DNAinfo Chicago, an online news source, is putting out more print newspapers
When I came home last Saturday, I discovered something unexpected. There was a stack of newspapers right under my building mailboxes. Newspapers I've never seen before.
This is something that doesn't happen every day - especially in this day and age. I eagerly picked one of them up to get a closer look.
Notice the inscription on top? For those of you who don't know, DNAinfo.com is an online news outlet that specializes in neighborhood-centric news. It fills similar niche as community newspapers like Beverly Review, Hyde Park Herald, Chicago Northwest Side Press, etc. Except, you know, online. DNAinfo launched in New York City and expanded into Chicago two years ago, right around the time the community newspaper I worked for (the Chicago Journal) closed.
Since then, they've done some really good work. But, as I previously wrote, they've had trouble making money. As I've written before many times, making money online is hard. The revenue from digital advertising is smaller than what you'd expect to get from print advertising, and it takes much larger audience to break even, let alone pay your writers anything resembling a decent wage. And when you're writing stuff that only people in certain portions of a single city are going to care about, this becomes that much harder to achieve. Just ask the ill-fated Center Square Journal.
Because DNA Info is owned by billionaire Joe Ricketts, it doesn't face the same financial pressures as Center Square Journal did. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't want his company to stand on its own two feet. So DNAinfo Chicago has been trying to increase revenue. It launched a streaming radio station, which eventually turned into ad-supported podcast. And, in December 2013, it released a 14-page newspaper in Lincoln Park neighborhood that printed DNAinfo Chicago's coverage of the area.
I've never been able to get my hands on one. A few months back, I went in Lincoln park to try to track a copy down. Nobody seemed to know what I was talking about, so I assumed it never really went anywhere, and DNAinfo Chicago quietly stopped publishing it.
Obviously, that wasn't the case.
The Edgewater paper used the same design as the Lincoln Park newspaper, but it had four pages rather than 14, and only two sections (the main section and the Real Estate section) rather than Lincoln Park's four. Unlike the Lincoln Park paper, it's going to be published monthly. And it would be more accurately called "Edgewater and Rogers Park News," since half of the stories are either Rogers Park related or are relevant to both communities.
The introductory editorial goes into why DNAinfo Chicago is expanding its print presence. Sort of.
There aren't too many media companies starting print publications these days - but there aren't many companies like DNAnfo.com.
[...]
Because we want to make it easy for you to be informed, DNAinfo reaches you through multiple mediums including the web, mobile, radio - and now print.
The weekend edition of DNAinfo will be delivered to every household in the Edgewater area by mail each month, making it a unique opportunity for neighborhood merchants and advertisers as well. DNAinfo's Edgewater News will capture the attention of the area's highly engaged residents. Paired with our website, it is an incredible combination with a powerful reach
The copy I got has only one ad - for Logan Square based Danztheate Ensemble (which, according to the ad, will be performing in a church in western Edgewater in a few weeks). Not the most promising start. But advertising base can be built up over time, and if they're expanding beyond Lincoln Park, it must have worked once, right?
I guess we'll see what happens around this time next month.
I don't know just how many neighborhood newspapers DNAinfo Chicago is putting out. I know that there's an Lakeview paper that follows the same format. But beyond that...
againstathorn, rempel, rowandoll and any other Chicagoan who happens to be reading this - have you gotten a DNAinfo newspaper in your mailbox last Saturday?
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This is something that doesn't happen every day - especially in this day and age. I eagerly picked one of them up to get a closer look.
Notice the inscription on top? For those of you who don't know, DNAinfo.com is an online news outlet that specializes in neighborhood-centric news. It fills similar niche as community newspapers like Beverly Review, Hyde Park Herald, Chicago Northwest Side Press, etc. Except, you know, online. DNAinfo launched in New York City and expanded into Chicago two years ago, right around the time the community newspaper I worked for (the Chicago Journal) closed.
Since then, they've done some really good work. But, as I previously wrote, they've had trouble making money. As I've written before many times, making money online is hard. The revenue from digital advertising is smaller than what you'd expect to get from print advertising, and it takes much larger audience to break even, let alone pay your writers anything resembling a decent wage. And when you're writing stuff that only people in certain portions of a single city are going to care about, this becomes that much harder to achieve. Just ask the ill-fated Center Square Journal.
Because DNA Info is owned by billionaire Joe Ricketts, it doesn't face the same financial pressures as Center Square Journal did. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't want his company to stand on its own two feet. So DNAinfo Chicago has been trying to increase revenue. It launched a streaming radio station, which eventually turned into ad-supported podcast. And, in December 2013, it released a 14-page newspaper in Lincoln Park neighborhood that printed DNAinfo Chicago's coverage of the area.
I've never been able to get my hands on one. A few months back, I went in Lincoln park to try to track a copy down. Nobody seemed to know what I was talking about, so I assumed it never really went anywhere, and DNAinfo Chicago quietly stopped publishing it.
Obviously, that wasn't the case.
The Edgewater paper used the same design as the Lincoln Park newspaper, but it had four pages rather than 14, and only two sections (the main section and the Real Estate section) rather than Lincoln Park's four. Unlike the Lincoln Park paper, it's going to be published monthly. And it would be more accurately called "Edgewater and Rogers Park News," since half of the stories are either Rogers Park related or are relevant to both communities.
The introductory editorial goes into why DNAinfo Chicago is expanding its print presence. Sort of.
There aren't too many media companies starting print publications these days - but there aren't many companies like DNAnfo.com.
[...]
Because we want to make it easy for you to be informed, DNAinfo reaches you through multiple mediums including the web, mobile, radio - and now print.
The weekend edition of DNAinfo will be delivered to every household in the Edgewater area by mail each month, making it a unique opportunity for neighborhood merchants and advertisers as well. DNAinfo's Edgewater News will capture the attention of the area's highly engaged residents. Paired with our website, it is an incredible combination with a powerful reach
The copy I got has only one ad - for Logan Square based Danztheate Ensemble (which, according to the ad, will be performing in a church in western Edgewater in a few weeks). Not the most promising start. But advertising base can be built up over time, and if they're expanding beyond Lincoln Park, it must have worked once, right?
I guess we'll see what happens around this time next month.
I don't know just how many neighborhood newspapers DNAinfo Chicago is putting out. I know that there's an Lakeview paper that follows the same format. But beyond that...
againstathorn, rempel, rowandoll and any other Chicagoan who happens to be reading this - have you gotten a DNAinfo newspaper in your mailbox last Saturday?
---