be in store for the papers. They also took questions from an audience of mostly Oak Parkers. who had some concerns about what NEWSWELL is getting out of this acquisition, whether it will be able to sustain itself, and how tough questions about whether its the papers’ coverage truly reflects the diversity of the communities they serve ( Reinsdorf said it was “imperative,” but didn’t make any commitments).

Some staff members, including the two remaining staff reporters, Mordacq and Stella Brown, attended but didn’t really speak.

There is a lot to get through, but I didn’t want to bury the lede and put what I think are the most significant news at the top.

I’m obviously anything but a neutral party here. I’ve been writing for various Wednesday Journal Inc./Growing Community Media/NESWELL Chicago publications for almost 10 (not entirely consecutive) years now. I am more familiar with a lot of internal goings on than most journalists, and it’s hard not to feel some personal stake in it after all these years. But, beyond that, one thing that was kind of hinted throughout the meeting is that GCM newspapers won’t be the last NEWSWELL acquisition.

We continue to see Shaw Media buying up Illinois newspapers, and Alden Global is poised to acquire Daily Herald, which would create an Alden/Shaw daily newspaper duopoly in the Chicago region. We’ve seen other out of state players buy newspapers in Chicago suburbs and elsewhere in Illinois. In that context, the question inevitably becomes - what would NEWSWELL expansion to Illinois mean for our media market? Would that be something Illinois newspapers want?

What happens with the four NEWSWELL Chicago newspapers in the next few months may help answer those questions.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

The NEWSWELL acquisition

As Reinsdorf noted, the two hall was promised “a few weeks” after the NEWSWELL acquisition was announced in late February. As it was often the case, it took a while to put it together, and he indicated that it got to the point where it didn’t seem fair to make readers wait any longer.

To recap the background on the deal. NEWSWELL is a nonprofit founded in 2024 and is affiliated with the Arizona State University. The concept behind it is to support newspapers by supporting/taking on legal services, business strategy, audience development, marketing and human resources administration. It also invests more money into the papers, mostly helping with investigative reporting. The newspapers would still be required to do their own fundraising and sell advertising and subscriptions.

During the town hall, we learned that the ASU affiliation allowed NEWSWELL Chicago to offer better benefits than anything they could afford under the previous iterations. Reporters (and potentially some other staffers) got salary bumps. The Chicago group got a proper HR department for the first time, and some support with the websites. The idea is to improve the sites and the socials, which is something that has been long-discussed and… Let’s just say the people who worked on that side did the best they could with the resources and time they had.

Reinsdorf recalled that, after he was hired as the interim executive director (basically a publisher position in all but name) in late January 2025, “in short order, it became apparent to me that we wouldn’t be able to execute an active turnaround before we ran out of cash.” Extra fundraising “was extraordinary helpful, but it still wasn’t enough.” Neither was whatever savings they could achieve by ending the lease for the physical newsroom.

Without the NEWSWELL acquisition, Reinsdorf said, the papers would’ve shut down.

What made NEWSWELL attractive, he said, was that they were ran by experienced journalist who understood the needs of the newsrooms and want to help

“They don’t want to sell a bunch of pageviews to advertisers to make a quick buck,” Reinsdorf said.

The new resources, he said, will allow NEWSWELL Chicago to hire paid interns (three of them) for the first time ever.

Reinsdorf said that they will still need to raise at least $500,000 a year, and continue to sell advertising and subscriptions. He did indicate that he believed that NEWSWELL ownership will open doors with major foundations.

Edwards explained the paradox I’ve discussed many times before - print advertising and subscriptions make enough money that getting rid of physical papers doesn’t make sense, but it’s not a revenue source that’s growing, and it’s not attracting younger readers - hence the importance of investing in the digital while still keeping the print around.

“[If we get rid of print], we’d be losing the biggest source of our revenue,” Edwards said.

He added that “NEWSWELL has experience in digital adverting and digital platforms.”

Later during the town hall, the panel got a question about whether they plan to keep print around and maintain weekly frequencies. Reinsdorf responded with “probably not forever,” pointing out, not incorrectly, that “forever” is an awfully long time. But he said that “in the next 3-5 years, certainly, we’ll continue printing” and that “right now, I have absolutely no intention of stopping” printing the papers weekly.

Newberry Schwartz said that the group also plans to continue doing “Inside Scoop” events, where residents can learn about a particular topic and hang out with staffers (while also having plenty of opportunities to subscribe and/or sign up for a newsletter)

WJI/GCM online newsletters historically had a pretty good sign-ups and open rates. One of the interesting things I learned a few years ago was that Block Club Chicago/Austin Weekly News content sharing and shared newsletter that existed until January 2023 originally came about because Block Club struggled to get people to sign up for its own neighborhood newsletter. Reinsdorf said that going forward, “there will be more newsletters, what I believe [will be] much better newsletters,” and there will be more and better newsletter ads.

Austin Weekly reporter and other new hires

As I alluded to earlier, under WJI/GCM/NEWSWELL ownership, Austin Weekly News almost never had an editor/lead reporter or a staff reporter who was also not responsible for something else in the company. The one exception was a 12-month period between March 2022 and March 2023 - and that’s only because GCM got a one-year grant, and simply didn’t have the means to keep the position giong.

(This is a very short version of a long, complicated story that would require explaining a lot of internal stuff that I just don’t have room for. But I can say that this dynamic wasn’t lost on the West Side readers - and many assumed that this was because the paper was covering predominantly Black communities).

During the town hall, I pointed out that Austin Weekly News covers a larger area than Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park combined, asked whether any of the investment would translate into Austin Weekly News getting a full-time reporter. Reinsdorf replied that, yes, they will be hiring one.

But there are also some other hires on deck. Brendan Heffernan, Wednesday Journal staff reporter since February 2025, officially announced that he was leaving to start a job at Semiconductor Engineering magazine. The company will be hiring his replacement.

Reinsdorf was hired during the January 2025 staff shakeup that saw Editor in Chief Erika Hobbs get fired and Haley step down as publisher. While the original intent seemed to be for him to step into an advisory role, he ended up becoming an interim editor as well. Now, over a year later, NEWSWELL put out an ad for a permanent replacement.

I have said when Hobbs was hired, and it’s still true now - there is no person, no matter how good they are, who can edit all of the content coming out of the four papers and effectively do everything else the job requires. There is a reason why Evanston RoundTable, which covers only one town but has a larger staff and puts out more content per week, has multiple editors. But it is a step forward.

NEWSWELL Chicago recently hired a new designer to replace long-time designer Andy Mead (one of the few constants in my experience at WJI/GCM), who is retiring, and they are still looking for a part-time designer to help with the papers.

The new newsroom

I have been with the company long enough to see it lose the first-floor space and the sections of the second floor bit by bit. When Growing Community Media left the newsroom space at 141 S. Oak Park Ave in downtown Oak Park, I dedicated a lot of words to the implications of that decision. What I didn’t expect was for that move to be reversed. Not going back to 141 S. Oak Park Ave. - that space has been converted into apartments, so that ship has sailed - but opening a newsroom somewhere else.

So I was surprised to hear from multiple sources that Reinsdorf was interested in having an office again. He confirmed it after the town hall. Apparently, it was supposed to be announced, but they ran out of time.

Reinsdorf said that, for now, the plan is to use the space during the days when physical issues are being put together. I wrote in the aforementioned post just how useful it is to have reporters, designers and editors in one place.

Being in the same room with the designers meant that we could easily discuss, for example, what photos should go with the story, what paragraph(s) might need to be cut from the print version for space, things like that. Being on the same floor with the editors allowed us to make sure certain details are correct much quicker than it would be via email or text. Some editors and other staff members who have been around for a while knew some ts and context that I was missing, and it was so much easier to just walk over and ask them then to try to figure things out over text or email.

As Reinsdorf acknowledged, there is a certain irony to NEWSWELL Chicago using the Chamber space after the chamber subleased its office space for a few years (first on the first floor, then on the section of the second floor).

I do still think having a dedicated newsroom has advantages beyond production (see the earlier post if you’re curious). The real question is what the reporters and the designers will think. I didn’t get a chance to ask - but since I know some of you read Chicago Media Journal, feel free to text or DM me if you want to keep it off the record, or leave a comment if you don’t mind it being public.

