Block Club Chicago tries to pick up where DNAinfo Chicago left off
Back in November, DNAinfo and Gothamist owner Joe Ricketts abruptly pulled the plug on both online news outlets because DNAinfo New York staff voted to unionize and the guy just doesn't like unions. Since then, some of the former DNAinfo Chicago staffers found jobs in other Chicago media outlets, some turned to the Dark Side (Public Relations) and some did freelance work for Chicago Sun-Times and a few other media outlets.
A few weeks after the closure, I saw a fleeting mention in some media outlet (I think it was an issue of Columbia Chronicle, but I'm not sure) of some ex-DNAinfo reporters trying to start a new media outlet. At the time, I filed this under "let's wait and see if anything comes of it."
Well, on Tuesday, February 6, former DNAinfo Chicago editors Jen Sabella, Shamus Toomey and Stephanie Lulay announced that they were launching Block Club Chicago to do a similar kind of neighborhood coverage their former employer (and several neighborhood newspapers and websites) are providing. They're planning to launch in April. They brought on board several ex-DNAinfo reporters and Lee Edwards, who (in the interest of full disclosure) used to be a regular stringer and social media person for Austin Weekly News, though, a few months earlier, he became a regular contributor to the iconic Chicago Defender. To ensure that they would be able to cover the cost of operations and pay both reporters and freelancers, they launched a Kickstarter with a relatively modest fundraising goal of $25,000.
It says quite a bit about how much goodwill DNAinfo Chicago earned that, as of a little past midnight on February 9, they were able to raise $123,799 - nearly five times that goal ($50 more then when I started wiritng this post). And the Kickstarter has 26 days to go.
I can't say I'm entirely surprised - like I've written before, people clearly did like DNAinfo Chicago - but I'm still impressed that they exceeded the goal by that much already.
Their logo has a certain retro charm
The real question is - will they be able to sustain it?
Unlike DNAinfo Chicago, which earned whatever revenue it got (and, as I've written many times before, whatever they got wasn't enough to make profit) entirely through advertising, Block Club Chicago will have a revenue stream - a $5 a month paywall. The best I can figure out, they will have breaking news and maybe a few articles per month for free, but after that, paywall comes down.
By comparison, out of the Chicago neighborhood paid newspapers - Beverly Review, Hyde Park Herald, Southwest Herald-News and Nadig Newspapers' Northwest Side Pressand Reporter/Journal - Nadig Newspapers and the Herald put their articles free online, while the Review actually has a paywall that kicks in after you read more than five articles a month, and Herald-News only puts up some of its articles online. Hyde Park Herald's and Southwest Herald-News' print subscriptions are $30 a year (or about $2.50 a month), while Beverly Review offers a $27.00 a year ($2.25 a month) print subscription and a $5 per 30 days online subscription. Nadig Newspapers' subscription is actually a hefty $115 a year (or $9.58 a month).
It helps the Block Club that two of the reporters they hired - Alisa Hauser and Mina Bloom - have experience covering neighborhood that don't have any local newspapers (though there are a few neighborhood news blogs). Edwards, like I said, knows his way around the West Side and, if his work for Xhicago Defender is any indication, he knows his way around black parts of the South side, too. And while the Defender and Chicago Crusader cover those parts of the South Side, there is no real neighborhood coverage anymore (Citizen Newspapers used to fill that role, but now... most of what appears on their pages is, unfortunately, press release regurgitation)
(Speaking of newspapers - I couldn't help but notice that their Kickstarter describes Block Club Chicago as "digital-first" (emphasis mine). I wonder if that's just a random bit of corporate spin lingo or if they do actually want to put out something physical in the future. DNAinfo Chicago had print newspaper versions, but I was never entirely sure what the deal of those was.)
In any case... I do think there is something to be said for having a way to generate revenue online that doesn't rely on increasingly less profitable digital advertising. The interest is clearly there. Whether that would be enough is another matter. Unless I'm forgetting something, this will be the first time a Chicago digital media outlet is launching with a newspaper-type subcription-unlockable paywall. There are free blog-type websites, completely paywalled newsletters like The Daily Line and Daily Whale. We may be in uncharted territory here.
