Letter From the Editor
Not on the Good Foot
Have you been hungry for more neighborhood news? Our efforts to bring you the events and updates of Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood continue unabated, but slowed by personal circumstance and unfortunate surprise, a casualty of our current status as a solopreneur-driven enterprise.
Breaks and Moves
As I shared with you earlier, dear reader, I broke my leg, which put me into months-long recovery that impacted the McKinley Park News and our publishing schedule. Unfortunately, I discovered that surgery will be required after all, forcing me to repeat a process of treatment and recovery that looks to lay me out once again, for months, keeping me away from on-site reporting and engagement.
The long-planned rehabilitation of our neighborhood home is another personal circumstance behind recent publishing delays. In 2008, we moved into what could charitably be called a “fixer-upper” here in McKinley Park. Now, we’re finally fixing it up, necessitating a (temporary) move, and all the work that this implies.
Although our reporting slowed down, we’ve kept the website’s features up and running, as well as continually updated our neighborhood event calendars and premium subscriber content. We’ve also been working hard on back-end technology and business development.
Metro Media Lab
In fact, a very exciting initiative begins this week for us: the Metro Media Lab, a news incubator program from the Medill School at Northwestern University. The McKinley Park News is joining The TriiBE, Evanston RoundTable and Wednesday Journal to form this program’s 2022-2023 cohort.
I’m profoundly excited about our opportunity to engage with the Metro Media Lab, as this program looks to provide key support for developing our publication’s sustainability. Although the McKinley Park News operates from a foundational business plan, we need to take next steps toward things like market analysis, revenue development and funding in order to continue operations (and hopefully even grow).
Return to News
With a couple milestones now in the rear-view mirror, we’re settling back into a better publishing groove and are looking forward to catching up on coverage. We’ll still continue to report on the latest news of the neighborhood, too, thanks to the help of our great neighborhood news correspondents and the many Institutions and enterprises that provide their news we can share with the neighborhood. I anticipate full mobility again early this summer and a return to our neighborhood residence later this year.
I thank you, dear reader, for your continued engagement with our micro-local news publication, and especially all the subscribers, Sponsors and so many others who provide us with support and encouragement. I cannot wait to fully be on my feet again to bring our neighborhood’s news to you!
— Justin Kerr
Publisher, McKinley Park News
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