The future under NEWSWELL

In his introductory remarks, Haley said that, over the past 45+ years “we did some good work, we screwed up, we persevered.” Which I think is a fair way to summarize the company. It also touches on just how close the papers came to shutting down at times.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to state that, without Oak Parkers caring about their local paper, there might not be WJI/GCM for NEWSWELL to acquire. Sure, there was support in River Forest, in Forest Park, in Brookfield and Riverside, in Austin and some other West Side communities, but Oak Parkers are that combination of politically engaged, opinionated and reasonably well off that allows for the paper to maintain a base of support. Oak Parkers want their communities covered thoroughly. They want a space where they can share their opinions. The very fact that most people who showed up to the town hall are Oak Parkers says a lot.

Evanston and Evanston RoundTable are not perfect comparisons, but there are a lot of similar factors - engaged audience and cares about the community, wants to see all of its facets covered, and has the means to support it. That’s not the kind of formula that one can replicate.

I have maintained that I am reasonably confident that Wednesday Journal will survive in some form, just as Evanston RoundTable will survive in some form. It’s the other papers I worry about. NEWSWELL may give them some breathing room, but that fundamental problem remains.

Looking further out, Reinsdorf said that “there is a very long list of [media outlets] who are knocking on NEWSWELL’s door,” and that they are open to expansion, they are trying to pace themselves and not take on too much at once.

There are not that many independent newspapers that still do a lot of their original reporting in the Chicago area. There are online media outlets that do fit the bill as well. But where I think NEWSWELL has the potential to do the most good are your El Paso Journal type papers. There are plenty of papers in rural Illinois that could use investment to upgrade their aging software and improve their online presence.

During the town hall, the panel was asked why there was no one from NEWSWELL leadership represented. Reinsdorf said that they tried to make it happen - in fact, NEWSWELL executive director Nicole Carroll will be in town in two weeks, but they decided that, given all the delays, it was only fair to do it now. But he suggested that another town hall with her or someone else in the leadership may be in the future.

We’ll see if this pans out.

Share

Leave a comment

I knew this was going to be late, just because, between a feature that went up on Friday, my freelance work and an (actually pretty chill) photography assignment, something inevitably had to give.

Between a part-time job, stringing for three different media outlets, freelancing for two more less regularly and writing this Substack, I have been asked how I choose what to prioritize. It is a game of Tetris, where you balance the deadlines, the complexity of the story, how much the story pays and the timeliness to figure out what’s the best way to fit it in my schedule. And those things are often at cross-purposes. On Monday, I could have spent my evening finishing up this post, but I decided to attend a meeting that I thought would probably lead to a good Austin Weekly News story. I was right, but this is also why I’m finishing this post up after 1 a.m.

On the positive side, the last feature represents an interesting milestone. It was the first time an organization pitched a story to me. Which, as I mentioned in an earlier post, implies that Chicago Media Journal is getting some credibility.

Now, if USA Today Co. and Lee Enterprises start responding to my questions, that’s when I’ll know I made it. But this is a nice step forward.

Remember that every paid subscription and donation gets me closer to making Chicago Media Journal more of a regular gig, And fewer late nights.

A look at this year’s Illinois Press Association award winners

The Illinois Press Association released the list of editorial and advertising winners for the work published in 2025. These are pretty long lists, which is inevitable - we are talking about a contest that most newspapers in Illinois are eligible for. So, while major newspapers like Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and the Daily Herald got plenty of awards, so did smaller suburban and downstate newspapers.

Bear in mind that, unlike Lisagors, the IPA finalists are not publicly announced. Each newspaper gets a list of their finalists, but they don’t usually share it. And nobody knows the general excellence winners and the sweepstakes winners in each category are going to be.

(There are six categories based on circulation and the publishing frequency. General excellence is exactly what it implies - best newspaper in the category. Sweepstakes awards are based on how many awards each newspaper won, and in what place)

Forest Park Review once again won the Kramer Memorial Trophy, the sweepstakes award for small-circulation non-daily newspapers. I say “once again,’ because it also won it last year, and in 2009 and 2010. There have been newspapers that won sweepstakes several times, but two years in a row is more unusual.

The Community News Brief, of Macomb, Illinois, won the Harold and Eva White Trophy, the sweepstakes a ward for medium-circulation non-daily newspaper. What makes this win more remarkable is that CNB is practically a baby by Illinois newspaper standards - it launched in 2017, survived the COVID-19 pandemic and currently publishes twice a week (three if you count a free mid-week version). It also operates “a marketplace [that] features one-of-a-kind items for sale for nearly everyone.” It is technically competing with the much older, USA Today Co.-owned The McDonough County Voice, but if that paper is anything like other USA Today Co.-owned small town Illinois newspapers, that’s not as much of competition as it might have once been.

CNB won IPA awards before, but this it their first sweepstakes win.

Ford County Chronicle, of Paxton, Illinois, won the Loomis Memorial Trophy, the sweepstakes award for a large-circulation non-daily. The Chronicle is a regular presence at IPA conventions - the two times I attended, they were handing out free copies - and they tend to do pretty well awards-wise.

On the daily side, The Telegraph of Alton, Illinois, won the Patrick Coburn Award of Excellence Trophy, the sweepstakes award for small-circulation daily newspapers. It has an interesting distinction of being one of the three Illinois newspapers Hearst Communications owns.

The News-Gazette, of Champaign, earned the Mabel S. Shaw Memorial Trophy, the sweepstakes award for medium-circulation dailies, while the Chicago Sun-Times won the Stuart R. Paddock Memorial Sweepstakes Trophy, the award for daily, large circulation category.

IPA also named the statewide Editor of the Year and Reporter of the Year for a seventh consecutive convention. The Editor of the Year award went to Allison Petty, Lee Enterprises’ Central Illinois newspapers editor. The Reporter of the Year awards went to Laura Rodriguez Presa, Chicago Tribune’s Latino communities reporter who was part of this year’s Pulitzer-winning team that covered federal immigration crackdown.

There is a lot of stuff to note, but to keep this section from getting too long, I will point out three things.

Immigration reporting earned plenty of awards, including some first-place awards - and suburban newsrooms got recognized. Richard Requena, who was then a Pioneer Press reporter, earned first place for what the judges described as “a comprehensive look at how the Trump administration’s immigration policy is affecting communities within communities and the collateral damage inflicted without empathy.” Journal & Topics newspapers (where, disclaimer, I work part-time) won first place for reporting on Operation Midway Blitz. The lion’s share of the credit goes to reporter Tom Robb, who did a lot of hard work trying to separate fact from rumor, but I also contributed a piece or two.

El Paso Journal, which, as you may recall, went digital-only as of May 28, won five awards, including the first place for photography portrait/personality (in the small-circulation non-daily category).

Finally, you might recall that GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey was the keynote speaker at the convention dinner. A Tribune piece that ran in last Saturday’s issue gives it a bit more context. Turned out that Gov. J.B. Pritzker was invited to speak as well, but he couldn’t make it (he did send a video message). And it turned out that Bailey was trying to make nice with the local press after what he admitted was a pretty frosty relationship during his first gubernatorial campaign. What was most interesting to me is that the article ended with Bailey acknowledging that maybe antagonizing the press isn’t the best idea.

15 newsrooms launch Chicago Immigration news and resource hub

Chicago Public Media announced the launch of the Chicago Immigration Hub, a collaboration between 15 newsrooms funded by a Press Forward Chicago grant, with additional support from the Democracy Fund, Field Foundation, Illinois Immigration Funder Collaborative, Joyce Foundation, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Polk Bros. Foundation, Schreiber Philanthropy and Walder Foundation.

The Hub is a landing page for news and resource guides produced by the participating newsrooms. That list includes Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ, La Voz (the Sun-Times’ Spanish-language section), Block Club Chicago, Borderless Magazine, Chicago Reader, the Chinatown Spotlight newspaper, Cicero Independiente, Injustice Watch, La Raza, ProPublica, Lumpen Radio, Reparations Media, South Side Weekly and The TRiiBE.

Chicago Public Media described it as a place where “local immigrants and all Chicagoans can find solutions-oriented news, guides and cultural coverage.” and “a collaborative space for journalists to fortify their immigration-related coverage and more efficiently get immigration resources and news to the community.”

