Heidi Randhava, a reporter and advertising manager for the Evanston Roundtable, a hyper-local digital media publication in the lakefront city of Evanston north of Chicago, calls herself a “cheerleader” for local news. “Even if you tune into CNN, or listen to local officials, being a consumer of local news is the best way in which people in the community learn,” … [Read more...] about Local news outlets could see boost from federal spending bill that targets community journalism for the first time
Chicago
Records show Illinois fails to hold police accountable for misconduct
Eighty-one Chicago police officers lost their badges over the past 20 years, but only after being investigated for 1,706 previous offenses - an average of 21 accusations per officer. One third (28) of these Chicago officers were investigated for domestic altercations or sexual misconduct. Two murdered their wives. That statistical picture emerges … [Read more...] about Records show Illinois fails to hold police accountable for misconduct
Lost Chicago Sun-Times photos find their way to history museum
For nearly a decade, an archived collection of photographs from the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper seemed lost forever, first to a convicted embezzler and then later to an eBay collector who put them in storage in the boyhood hometown of Ronald Reagan. The photographs, captured by Sun-Times photojournalists over six decades, include a 1991 photo of Michael Jordan kissing the … [Read more...] about Lost Chicago Sun-Times photos find their way to history museum
Local media have role in fighting vaccine hesitancy, misinformation
A few days ago I shared an op-ed on my personal Facebook page by a doctor in Los Angeles who wrote that she was running out of compassion for the people unwilling to get the COVID vaccine. “Last year, a case like this would have flattened me,” the doctor wrote of a man who had refused to be vaccinated and was now dying. “I would have wrestled with the sadness and how … [Read more...] about Local media have role in fighting vaccine hesitancy, misinformation
Local Chicago news startup turns 3, with a growing list of newsletter readers and paid subscribers
When their billionaire owner abruptly closed Chicago’s DNAInfo in 2017, three former editors decided to build a different kind of news source out of the remnants. Block Club Chicago launched seven months later, with a mission to combine neighborhood reporting with public service journalism and to do it under a nonprofit business model. It was an ambitious plan, but former … [Read more...] about Local Chicago news startup turns 3, with a growing list of newsletter readers and paid subscribers