Letter From the Editor
How You Can Support Independent Chicago News
Bootstrapping a neighborhood news business is an immense, but exhilarating, challenge. I’ve labored on the McKinley Park News for years without pay as its sole primary resource, working step by step to build up our publishing platform, neighborhood news coverage and business operations.
#WeAmplifyMcKinleyParkVoices
Throughout, the McKinley Park News has had a positive impact, providing ongoing features alongside reporting that informs the community and allows it to take action. Just in the past year:
- Our reporting allowed the neighborhood to engage with a last-minute, seemingly unpopular attempt to drop a 10,000-person commercial music festival into McKinley Park.
- Our consistent coverage of development opportunities (and demolitions) has kept the focus on our neighborhood’s endangered historic buildings, especially those in the Central Manufacturing District.
- Our ongoing environmental coverage has provided the most in-depth information about our overburdened neighborhood and Southwest Side through accurate news that originates from on-the-ground reporting and hard data from credible sources.
Neighborhood Journalism Under Attack
Despite recent triumphs, it has still been a very challenging year. In addition to slowdowns caused by unfortunate personal circumstance, the McKinley Park News has been under attack. A local protest group that has been stealing our content and maligning us online for years has spent what must be significant resources to step up their published libel while attempting to sabotage our neighborhood and professional relationships.
Even the neighborhood development council, seemingly driven by a quisling board, has piled on with libel against our local small business: all without asking us beforehand or responding to any of the follow-up contact attempts we’ve made.
CIMA Fund-Raiser
Contrasting with the shadow of these distractions, the Chicago Independent Media Alliance (CIMA) has been an inspiring light for the McKinley Park News. This group of over 60 independent Chicago news outlets has connected us to professional journalism resources, expertise and camaraderie citywide. (I’ve published another Letter from the Editor about righteous and successful North Side publisher Ron Roenigk and his Inside Publications, also a CIMA member.)
The latest CIMA program is our fall fund-raiser, which is an unprecedented opportunity for local news readers like you to show your support for independent Chicago and McKinley Park journalism. The fund-raiser runs October 3-17, with all contributions made through the https://savechicagomedia.org website.
Triple Your Impact on Oct. 3 and 4
To make the most impact through doubled matching funds, donate on October 3 or 4. Thanks to additional support provided by The MacArthur Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, The Joseph & Bessie Feinberg Foundation, The Square One Foundation and The Crossroads Fund, all donations at the very start of the campaign triple in value.
Through the SaveChicagoMedia.org website, you can choose to donate any amount to be divided between all participating CIMA publications, or you can donate to individual publications like the McKinley Park News.
Click Here To Donate Now on the SaveChicagoMedia.org Website
Thank you!
We deeply appreciate all of the support of every type we’ve received from our community: from words of encouragement through subscriptions and sponsorships. The CIMA fund-raiser is an opportunity for you to support local journalism at any level, whether you’ve already subscribed to an independent neighborhood publication like the McKinley Park News, or if this is your first time showing your support for local journalism.
We’ll be sharing updates on CIMA’s fund-raiser as we move through it, and we look forward to its benefits, which will hopefully go a long way toward helping us cover our costs and continue to grow. Thank you for your consideration toward being a supporter of CIMA and the McKinley Park News!
I wish all the best to you and yours.
-- Justin Kerr
Publisher, McKinley Park News
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