Happy Holidays from the McKinley Park News

Greetings, Dear Reader:

Thank you as always for your gracious attention and patronage of our micro-local news publication. I hope that you and yours are enjoying an excellent holiday season thus far and that a joyful time continues for you into 2025.

I’m happy to share some of the latest updates on the development of the McKinley Park News, which has been long delayed by personal circumstance: As I’ve shared in other Letters from the Editor, we’ve been exiled from the neighborhood as the rehab of our residence now approaches its third year, and this adversely affects our local news model of an embedded neighborhood journalist.

Fortunately, things have finally started to steamroll forward, and we can see a light at the end of the tunnel heralding our return! Yes, our construction schedule yet again posits “another couple months,” but we’ve now moved past some big benchmarks and have good reason to hope we’ll return this midwinter. Shortly thereafter, we’ll return to full operations and neighborhood news coverage.

Canonical Neighborhood Calendar

In the meantime, we’ve remained busy in exile, maintaining and improving core features, such as reactivating sets of special calendars based on our canonical neighborhood events listings: our Christmastime Calendar, the McKinley Park ice skating rink schedule and calendars for Fitness, Kids and Teens, Seniors and Veterans. (We had a Halloween events calendar and treat map, too!)

We’ve also enjoyed onboarding more local organizations, elected officials and local enterprises into our Institutions and Sponsor programs, with our inaugural features of Sponsor News and Institution News, and Sponsor Events and Institution Events, powering new ways for those who serve our neighborhood to easily share happenings and updates of all kinds with our local audience.

Thanks, Kevin!

Our stalwart Neighborhood News Correspondent Kevin O’Neil has kept coverage flowing this year for public safety and development beats, and we look forward to more great reporting from this lifelong, veteran journalist.

We’re also considering how new production staffing might help us grow, and prospectively bringing more qualified reporters into our fold, both new and returning to the McKinley Park News.

Gross Neighborhood Product

As we’ve largely squared away our platform — erasing technical debt, girding independence of publishing and further entrenching a priority of audience service — we’ve moved on this year to detailed business planning.

This has included validating prospective revenue based on detailed assessment of McKinley Park’s “Gross Neighborhood Product” paired with extremely conservative assumptions about a whether a slice of this is enough to support thriving neighborhood-scale news. I’m happy to report it looks like it is.

Neighborhood News Network

If we can establish business success in McKinley Park, our long-term goals call for growth into adjacent neighborhoods with a collective of independently operated and owned publications that share resources and opportunities. As we’ve started to collect innovative and independent thinkers into an advisory board, clarity is emerging on how our approach and appeal needs to speak to prospective partners and give us a unique brand that reflects our unique approach.

I hope to soon announce and premiere our new top-down brand to support our bottoms-up approach, but have no concerns about changes here: The McKinley Park News will always remain the McKinley Park News.

Trumpocalypse

Of course, big changes are possibly in store for our economy, civil life, healthcare, environment and so many other facets of our society assuming the incoming elected administration does all that it has promised to do.

Even though we’re focused on the neighborhood instead of top-down national issues, we anticipate covering their local effects: both good and bad. Unfortunately, it looks like the latter might predominate, and we’re accordingly adopting a position of hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.

Although “interesting times” herald opportunity for compelling journalism, we’re also looking forward to remaining an independent, stable voice and forum by and for our neighborhood.

Chicago’s Birthday Party

One thing we do hope brings joy and enables community in our neighborhood is the 2nd Annual Chicago’s Birthday Party, slated for the evening of Tuesday, March 4, 2024, at the geographic center of Chicago.

Our next planning meeting is set for this coming Thursday, when we’ll reconvene with the dozens of community groups and enterprises supporting this event. Our budget has come into focus: $3,000, with $2,500 set for our biggest expense to rent a tent to guard against inclement weather.

Soon, we’ll be reaching out to enterprises and individuals who’d like to collectively help support this event through monetary or in-kind donation: 100 percent going to support the event, transacted with the help of non-profit fiduciary agent McKinley Park Civic Association. Thanks, MPCA!

We Wish You the Best

One of the best things about McKinley Park is how lots of people come together in all different types of ways to help and support each other. We think this not only helps make the holidays brighter, but also builds resilience and grows hope within our community against any upcoming tumult.

We look forward to being an ongoing part of our neighborhood and sharing 2025 with you. All the best to you and yours this holiday season. Cheers!

 — Justin Kerr
Publisher, McKinley Park News