On one hand, I do think having articles and resources in one place (even if the URL isn’t the most intuitive) it is fairly useful. So is the fact that several Spanish-language and English/Spanish bilingual outlets are represented. The problem, readers and subscribers, is that Chicago immigrant communities are a great deal more than that.

Borderless magazine, to its immense credit, tries to capture the depth, breath and diversity of Chicago area’s immigrant communities. Because its resources are still limited, there is only so much it can do, but it tries - and it is more consistent about it than many other outlets.

Chicago area is home to many ethnic media outlets - newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, online media outlets, even some magazines here and there. Some are in English, but most are not. There are media outlets published in Arabic, Bulgarian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Serbian and Ukrainian - and those are just the ones I’m aware of. There are resources out there waiting to be tapped.

This hub is a good start - but there is plenty of room to grow.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism bits and bites

• In this week’s “better late than never” item, Chicago Reader and Illinois Times are finalists for this year’s Association of Alternative Newsmedia Awards. The Reader is the finalist in four categories. “Lowering the Curtain” by Daniella Mazzio is the finalist in Art Feature - Long Form category. “The ghosts of Geneva’s ‘home for wayward girls’” by Katie Prout is the finalist in Feature Story - Long Form. “Middle Eastern restaurant Old School keeps it commercial-free” by Mike Sula is the finalist in Food Writing category, and last year’s People’s Issue is the finalist for Special Section category. Illinois Times is a finalist in Feature Story - Shorter form category for “Blind Mother Seeks Right to Care for her Son” by Maggie Dougherty and Zach Adams.

  • Winners will be revealed at the 2026 AAN Awards, which will take place on July 9 n Palm Springs, California.

• Medill is piloting a Military Reporting Project this summer. Students will be “periodically embedded” with the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas. The program, which is funded through a Robert R. McCormick Foundation grant, will run through August 2027. The idea is to help address what Medill’s Local News Initiative has described as a a growing gap in news coverage - a dramatic decrease in reporting on military bases.

• Block Club Chicago reported that Debbie Brockman, a former WGN producer who was violently thrown to the ground while filiming an ICE raid in her neighborhood back on Oct. 10, 2025, is suing the federal government for $10 million in damages.

  • To be clear, she was a WGN producer at the time of the incident. The TV station laid Brockman off in February as part of the broader Nextstar-imposed budget cuts.

• Former Borderless Audience Engagement Reporter Katrina Pham is starting a new job as Chicago Reader’s social media manager.

• CAN-TV named Dr. Suzet McKinney and Glenn Eden as the new permanent co-hosts for its Chicago Newsroom 2.0 current affairs program. McKinney currently serves as President and CEO of Chicago Loop Alliance, and she previously served as CEO and Executive Director of the Illinois Medical District. Eden, a longtime Chicago communications strategist, most recently chaired Choose Chicago, the city’s tourism marketing agency.

  • “Dr. McKinney and Glenn Eden embody everything Chicago Newsroom 2.0 stands for — credibility, curiosity, compassion, and a deep commitment to Chicago,” Darrious Hilmon, Executive Director of CAN TV., was quoted as saying. “At a time when communities are searching for trusted information and meaningful dialogue, they bring the kind of leadership, insight, and authenticity that will continue elevating this program and strengthening its connection to viewers across the city.”

• Chicago-based Write That Down magazine will lose access to its printer (which has been printing the magazine for free), and is currently looking for an alternative.

• National Association of Black Journalists Chicago chapter is launching a podcast, and they are looking for volunteer producers, video editors, schedulers and production assistants to help make it happen.

• National Association of Hispanic Journalists’ Northwestern University chapter is the finalist for the association’s Student Chapter of the Year. The winner will be revealed at the NAHJ annual conference, which will take place in New Orleans on July 22-25.

• Shrubtown, the Wednesday Journal editorial cartoons usually covering very Oak Park specific issues, marked its 35th year of (largely uninterrupted) weekly publication last week. At the time when editorial cartoons are becoming increasingly rare industry-wide, that alone is a remarkable feat. In this particular case, it boils down to what my people would describe as a fortunate convergence of circumstances - they were the brainchild of the long-time Wednesday Journal Inc/Growing Community Media advertising manager Marc Stopeck, and when he left the advertising job back in July 2023, he agreed to keep doing Shrubtown.

• Brian Nadig, co-publisher and lead reporter of Nadig Newspapers (Northwest Side Press and The Reporter) will be the Grand Marshall of this year’s Edgebrook Community Association 4th of July Parade. The parade will start at Edgebrook Elementary School, 6525 N. Hiawatha Ave., at 11 a.m., and end at Wildwood Park, 6950 N Hiawatha Ave. The parade will be followed by a picnic.

What I’m reading

• Editor & Publisher magazine’s May 2026 issue cover story took a deep dive into burnout, stress and trauma journalists face - and what some organizations are trying to do to provide support and what newsrooms can do better to support the journalists.

• Crain’s Chicago Business looks at The Onion’s content strategy, and how returning to print fits into this (gift link courtesy of paid subscribers)

Journalism Events

• On Wednesday, June 10, NEWSWELL Chicago will hold a town hall talking about the future of the company under the new Arizona owners. I wrote about this last week, and I won’t repeat myself here, but there is a new detail - the panelist lineup. As one may expect, General Manager Max Reinsdorf will speak, former WBEZ presenter and Growing Community Media board member Steve Edwards (Last I heard, GCM still exists as a nonprofit entity to wrap up some loose ends) and Oak Park nonprofit executive Carolyn Newberry Schwartz, whose connection to the papers is unclear (she wrote some letters to the editor, but so have a lot of Oak Parkers). Again, the event will be held at Oak Park Library’s main library, at the Veterans Room.

• On Sunday, June 14, NLGJA Chicago will host a Queer Chicago History Tour, which will look back at the 1948 raids of gay bars in what is now River North. The tour will start at 801 N. Michigan Ave. and will last about 90 minutes. It will be followed by a Happy Hour and a Q&A. There are only 20 tickets available, but, as of this post’s deadline, they haven’t run out.

• Also on June 14, Disco Kitchen, a self-described “Chicago-based, women & queer-led literary magazine” will have a launch party for its third issue at The Whistler, 2421 N. Milwaukee Ave. Doors open at 6 p.m., and readings will start at 7 p.m., followed by live disco.

• Also (also) on June 14, In These Times magazine will have a party/fundraiser at its offices, 2040 N. Milwaukee Ave. at 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. It will feature a live taping of the Working People podcast, comedy and a dance party. For a complete schedule, and the many ticket options, click here.

Freelance opportunities

• The Substack is seeking “original stories that illuminate writing as both work and creative practice.” Which includes everything from poetry and essays to process guides and industry deep dives. The rate is $1 per word, so, with word count somewhere between 500 and 1,200, you can make as much as $1,200 per story. See the pitch guidelines here.

Share

Leave a comment

In United States, journalists are facing an increasingly stressful and dangerous environment. That, in on itself, isn’t news. It’s a lived reality for many of us.

International Women’s Media Foundation is one of the several organizations that has tried to not only quantify the scale of the problem, but to figure out the ways to respond and offer support. They recently released Safe Together: Building Community Amid Expanding Threats to U.S. Journalists report, which surveyed 163 journalists across six states to get a sense of their working conditions and the threats they faced. The report also looked at how journalists in Chicago and Los Angeles responded to some of those hazards.

IWMF executive director Nadine Hoffman told Chicago Media Journal that the report is part of the ongoing Newsroom Safety Across America (NSAA) Initiative to support journalists, especially women journalists, amid the evolving conditions. The organization believed that the midterm elections could be another flashpoint for violence and attacks against the press, so their trainings and research will continue.

In an interview a few weeks ago, we talked about what newsrooms can do to try to keep their journalists safer, and what Chicago journalists can learn from their colleagues in authoritarian countries.

The key findings

IWMF invited journalists who took part in NSAA safety trainings, including the ones held in the Chicago area, to participate in the survey. Out of 194 journalists, 163, or roughly 84% of the journalists, accepted. Since participants were allowed to skip questions, there are some gaps in data - but they are relatively small ones.

