![]() ChicagoNow logo | |
Type of site | Blogging site |
---|---|
Available in | English |
Dissolved | August 18, 2022 |
Owner | Tribune Publishing |
URL | www |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | August 2009 |
ChicagoNow [1] was a blogging site managed by Tribune Publishing, owner of the print Chicago Tribune newspaper. It featured a network of blogs of international, national, and local interest on a variety of topics ranging from crime to public schools to politics and diplomacy. [2]
Notable ChicagoNow contributors included the staff of the Chicago Reporter , [3] and Shimer College president Susan Henking. [4]
On August 18, 2022, the site was shut down with no announcement. [5]
ChicagoNow was launched in August 2009. [6] [7] Its launch coincided with the Tribune company's bankruptcy. [8] As a newspaper-run blogging community, with the initial tagline "a blog by and for locals", it represented what one observer called "a new value proposition for newspapers". [8]
ChicagoNow used Movable Type as its blogging platform when it first launched, then switched to WordPress in 2011. [9]
The website of the Tribune daily RedEye was initially hosted on ChicagoNow but later moved to its own domain. [10]
After the acquisition of the Tribune by Alden Global Capital, ChicagoNow was shut down without warning on August 18, 2022. [5]
In April 2010, the World Editors Forum described ChicagoNow as a "hyperlocal blog network" that has "a personal quality that many larger newspapers lack." [11]
In September 2010, Time Out Chicago criticized ChicagoNow for hosting an unidentified police officer in what they called "a hate-filled, racist rant by blogger Joe the Cop entitled 'The ghetto shooting template' for three days and counting now." [12] ChicagoNow removed the posts in question, stating that while they don't edit posts, they reserve the right to remove them. [13]