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]
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]