There were three major takeaways that the study put front and center:

• 30% of 161 respondents reported experiencing physical violence while working
  (including assault, harassment, equipment confiscation, detention, and death threats)

• 30% of 117 respondents reported experiencing digital threats
  (including online abuse, hacking attempts, identity theft, and device compromise)

• 17% of 136 respondents reported facing legal threats or pressures
  (including censorship, lawsuits, surveillance, arrest, and restricted access)

It is important to note that, while some beats, such as political reporting, carries more risks, the surveys represented a pretty wide range of fields. As the the study notes, issues such as immigration enforcement and and do affect beats such as education or your regular government meeting coverage. There is also the fact that response from law enforcement, especially federal bodies, has gotten more aggressive, so the sort of baseline, expected risk has increased.

While journalists cover a broad spectrum of topics, many assignments intersect with politically sensitive or socially contested issues. Beats such as crime, politics, conflict, and breaking news have historically been considered higher risk. However, respondents’ experiences indicate that safety threats now extend well beyond these traditionally “dangerous” beats.

The report also touched on additional dangers for reporters who are immigrants, whether they’re covering immigration-related stories or not. And, as Chicago Media Journal has touched on before, reporting on immigration in particular takes its toll.

Immigrant journalists, particularly foreign nationals or those who have family members with mixed immigration statuses, face additional risks when reporting on immigration issues. These assignments have significant emotional implications and can raise concerns about personal or family safety. Recognizing these dynamics is an important part of responsible assignment planning and newsroom support.

The report encourages newsrooms to acknowledge the toll and consider the safety risks.

Immigration reporting requires a holistic approach to safety that combines ethical decision-making, digital protection, legal awareness, and strong newsroom communication. By planning collaboratively and prioritizing both journalist and source safety, news organizations can better support responsible coverage of immigration and enforcement-related issues.

In our interview, Hoffman also made a point to emphasize unique issues women and non-binary journalists face. After all, while her organization supports all journalists, it is called International Women’s Media Foundation for a reason. While all journalists can sometimes face personal attacks, women are often attacked because of their gender, and face unique attacks. Male reporters, for example, don’t have to worry about deepfake nude images, and female reporters are more likely to face rape threats.

“Online abuse problems turn into physical harm, and it has, and it can, create trauma and long-term mental health [damage],” Hoffman said. “It can encourage women to leave the profession, and the self-censorship piece is a threat to overall discourse and democracy. “

Misogyny coming from Donald Trump and other federal officials, Hoffman argued, made the already fraught situation worse.

“At the national level, I think that the huge amount of misogyny that we're seeing has been directed against the White House correspondents, women of White House press corp from this administration, is really troubling and it shows a complete lack of respect for the profession and really for women in the profession,” she said.

The Chicago case study

IWMF held two trainings in Chicago in 2024, ahead of the Democratic National Convention, and then did follow-up virtual and in-person trainings in July 2025. While it is easy to think of what happened in Chicago as Before Operation Midway Blitz and After Operation Midway Blitz, bear in mind that, by last July, we already we saw heightened enforcement a week after Donald Trump started his second term, and June saw detentions of immigrants during routine check-ins. Mexican-American parades and other events were starting to shut down last spring, and businesses in neighborhoods like Pilsen, Little Village, Hermosa and Belmont-Cragin were already seeing drops in customers just because of federal enforcement fears.

(It is also important to acknowledge that, while raids decreased since mid-December, they never entirely stopped).

Hoffman said that 100 journalists participated in the 2024 trainings, and the July trainings were “about the same size.” She said that, whenever IWMF does trainings, it reaches out local affinity groups (such as a local NABJ chapter), a local Society of Professional Journalists chapter and local newsrooms. IWMF tried to get staff reporters and freelancers alike, with Hoffman saying that freelancers play a vital role in the current media ecosystem.

“They do so much reporting those days,” she said. “Without them, newsrooms aren't able to continue to operate.”

The trainings, Hoffman said, delved into importance of personal protection equipment such as breathing masks, knowing who to call (and having the phone numbers memorized) in case of emergency, the importance of having a buddy system so that reporters can look out for each other. Block Club has indicated that they adopted a policy of never sending their immigrant reporters out alone in situations where immigration enforcement might be involved.

The study described how pre-DNC prep work led to collaboration and information-sharing - something that newsrooms built upon and expanded the following year.

Journalists created encrypted Signal group chats to stay connected during coverage, established regular planning meetings throughout the summer, and developed shared resources to support reporting during potentially dangerous events. Participants also created a shared Google map identifying meeting locations, compiled contact lists connecting editors across newsrooms, and developed communication systems to coordinate reporting and republishing during breaking news.

With the knowledge gained from IWMF training, participating newsrooms fundraised to purchase recommended safety equipment, including gas masks and first-aid kits. These supplies were distributed in safety backpacks shared among more than 10 newsrooms, ensuring that reporters had access to protective equipment while covering demonstrations. Journalists also adopted light purple bandanas to discreetly identify one another in large crowds.

The report also mentioned that, during the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) 2025 annual conference, which was held in Chicago in mid-July, IWMF and Cicero Independiente held the panel on developing newsroom safety policies.

Hoffman emphasized that those policies need to be developed in advance “even if it seems like an overkill,” because otherwise, newsrooms would be scrambling and playing catch-up.

Newsroom safety plans and Chicago realities

Working part-time for Journal & Topics Newspapers and freelancing for Evanston RoundTable I saw first-hand how, during the Operation Midway Blitz, the suburban newsrooms that haven’t covered immigration enforcement on a regular basis scrambling to cover the ICE raids. A lot of suburban newsrooms found themselves in this position, and while some were better prepared than others, there was a lot of figuring things out on the go.

It also wasn’t lost on me that, while some newsrooms might have money to buy their reporters gas masks, most don’t really have much extra funding around period. Hoffman agreed that it was a valid concern.

“It’s always a challenge when it comes to small newsrooms when there are not as many resources,” she said.

Still, Hoffman argued, the issue isn’t quite as daunting as it may seem. The safety planning, she said, doesn’t cost anything extra, and some basic supplies, such as masks, can be purchased for under $100.

IWMF offers free safety policy guides, and it is one of the several journalism organizations that has an an emergency fund to help cover safety-related expenses (Hoffman also specifically mentioned Reporters Without Borders protective equipment grants).

She said that it was important to keep what kind of PPE newsrooms need in perspective.

“We’re not having people to go into [covering ICE raids] with a ballistic vest, the kind of vest you want in a war zone,” Hoffman said.

And she suggested that newsrooms reached out to their counterparts in other cities, pointing to how Block Club and other outlets reached out to Los Angeles media outlets last summer.

“I think that learning from other newsrooms in other cities that have already faced this is one of the best things the news leaders can do,” Hoffman said.

“The game has changed”

Hoffman said that IWMF plans to continue trainings, and they push for more investment in journalism safety.

“W’ere certainly looking ahead to midterm elections and thinking about what kind of threats are we seeing at the time, potential civil unrest,” she said. “And knowing that climate is this polarized, we expect that journalists would continue to face threats, harassment and doxxing, especially journalists who are themselves immigrants, journalists of color, journalists who are most at risk because of their [status] need protection from their newsrooms and the journalism community.”

Now, I know I’m not the only Russian who has seen immigration enforcement agents attack journalists, tear gas journalists and detain journalists, who has seen federal officials attack journalists personally on social media, who has seen the federal government threaten legal action against media outlets the president doesn’t like, and thought - that sure seems familiar.

Hoffman agreed that there were reasons to worry.

“I think what we have heard from our partners, we are really operating in this sort of grey area,” she said. “We can train journalists to know their rights, we can encourage them to vocalize their rights when they’re interacting with different law enforcement agencies, but doesn’t mean their rights will be respected.”

Freedom of the press, and democracy in general, died slowly in Russia, like a boiled frog, and I know a lot of us didn’t think that, after the Soviet Union fell before our eyes, there was ever change we’d backslide this badly.

Hoffman pointed to the second Trump Administration’s increased hostility against journalists, and, in some areas, hostility on state and local level.

“We’re facing new reality [when it comes to] threats against journalists in the United States,” she mused. “We’re seeing that journalists are sometimes targeted in terms of legal threats, sometimes in terms of online threats. And journalists in United States can learn a lot from their peers in other countries, how to [operate under] authoritarian governments and how they’re able to protect their sources and minimize threats. And I do think we need to listen to them and learn from them, and also understand that the game has changed. Our press freedom ranking in the United States continues to go down, and while the First Amendment is still standing, it is certainly under a lot of stress right now.”

