We have big news! The Chicago Reader is joining Noisy Creek, a media company that’s working to bolster alternative weeklies and keep them thriving. This national network includes our friends with shared roots across the country: The Stranger in Seattle and the Portland Mercury in Portland, Oregon. After facing an immediate cash deficit earlier this year and turning to our community, we’re building a sustainable business model that creates strength in reader and philanthropic support.
With this news, we are also introducing Noisy Creek’s event discovery platform, EverOut, as well as entertainment ticketing service Bold Type Tickets to Chicago. By diversifying our revenue sources, we will create the foundation for us to thrive in the long-term and continue to bring you closer to supporting the venues and artists that have come to life in the pages of the Reader for decades.
Our critical reporting will be the same hyperlocal, independent journalism you’ve come to count on for over five decades, now with hope for a financially sustainable future. The Reader’s legacy of long-form, investigative journalism is unrelenting, and our robust coverage of the arts sector is key to our city’s network of creators incubating talent—and preserving it in Chicago.
Though we’re getting some much-needed assistance in this troubled media landscape, Noisy Creek has no intention of interfering with our editorial vision. Our team is committed to continued transparency and editorial independence, and we’re dedicated to protecting our journalistic integrity as we look forward to working with our new partners.
We believe in free news accessible to every single Chicagoan—but that mission is bigger than all of us. Alt-weeklies protect the truth. Human-centered journalism makes us all stronger. Long-term survival isn’t promised to any newsroom right now, but we are greater together.
The Reader has been at risk of shutting down too many times over the years. We’ve existed for ten mayoral administrations, carefully chronicling how the city has grown to be what it is today—never backing down from the stories that needed to be told. We’ve reported from underground music venues, distinctive restaurants, and storefront theaters. After half a century, the Reader is still here. We’re not going anywhere. We’ll see you in the streets.
Team Reader
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