But then again, at least it feels more solid than DNAinfo's financial model.
Only time will tell whether Block Club Chicago will actually survive on the long run. But for now... I feel like they at least have a decent shot.
A few weeks after the closure, I saw a fleeting mention in some media outlet (I think it was an issue of Columbia Chronicle, but I'm not sure) of some ex-DNAinfo reporters trying to start a new media outlet. At the time, I filed this under "let's wait and see if anything comes of it."
Well, on Tuesday, February 6, former DNAinfo Chicago editors Jen Sabella, Shamus Toomey and Stephanie Lulay announced that they were launching Block Club Chicago to do a similar kind of neighborhood coverage their former employer (and several neighborhood newspapers and websites) are providing. They're planning to launch in April. They brought on board several ex-DNAinfo reporters and Lee Edwards, who (in the interest of full disclosure) used to be a regular stringer and social media person for Austin Weekly News, though, a few months earlier, he became a regular contributor to the iconic Chicago Defender. To ensure that they would be able to cover the cost of operations and pay both reporters and freelancers, they launched a Kickstarter with a relatively modest fundraising goal of $25,000.
It says quite a bit about how much goodwill DNAinfo Chicago earned that, as of a little past midnight on February 9, they were able to raise $123,799 - nearly five times that goal ($50 more then when I started wiritng this post). And the Kickstarter has 26 days to go.
I can't say I'm entirely surprised - like I've written before, people clearly did like DNAinfo Chicago - but I'm still impressed that they exceeded the goal by that much already.
Their logo has a certain retro charm
The real question is - will they be able to sustain it?
Unlike DNAinfo Chicago, which earned whatever revenue it got (and, as I've written many times before, whatever they got wasn't enough to make profit) entirely through advertising, Block Club Chicago will have a revenue stream - a $5 a month paywall. The best I can figure out, they will have breaking news and maybe a few articles per month for free, but after that, paywall comes down.
By comparison, out of the Chicago neighborhood paid newspapers - Beverly Review, Hyde Park Herald, Southwest Herald-News and Nadig Newspapers' Northwest Side Pressand Reporter/Journal - Nadig Newspapers and the Herald put their articles free online, while the Review actually has a paywall that kicks in after you read more than five articles a month, and Herald-News only puts up some of its articles online. Hyde Park Herald's and Southwest Herald-News' print subscriptions are $30 a year (or about $2.50 a month), while Beverly Review offers a $27.00 a year ($2.25 a month) print subscription and a $5 per 30 days online subscription. Nadig Newspapers' subscription is actually a hefty $115 a year (or $9.58 a month).
It helps the Block Club that two of the reporters they hired - Alisa Hauser and Mina Bloom - have experience covering neighborhood that don't have any local newspapers (though there are a few neighborhood news blogs). Edwards, like I said, knows his way around the West Side and, if his work for Xhicago Defender is any indication, he knows his way around black parts of the South side, too. And while the Defender and Chicago Crusader cover those parts of the South Side, there is no real neighborhood coverage anymore (Citizen Newspapers used to fill that role, but now... most of what appears on their pages is, unfortunately, press release regurgitation)
(Speaking of newspapers - I couldn't help but notice that their Kickstarter describes Block Club Chicago as "digital-first" (emphasis mine). I wonder if that's just a random bit of corporate spin lingo or if they do actually want to put out something physical in the future. DNAinfo Chicago had print newspaper versions, but I was never entirely sure what the deal of those was.)
In any case... I do think there is something to be said for having a way to generate revenue online that doesn't rely on increasingly less profitable digital advertising. The interest is clearly there. Whether that would be enough is another matter. Unless I'm forgetting something, this will be the first time a Chicago digital media outlet is launching with a newspaper-type subcription-unlockable paywall. There are free blog-type websites, completely paywalled newsletters like The Daily Line and Daily Whale. We may be in uncharted territory here.
But then again, at least it feels more solid than DNAinfo's financial model.
Only time will tell whether Block Club Chicago will actually survive on the long run. But for now... I feel like they at least have a decent shot.