Me, my advice has been to stand one’s ground. The lesson Russian journalists learned, again and again, that when you give an authoritarian government an inch, they will take a mile, and then some.

Which may not be much, but it’s not that far off from what Hoffman suggested.

“It is important to stand in solidarity, to be very loud,” she said. '“Whether that would change the outcome, I don’t know, but this is not a situation where we should go quietly.”

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Share

Leave a comment

This is another one of those weeks where I had to make some hard choices about what to cut, what to move to a future missive and what to move to a future missive again. Substack length limits can be harsh, but there is also something to be said about keeping these at something resembling manageable length. It is, in a way, like putting together a newspaper. You need to weigh how much space you have, what you can afford to cut or hold back, and what needs to be included, even if you have to get creative with formatting.

If you are a paid subscriber, you have some inkling of what got moved, what got expanded into separate features, and generally what’s coming down the pipeline. Remember that every paid subscription and one-time or recurring donation gets me closer to making Chicago Media Journal more of a regular gig, which will mean more posts per week and fewer hard choices.

One thing that ended up moving to this post that I wanted to make sure to include here was a new Freelance Opportunities section. This will be a recurring section that will talk about time-sensitive calls for submission and more evergreen opportunities. So keep reading toward the end - and let me know what you think of my choices. Could some of this stuff have waited until next Monday? Let me know.

How Block Club Chicago’s new event series builds on major issues its reporters cover

Back in April, Block Club Chicago announced that it will host a West Side workforce development fair at the end of June. The announcement promised something more than a career fair, with free resume reviews, mock interviews, professional headshot and a closet worth of free “work-ready clothing.” There is also going to be access to financial coaching and literary resources, and “speed networking sessions” where “small local businesses and/or hiring employers to connect with job seekers.” There is also going to be a panel led by Block Club’s West Side beat reporter Michael Liptrot about the realities and challenges of finding work and workforce development in the community.

According to Christine Schmidt, Block Club’s Partnerships Associate, this isn’t something Block Club is doing by itself. It got quite a few West Side nonprofits on board, and philanthropic sponsors to help foot the bill. Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development (BUILD) Chicago is not only working with Block Club Chicago on the event, but hosting it at its new-ish Austin headquarters.

I decided to look a little deeper into it for two reasons. I wondered why Block Club was going through all this trouble, and how an event like this fit into its news and outreach strategy. But there was also personal interest. I covered the West Side for Austin Weekly News, first as freelancer, than as a staff writer, between July 2015 and mid-January 2024, and I started writing for the paper again as a freelancer in January. Covering the West Side communities, it doesn’t take that long to realize that workforce development is a major, complex, multifaceted issue. It isn’t just about people wanting to work but not being sure where to start, or how to translate their skills into something they can put on a resume. It’s about the perennial question about whether a promising project or initiative will translate into job opportunities for the locals. It’s about West Side business owners wanting to hire local but sometimes struggling to find local employees. And there is the oft-understated issue that there are multiple organizations working on workforce development, but it isn’t always clear from a person on the street who does what, and how to reach them. And while the various organizations have gotten better at coordination and collaboration, there are gaps.

(Like I said - I’ve written a lot about this. This is my best attempt at a broad overview, but there is so much more to say)

Schmidt explained that this event is part of a larger series of events Block Club is doing this year, and (they hope) beyond. The idea is basically to take a major issue its reporters covered, an issue that they knew had resonance in the community, and build an event around that.

“This workforce event is one of the four events that are really meant to be major community engagement spaces,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said that Maple Walker Lloyd, Block Club’s Vice President of Partnerships, came up with the idea - she just helped develop it. She also noted that this wasn’t entirely uncharted territory for Block Club. Walker Lloyd planned to do monthly neighborhood resource fairs throughout 2020, but the pandemic scuttled those plans.

The first event was The Impact of Immigration: A Night of Storytelling in Little Village, which was held on Jan. 20 at the iconic Apollo’s 2000 Theater. It featured a panel discussion led by Block Club lead immigration reporter and Southwest Side beat reporter Francia Garcia Hernandez, and they worked with the Illinois Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to set up a market with local vendors. The date, Schmidt said, was deliberately chosen because it was the anniversary of the start of Donald Trump’s second term.

'“We knew that folks had so many questions, and we wanted to be in the community with each other to discuss what’s happening in this sort of post-Operation Midway Blitz moment,” she said.

The event was well-received, Schmidt said, and drove home that “there was a need for more community conversations about the issues that were so prevalent in these neighborhoods. and, as you know, Block Club is all about neighborhoods.”

Together We Build: West Side Workforce Development and Career Fair, she said, built on Liptrot’s reporting on workforce development issues, and what he heard from the community about the lack of opportunities.

“We heard from so many, Michael Liptrot heard from so many, that there is a need, that they want to learn about the resources that are out there,” Schmidt said. “We wanted to break down the silos in workforce development space and be a convener.”

She said that, this year, Block Club plans to do two more events. The third event will be what has become a Block Club tradition - a community block party. The fourth, Schmidt said, is going to be on the South Side and build on the health and wellness reporting by Englewood/Auburn Gresham/Chatham reporter Atavia Reed, Bronzeville/Near South Side reporter Jamie Nesbitt Golden and Hyde Park/Woodlawn/South Shore reporter Maxwell Evans. A lot of the details are still TBD, but they know that they want to work with neighborhood organizations and hold it in neighborhood venues.

To get back to our original question - why would Block Club do something like this - doing something that benefits the readers is well and good, but, the way I see it, there are also some pragmatic benefits. Events that go over well create good PR for Block Club, build relationships with businesses and organizations that can pay off on both editorial and advertising side, and help increase the number of readers and subscribers. And, as any reporter knows, events like this can sometimes lead to connections and generate story ideas.

Together We Build will be held on June 27 at BUILD Chicago campus, 5100 W. Harrison St., at 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Advance registration is encouraged (especially if you are actually planning to take advantage of workforce development services they’re offering)

Upcoming event promises an update on NEWSWELL Chicago newspapers’ future

Since NEWSWELL acquired the four Growing Community Media newspapers (Austin Weekly News, Forest Park Review, Riverside-Brookfield Landmark and Wednesday Journal), things have mostly continued as usual. Sure, things happened behind the scenes, but, aside from the decision to end unsigned editorials, it wasn’t really anything that impacted the readers.

Next Wednesday, June 10, NEWSWELL Chicago will hold a town hall meeting on the publications’ future. The house ad that ran in all four papers described it thusly:

Join NEWSWELL Chicago leadership and community members for an open conversation about the future of local news, the opportunities ahead, and why we believe this moment positions our publications for long-term growth and stability while keeping strong, independent community journalism at the center of everything we do.

In a message to newsletter subscribers, NEWSWELL Chicago General Manager Max Reinsdorf promised that the staff will “share updates, answer questions, and most importantly, hear directly from the community we serve every day.”

The town hall will be held at Oak Park Public Library main library, 834 Lake St., in the Veterans Room meeting room (on the second floor, to the right of the elevators) at 7 p.m.

The potential implications of the Daily Herald sale to Tribune

It has been more than a week since we learned that Paddock Publications tentatively approved the sale of the Daily Herald to Chicago Tribune Media Group. We’ve gotten some updates since then.

Crain’s Chicago Business has reported that Alden offered to pay $24 million to buy Daily Herald. For a bit of context, that’s about 4% of $630 million the investment fund paid to buy Tribune Publishing. Crain’s also reported that Shaw Media’s offer, which started the chain of events that led Tribune to put in its own offer, was “in the ballpark of what Alden-backed Tribune is paying.”

One interesting bit of news that went under the radar is that Shaw sold all of its Iowa newspapers back in late April in order to “sharpen its strategic focus on its core Illinois markets.”

Crain’s reported that Tribune will offer jobs to all current Daily Herald employees, though, as it flagged, it doesn’t guarantee anything after the end of 2026.

