Updates on the Development of the McKinley Park News

Greetings, Dear Reader!

Thank you as always for your interest in and engagement with the McKinley Park News. We have continued to labor on various parts of our micro-local news outlet, and I wanted to share the latest updates with you.

First, unfortunately, we continue to operate in denuded capacity because I and my family are still not back in the neighborhood. As I’ve shared in past Letters from the Editor, we await the completion of our home rehab in McKinley Park, as we have for the past 2-1/2 years: It’s an ongoing nightmare of problematic contractors, still without an end date.

Coverage Has Suffered

During exile in a South Loop condo, I’ve continued work from the end of our dining room table to try to build a local news business — a challenging prospect in the best circumstances — while keeping the publication active and current.

Although our events listings and subscriber features have remained updated, our editorial news publishing has taken the biggest hit from personal circumstance, an unfortunate risk of solopreneurship. As I’ve written before, our business model relies upon proximity: Neighborhood reporting and publishing is so much easier (and less costly) when residing in the neighborhood.

Distracting Betrayals

In addition to personal hassles draining away our time, another has been engagement with programs and organizations that purport to support journalism and local news, but instead work for themselves as top priority.

We keep encountering fundamental betrayals of purpose and mission — and a complete abandonment of foundational journalistic principles — from those who say they want to help us, but instead are just riding the gravy train of free money coming from either guilty rich people or payola outfits like the Google News Initiative.

From Public Narrative’s de facto seizure of the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA), to Press Forward Chicago’s lying about providing support to for-profit news outlets, to the Medill School’s transformation into a marketing institute that trains talented young people to be better liars, carpetbaggers siphon away money and attention that purportedly was to have gone to support journalism and the news industry.

I’m Out

We decided to apply for the national Press Forward program because the application process pushed us to finish business plan elements as always intended, even though we knew our application was a long shot. (We didn’t get it.) Like other distractions, this has also taken attention away from local news publishing.

I’m officially done with “journalism” organizations and programs. They distract from our real work, promise diminishing returns at best and are led by non-practitioning dilettantes who give unqualified and unproven direction more tilted toward helping themselves than local news.

Organizational Irrelevance

Fortunately, these jackanapes and their overweening institutions do not matter in a couple fundamental ways. As a for-profit news publication, our ultimate success relies on earning revenue, not begging for free money.

These organizations and programs are also irrelevant to the most important people of all: You, the consumer of local news. I’ve yet to encounter a neighbor who cares whether we’re a member of this or that journo organization, or if we’ve participated in a conference or seminar, or if we’ve won whatever industry award or grant. You just want your local news.

Bright Spots

I’m very sorry we’ve been unable to meet expectations and demand, and I agonize constantly about missing opportunities to once again fully serve our neighborhood (and hopefully make a living doing so). I think ejecting these toxic relationships and engagements is going to go a long way toward having more time to better serve you.

I do note bright spots encountered through these fronts, all fellow publishers of original news: folks like Ron Roenigk of Inside Publications, Sandra Trevino of Enchúfate, Alicia Ramirez of The Riverside Record (California), and the publishers conversing in the Association of Non-Profit News Outlets’ email listserv discussions, in which we’re grateful to be included, even though we’re for-profit.

Another bright spot is the opportunity to continue to work with Neighborhood News Correspondent Kevin O'Neil, who continues to freelance great stories for us based on his lifelong career as a professional journalist. Thanks, Kevin!

Happy Platform

There’s plenty of other good stuff going on, too. On the geeky front, I remain so enthused about and happy with our improved and tech debt-free publishing platform, which is performing great and delivering full features while respecting the privacy of our audience at a cost that is orders of magnitude less than what competitors are paying.

Our choice in open source platform has also proven prescient: We’re not using the WordPress content management system, which is now imploding under the poor governance of the autocrat who controls it.

Happy Halloween and Birthday

I love Halloween, and I’m enthused we’re able to bring back our McKinley Park Halloween Guide this year, now with a Trick or Treat map! Many thanks to the neighbors who have shared their locations for trick or treating; send email to info@mckinleypark.news if you’d like your neighborhood haunt listed in the guide (businesses and organizations can be included, too).

Thanks to McKinley Perk for posting this amazing map promotion!I’m also happy to report that our neighborhood will once again be the home for Chicago’s Birthday Party on March 4, 2025 (which also happens to be Fat Tuesday: Woo!). We’ve started organizing in advance to make the 2nd annual celebration even bigger and better; many thanks to St. Andrew Lutheran Church and the 12th Ward for their early support and planning assistance.

We’re holding another Chicago Birthday Party planning meeting the evening of Thursday, November 21, and anyone or a group who’s interested in helping out can send email to info@mckinleypark.news to engage with this non-commercial, community-run project.

Getting Ready to Return

I’m very bummed that I and my family will not be back in the neighborhood for Halloween, since I’ve already sketched out ideas to scare the crap out of trick or treaters at our updated abode. (I’ve done pretty well in years past.) And if we’re not back by next March, I don’t know what I’m going to do … the completion date is always “another coupla months or so …”

However, once we’re back: Get ready. It will be full steam ahead for the McKinley Park News and full coverage for our community. In the meantime, I’ll continue to eject distractions and try to serve you better with more local news. I really appreciate your patience, attention and engagement as we lurch through our development and personal circumstance.

Thank you as always for your support and engagement. Cheers!

— Justin Kerr
Publisher, McKinley Park News