Center Square Journal Asks For Community Input For Next Chapter

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 15, 2013 8:40PM

The end of 2012 brought to it a sense of closure for Mike Fourcher. The founder and publisher of Center Square Journal and Roscoe View Journal made a nice run of covering local news for Lincoln Square, North Center, Roscoe Village and West Lakeview for two years, but the advertising-based business model on which the hyperlocal websites were modeled ultimately weren’t enough to sustain their operations.

Last week, Fourcher wrote a shockingly candid post on the CSJ website (which also appears on his personal blog) explaining how he came to the tough decision to call it a day and move on. Even with this decision, Fourcher hopes to find a second life for CSJ and RVJ.

The thought of just shutting them down pains me. I’ve seen other people do it, and I’ve read this TechCrunch post on killing start ups too many times to count. I believe we’ve created a public trust, so I decided to invite the public to a community meeting to decide what they want to do.

--snip--

Real money will be needed to keep it going, and it can’t be run by just volunteers. But let’s be frank: The communities I cover are of means, and if there’s people that want the sites to continue, I’m sure ideas will pop up.

Fourcher hopes the sites can live on, possibly as non-profits. He told me during a phone call last week, “I have a background in community organizing and thought, ‘Why not put this to use?’ Lots of people are willing to say community supported neighborhood news is important, But are they willing to ask, is it important enough?”

To that end, Fourcher has organized a community meeting 7:30 p.m. Jan. 31 at DANK Haus (4740 N. Western Ave.) where he wants to gauge readers and members of the community to determine the future of Center Square and Roscoe View Journals. RSVP to be part of the discussion here.

“Can we find someone else to take over the sites? The answer very well may be no,” Fourcher said. “But it wouldn't be the first time.”

(Disclosure: Mike Fourcher was among the original writing staff at Chicagoist and Samantha Abernethy edited Center Square Journal before rejoining Chicagoist in 2011.)