“The Tribune has committed to maintain compensation and benefits that are consistent with those provided by Paddock through Dec. 31, 2026,” the memo [to Daily Herald employees] said. “Neither the trustee nor Paddock is making any representation or guarantee regarding continued employment. The Tribune will provide severance benefits to individuals who lose their employment.”

The article cited a separate Tribune memo to Daily Herald employees touting its “commitment to publishing and investing in the print edition well into the future.” Which sounds hollow given, well, the entire history of Alden’s lack of investment so far (and “well into the future” is pretty vague).

Since the tentative deal was announced, there has been discussion of what it would mean for CTMG suburban newspapers those coverage area overlaps with the Daily Herald. - especially the daily Aurora Beacon-News, Elgin Courier-News and (to the lesser extent) Lake County News-Sun. Ditto and Naperville Sun, which currently publishes three days a week. One plausible scenario is that Daily Herald would focus on suburbs where Tribune either has Pioneer Press weeklies or no newspapers at all - but I can also see it close other dailies down. After all, “commitment to publishing and investing in the print edition” doesn’t extend to them, and Alden has closed newspapers before (just not in the Chicago area, at least so far).

The sale wouldn’t quite give Alden the monopoly over daily newspapers in the Chicagoland six-county region - Shaw Media’s Joliet Herald-News, Kane County Chronicle and Northwest Herald would still be around - but it would be a lot closer to that. It would definitely get the bigger market share, which would affect how much it would be able to charge for ads, especially legal ads.

Something I haven’t seen discussed is the sale’s implication for Daily Herald content-sharing agreements. After what was then Sun-Times Media sold its suburban papers to Tribune, it entered into a content-sharing arrangement that allowed it to use Daily Herald’s suburban coverage. Would a sale to its competitor lead to the end of the arrangement? If so, what, if anything, Chicago Public Media would do to fill the resulting suburban coverage void?

Same question about the content sharing with Shaw Media. I think ending the deal would hurt both sides less, but it is something to consider.

And what about what would remain of Paddock? If the sale goes through, how would it use the $24 million? Would any of it go to Southern Illinois Local Media Group and however many newspapers it has (I still haven’t been able to find the current list. We know it was 22 weekly newspapers as of 2023, and at least one of them closed since then)

Bear in mind that we have no idea how much money Paddock is losing - and I do think it’s losing some, because I can’t imagine they would entertain Shaw’s offer if they weren’t. For all we know, all that money would go into plugging a financial hole.

Which brings us to the still important question of what happens if employee-owners reject the sale. What would that mean for Paddock?

I suppose all we can do for now is wait - and hope for more leaks.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• Chicago Public Media launched the new Vocalo Hotline show on Vocalo radio last Friday (May 29). As the press release tacitly acknowledged (without putting it into words), the radio station bore the brunt of the Spring 2024 cuts. CPM is describing this as “part of a broader investment in Vocalo’s future, supported in part by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.”

• Better Government Association announced that the Illinois Supreme Court approved the package of judicial transparency it advocated for. The details are at the link, but it should make getting court information easier for journalists.

• Sports journalist Vinnie Duber has been hired as Chicago Sun-Times’ new Cubs beat reporter. He previously served as the White Sox beat reporter, first for NBC5, then for CHGO Sports. I will let more sports-savy people to make the jokes here.

• Lizzie Kane, who has been a housing reporting stringer for Chicago Sun-Times since September 2025, announced that she’s been hired as an architecture reporter for the Sacramento Bee. Before her stint at Sun-Times, she was a real estate reporter for the Chicago Tribune. In her farewell post, Kane expressed appreciation for her colleagues at the Trib and the Sun-Times, as well as Chicago’s “housing community.”

  • “When I moved to Chicago, I’d barely spent any time in the city and knew few people,” she wrote. “My Tribune colleagues immediately took me in and helped me find my footing. So did the people in the Chicago housing community who answered all my calls, met me for coffee and invited me into their homes. I heard from many Chicagoans who were so excited to have a reporter dedicated to housing coverage after years without one in the country’s third-largest city, and I was so excited to be that person.”

• Speaking of departures, Katrina Pham, Borderless Magazine’s audience engagement reporter since September 2024, is leaving the company. Unlike Kane, she isn’t leaving the Chicago area, and Chicago Media Journal will report on Pham’s new job when she and/or her new employer are ready to announce it.

  • “It was such an honor telling immigrant stories from across the city and the suburbs, leading our team’s social media presence, and experimenting getting news in people’s hands through vertical video!” she wrote in Instagram Stories.

• Evanston artist Gay Riseborough, an Evanston RoundTable art features writer since May 2021, announced her retirement from that gig.

• And in this post’s “better late than never” item, Injustice Watch distinguished itself in year’s Local Media Association Digital Innovation Awards. It got first place Community Engagement Award (in the less than 250,000 monthly unique visitors subcategory) for “Know Your Building. Know Your Landlord” outreach.

What I’m reading

• The Objective editorial director James Salanga previewed Bridging the Gap, the first-ever conference” dedicated to strengthening journalism about and in U.S. prisons.” The conference happened last Friday-Saturday, but I think it’s still an interesting read.

• Editor & Publisher magazine’s May 2026 issue covered Online News Association’s annual conference, which was held in Chicago on March 29 to April 1 this year.

• Wednesday Journal’s features stringer Jessica Mackinnon talked to Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times reporter Ben Protess about growing up in Oak Park and what got him into journalism.

Journalism Events

As always, you can read the event listings in chronological order here. Know a journalism event coming up? Let me know.

• Might be a bit short-notice, but tonight (June 1) Queer Media Association at the Northwest University, NLGJA Chicago and Northwestern Society of Trans and Non-Binary Students will be hosting a Trans Journalists on Trans Rights panel featuring of Transitics, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Violet Miller, and artist Chijioke ‘Chi’ Williams, Windy City Times managing editor, Medill instructor and friend of CMJ Jake Wittich will moderate. The panel will take place at 7 p.m. at Evanston’s McCormick Foundation Center, 1870 Campus Dr., Room 3119. RSVP here.

• On Wednesday, June 3, Walls Turned Sideways art center, 2717 W. Madison St., is hosting the Injustice Watch Article Club. The idea is kind of like a book club, but for articles. In this particular case, this April 30 article. Journalist Dan Hinkel, who wrote the article, will be there to talk about the article and the issues they touch. The event will take place at 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and you can RSVP here.

• Speaking of Katrina Pham, on Thursday, June 4, she will be doing a virtual workshop on scripting short-form videos. The workshop, which is part of the Video Consortium’s Steal My Workflow series, will take place at 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. It’s free to Consortium members and $23.18 to everybody else. Either way, you can reserve your spot here.

• Also on Thursday, June 4, Chicago’s Logan Arcade, 2410 W. Fullerton Ave, is hosting the release party for the second-ever issue of The Instant Film Magazine. The party will take place at 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Organizers promise “Instant photo contests, giveaway prizes, and so much pinball.”

• On Saturday, June 6, Gerber/Hart Library & Archives, 6500 N. Clark St., will have its annual book sale from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The library promises “n incredible selection of LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ fiction, non-fiction books, media, periodicals, and more!”

Freelance opportunities

• The Objective, an online newsroom that investigates power and inequity in journalism, is accepting pitches for its upcoming annual print issue. They’re looking for stories “ about post-2020 shifts: diversity in newsrooms and media, how standards have or haven't changed after promises to shift anti-Blackness and move toward equity, and availability or lack thereof in funding for certain beats.” Pay is $0.50 a word for stories between 800-1,200 worlds (so between $400 - $600). For more information about what they’re looking for, and to submit, click here.

• Serviette, “a magazine about food: the people who grow and produce it, the distances we travel to eat it, and all the ways it’s tangled up with culture, science, history, and design” is accepting pitches for the upcoming “Food is War, Food is Peace” themed issue. Pay is $1 a word. Email your pitch, along with work samples, by June 12.

Share

Leave a comment

Even with what may be last week’s biggest news - Alden/Tribune Publishing’s impending acquisition of the Daily Herald - in a separate post, last week has been a busy week for media news big and small. I had no choice but to shift some of the less time-sensitive stuff to the next post, to keep this post from getting too long.

Speaking of things that don’t quite fit into this post, Chicago Media Journal Instagram account has been getting new followers, mostly thanks to my Mouse Arts and Letters Social Club. I’m of the belief that social media accounts shouldn’t be just links to posts, which is why I post some odds and ends over there.

If you’d like to see me update more, and more often (and not rush to get out an update while taking a bus to a part-time job) every paid subscription and donation gets me closer to the goal of making Chicago Media Journal a proper gig

Press Forward Chicago announces grants for Chicago Board of Education 2026 election coverage

You may recall that, a few months ago, Press Forward Chicago sent out a Request for Proposals for Chicago newsrooms looking for funding to cover this fall’s Chicago Board of Education election. Since this is the first time the city school board will be fully elected, this is a big deal. There is a caveat - all the coverage is being coordinated through Chalkbeat Chicago.

Last Monday, Press Forward Chicago announced who got the grants. There is $660,000 in funding in total. Fittingly, given that it’s going to coordinate the coverage, Clalkbeat is getting $225,000, or approximately 34% of the overall funding. The rest of the grantees are getting either $40,000 or $15,000.

I won’t recap every single grantee, but there are a few things that stand out. Bear in mind that outlets had to submit proposals to be considered, and we don’t know which newsrooms didn’t bother in the first place, and which were rejected.

Board Rule, an online outlets explicitly created to chronicle the shift from fully appointed to fully elected board, is one of the $40,000 grantees. There is some non-English language newsrooms - Spanish-language La Raza newspaper and Chinatown Spotlight, which is published in either Mandarin or Cantonese (I’m legitimately not sure, but I’ve done some coverage of Chinatown when which language materials are presented it was a bit of a hot-button issue). There is going to be some audio coverage via WBEZ and Lumpen Radio, out of all things. Block Club got funding to do some neighborhood-level coverage.

What is also interesting - and, again, I have no idea how much of it is the product of who applied and how much of it is Press Foward’s decision - but there seems to be emphasis toward providing local coverage on the South and West Sides, with local outlets mostly coming from those parts of the city. Local North Side and Far Northwest Side outlets are notable in their absence. So is the lack of any Polish-language outlets.

The list of grantees also throws the spotlight on a larger issue that goes far beyond this project. While it is good to have local outlets like The Culture, Hyde Park Herald, South Side Weekly and 15 West involved, it occurs to me that there are whole chunks of Chicago that just don’t have those kinds of local news outlets, and don’t get consistent coverage from larger outlets like Block Club. East Side and Hegewisch, which I would argue haven’t had good local media coverage since Southeast Chicago Observer closed in 2012 (though Hegewisch Times was a valiant attempt), don’t have anything, and those communities are all too often overlooked, because a lot of people don’t realize Chicago even has an East Side. Northwest Side neighborhoods like Montclare, Hermosa and Belmont-Cragin don’t have a local news outlets, either.

The unfortunate reality is that, while some parts of Chicago will get some good local coverage, others just won’t, because the outlets and the experience aren’t there.

I do hope that, if nothing else, outlets like Block Club La Raza, South Side Weekly and the Reader would use some of that money to at least some some stringers to do some local coverage.

We’ll see.

Chicago Reader hires publisher

Also on Monday, Chicago Reader announced that it hired Mailk Jackson, most recently the publisher and executive director of South Side Media Works, which owns South Side Weekly and the Hyde Park Herald. The alt-monthly haven’t had a publisher since Amber Nettles left in November 2025 to join EmpowerLocal as chief partnerships officer.

In an interview with the Reader, Jackson talked about having the staff’s back, and described his background as a journalist and an urban planner as assets.

Reaching audiences, directing sales, and honing a business strategy are all reliant on one’s understanding of their market and the interests within it. My background has nurtured a lens that enables me to understand the city, its trends, information needs, and its people’s habits.

Jackson talked about the power of print in creating a permanent snapshot of time, about the digital fatigue. But l found this bit particularly insightful:

There are still a significant number of people on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, in rural communities, and in Black and Brown neighborhoods without reliable access to the Internet. Print is the great equalizer of information equity.

Which does bring us to what has been the Reader’s well-known weakness, one that it has acknowledged and tried to address - it struggled to reach Black and Hispanic Chicagoans. Over the decades, there have been several newspapers that tried to be the Reader of the South Side, and I would argue that South Side Weekly has been the most successful attempt. From a sheer revenue/audience growth perspective, hiring someone who has supervised a South Side paper that covered a lot of communities the way the Reader sometimes struggled to, makes sense.

Jackson didn’t get too much into his future plans beyond saying that he will “personify the Reader and make it a part of the conversations Chicagoans have over coffee, dinner, and drinks,” and that he will “experiment further with print products and distribution, and test the role that physical space can play in helping us build deeper relationships with our audiences and emerging writers.” That second part can mean… a lot of things.

It is important to keep in mind that Jackson has a boss he must answer to - Noisy Creek founder and CEO Brady Walkinshaw. Lest we forget, Reader going monthly was a Noisy Creek mandate.

In the end, the real question may not be what Jackson wants to do, but what Walkinshaw wants to do with the Reader - and how much room Jackson would have to execute his vision within that framework.

Illinois Press Association announces some award recipients, convention speaker

On May 8, Illinois Press Association released an extended preview of its annual convention and awards. Bear in mind, readers and subscribers, that while Lisagor Awards is arguably the biggest Chicago area journalism award, IPA Awards are that for Illinois as a whole.

The winners of advertising and editorial awards are kept under lock and key until the day of - even the finalists are only released to individual newsrooms. But IPA could still talk about the panels, the dinner keynote speaker and service awards.

For those who’ve never been to the IPAs, by the time dinner rolls around, a lot of guests skedaddle, especially if they are coming from outside central Illinois. I have to wonder if IPA board going with Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey as a dinner keynote speaker - and a promise that he will take questions from the audience - is a way to entice people to stay.

Sam Fisher will receive the distinguished service award for his decades in various roles in Shaw Media and his four years as president and CEO of the Illinois Press Association. The convention preview describes Fisher as “a driving force in creating a successful nonprofit news organization that benefits Illinois newspapers and their communities” - an oddly opaque allusion to his role in the founding of Capitol News Illinois.

Fletcher Farrar, former owner and editor of Central Illinois Communications (which published Illinois Times, Springfield Business Journal and a few other publications before they transitioned to nonprofit) and current chair of said nonprofit’s new board, will receive the James C. Craven Freedom of the Press Award. The award honors people who demonstrated a “a lifelong commitment to the principles of a free and open press”

Tax advisor Larry Johnson will receive a Friend of Journalism Award for helping IPA member papers apply for recently created tax credits for hiring and retaining employees.

Tickets for the IPA Convention are on sale until the end of the day today.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Journalism Bits and Bites

• This was something I meant to post earlier, but it got lost in the shuffle. David Newbart, who, you may recall, has been helping with editing at Block Club Chicago while its executive editor and co-founder Stephanie Lulay is on maternity leave, announced on his LinkedIn page a little over two weeks ago that he’s been hired a more permanent senior editor. Given the sheer number of articles filed by staff reporters and freelancers, another dedicated editor is a good thing.

• 2026-2027 Report for America Corps member Aydali Campa Lopez will become an investigative reporter at the Investigative Project on Race and Equity effective this July. She currently serves as an environment justice and immigrant communities reporter at Borderless magazine.

• Injustice Watch hired Katharine Keller as Injustice Watch’s director of development. She previously served as director of advancement and strategic partnerships at Forefront. “I’m thrilled to join Injustice Watch and help lead the continued growth of its fundraising and partnership efforts,” Keller was quoted as saying.

• ProPublica won The American Society of Magazine Editors 2026 National Magazine Award in the Public Interest category for three stories they co-published with other outlets:

  • “Now That They’re Free,” published with The Texas Tribune, Alianza Rebelde Investiga and Cazadores de Fake News, by Perla Trevizo, Melissa Sanchez and Mica Rosenberg, ProPublica, Ronna Rísquez, Alianza Rebelde Investiga, and Adrián González, Cazadores de Fake News, July 30;

  • “‘I Lost Everything’: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime,” published with Block Club Chicago and FRONTLINE, by Melissa Sanchez, Jodi S. Cohen, T. Christian Miller, Sebastian Rotella and Mariam Elba, November 13;

  • “Status: Venezuelan,” directed by Mauricio Rodríguez Pons for FRONTLINE, December 10

• Speaking of ProPublica, this year’s investigative editor training cohort includes Josh McGhee is the Chicago bureau chief of MindSite News.

• Asian American Journalists Association’s 2026 Journalism Excellence Awards winners included Chicago winners. Esther Yoon-Ji Kang and Amy Qin won Excellence in Online/Digital Journalism, Data award for their WBEZ “Chicago rents are climbing fast. For many, there’s nowhere left to go” series (1/2/3).

• CAN-TV public access channel earned three silver (1/2/3) and four bronze (1/2/3/4) awards at this year’s Telly Awards. Check out the CAN-TV Instagram page for more details.

• The National Association of Black Journalists announced the 2026 Salute to Excellence Awards finalists, with 13 finalists coming from Chicago media outlets (mostly Chicago Sun-Times and/or WBEZ). You can see the complete list at this link, but I would be remiss not not at least mention that Lee Bey’s architecture column was a finalist in the Commentary/Essay category (larger newsroom subcategory). Winners will be announced at NABJ’s annual convention, which will be held Saturday, August 15, in Atlanta this year.

• CherryRoad Media acquired its second Illinois newspaper - The Sentinel (of Illiopois, a village part-way between Springfield and Decatur). The ownership change will take effect on June 1. CherryRoad Media has been buying small town and rural newspapers all over the country (and occasionally launching new ones). The company has been putting emphasis on local news (while also consolidating and outsourcing some functions region-wide, for better or for worse), so only time will tell how this acquisition would affect the Sentinel - and whether CherryRoad will acquire more Illinois papers in the future.

• Park Ridge City Council honored long-time Northwest Side/Northwest suburban Anne Lunde, who passed away on April 22, with a moment of silence at the start of its May 18 meeting.

Journalism resources

• Emergency Mode for News will be awarding “a limited number of $1,000 stipends to individual journalists or newsrooms to help with emergency training, supply or planning needs.” Apply here by end of day June 1.

• Society of Professional Journalists is accepting applications for First Amendment Forever Fund grants for project that promote press freedom and the public rights to know. The application deadline is June 15, and you can apply here.

Journalism Events

As always, you can read the event listings in chronological order here. Know a journalism event coming up? Let me know.

• On Wednesday, May 27, Mouse Arts and Letters will host its monthly Citywide Newsroom. There will be a citywide pitch meeting/discussion at 1 p.m., and journalists are welcome to work there between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Then, at 7 p.m., it’s the club’s News Night featuring Illinois Answers’ Grace Hauck, Wired magazine senior writer Kate Knibbs, and Cam Rodriguez, who was hired as WBEZ data journalist in April.

• On Friday, May 29, several Black professional organizations, including NABJ Chicago, are hosting a networking mixer at Hue Chicago restaurant, 67 E. Cermak Rd., at 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

• On Saturday, May 30, Pilsen Community Books will host a panel discussion with editors and writers of Chicago-based Heatwave left-wing radical magazine. The panel will be held at 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Journalism Jobs

• Aurora Beacon-News is hiring a full-time general assignment reporter. Experience with community news coverage and fluency in Spanish a plus. The wage is $19.23 an hour, plus benefits. Apply here.

• U.S. Catholic magazine is hiring a full-time assistant editor. Must have 1-2 years of copy-editing and editorial experience. The editor will work in office two days a week and remotely three days a week. Salary starts at $40,000 a year, plus benefits. To apply, email the cover letter, resume and 2-3 writing clips here.

• CAN-TV is hiring a production manager. Must have 3-5 years of production experience. Apply here.

• NEWSWELL Chicago, which publishes Austin Weekly News, Forest Park Review, Riverside-Brookfield Landmark and Wednesday Journal (of Oak Park and River Forest) is hiring;

  • A full-time design and production associate, who will mostly handle ad and marketing design, but will also do some editorial design as well. 3-5+ years of experience in print production, advertising agency, or high-volume creative services environment is a plus. Pay is $20-$25 an hour, plus benefits. Apply here.

  • A part-time designer to help with the editorial design of the papers at least three days a week. The pay. is $20 an hour, plus benefits. Apply here.

Share

Leave a comment

This post has been updated with information from the Daily Herald article about the sale.

Happy Friday, readers and subscribers.

Yesterday (May 21) at 9:41 p.m. Central time, Dirks, Van Essen & April, one of the handful of firms specializing in newspaper sales, sent out a press release announcing that Paddock Publications “has entered into an asset purchase agreement to sell the newspaper to the Chicago Tribune.”

It seems that my initial understanding of the deal, as unlikely as it seemed, was correct. Paddock is only selling the Daily Herald. It is keeping the downstate weekly newspapers that are part of its Southern Illinois LOCAL Media Group division. It is also keeping Town Square Publications, which publishes community guides for chambers of commerce and such. Paddock will retain the employee ownership structure.

According to Daily Herald’s article about the sale, the whole thing was kicked off by Shaw Media offering to buy the paper (which certainly puts an earlier comment by Shaw Media CEO John Rung in an interesting light). This is what triggered the notice back in January and led the Tribune to make the offer.

In the end, the memo stated, the board determined that a sale to the Tribune was in the best interest of the ESOP participants. The board vote approving the sale was unanimous.

The article went on to state that the board “believed the sale of newspaper assets would be in their best interests.”

Bear in mind that Paddock has been employee-owned since 2018. Even with the board vote, the employee-owners will need to vote on the deal before the June 22 closing. It is not a sure thing, and we have seen the deals involving Alden Global fall through just because of the fund’s reputation for bleeding media assets dry. Dallas Morning News is the most prominent example.

One interesting thing about the press release is that it describes the sale as going to Chicago Tribune. Not Tribune Publishing, not Alden Global - Chicago Tribune. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. I doubt that we’re going to get Chicago Daily Herald Tribune or anything like that (though one can’t rule it out). Most likely they’re saying that Daily Herald will become a unit within Chicago Tribune Media Group, Tribune Publishing unit that owns Chicago area newspapers, but one never knows.

There are still some questions that are begging to be answered. Shaw offer kicked the whole thing off, but that didn’t mean that Paddock had to put its biggest newspaper, the newspaper that the company started from, on sale According to Daily Herald article, the Paddock board memo to employees stated that “many factors were considered in approving the sale, including the ongoing secular decline in the newspaper business, the need for future cost-cutting and the overall future trends in the industry.” Did the company think that they would be profitable on the long run if they sell the Daily Herald? It is entirely possible, and bear in mind that we don’t know about different units’ profits and losses.

What happens if Paddock employees vote the deal down? For that matter, what happens if the sale goes through? How will this affect the daily and weekly CTMG newspapers those coverage area overlaps with the Daily Herald?

I will keep in eye on the news over the rest of the day and update this post, if necessary. if news comes in later, expect an update in the next post.

In the meantime, here is the Dirks, Van Essen & April press release in its entirety”

Paddock Publications Enters Agreement to Sell Daily Herald to Chicago Tribune

Arlington Heights, IL - May 21, 2026

Paddock Publications, Inc., parent company of the Daily Herald, announced today that it has entered into an asset purchase agreement to sell the newspaper to the Chicago Tribune.

The Daily Herald has served the suburbs of Chicago for 154 years, tracing its roots to 1872. The paper was independently owned and operated by four generations of the Paddock family before family members sold their interest to employees in 2018 when the company was reorganized as an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).

Dirks, Van Essen & April, a media merger and acquisition firm based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Paddock Publications in the transaction. Terms were not disclosed. All ESOP shareholders will be asked to vote on the sale prior to closing, which is scheduled for June 22.

Paddock Publications filed a public disclosure statement in January announcing that it was considering a sale of the Daily Herald, as required under Illinois’ Strengthening Community Media Act, which took effect in January 2025. Shortly thereafter, the Chicago Tribune ran a full-page advertisement expressing interest in acquiring the publication.

Paddock Publications will continue operating as an ESOP following the transaction, concentrating on its niche publishing division, Town Square Publications, and its weekly newspapers in downstate Illinois.

The Chicago Tribune is owned by Tribune Publishing, which has been owned by Alden Global Capital since 2021.

Chicago Media Journal has been brought to you by….

And readers and subscribers like you.

Share

Leave a comment