{{Short description|Blogging website}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Infobox website | name = ChicagoNow | logo = 64px|ChicagoNow logo | logocaption = ChicagoNow logo | screenshot = | collapsible = | collapsetext = | caption = | url = {{URL|www.chicagonow.com}} | commercial = Yes | type = Blogging site | registration = Optional | language = English | num_users = | content_license = | owner = Tribune Publishing | author = | launch_date = {{Start date and age|2009|08|df=no}} | dissolved = {{Start date and age|2022|08|18}} | revenue = | current_status = | footnotes = }}

'''ChicagoNow'''<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagonow.com/|title=ChicagoNow|website=www.chicagonow.com|language=en-US|access-date=2018-04-04|archive-date=August 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120820212950/http://www.chicagonow.com/|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref name="techcrunch">{{cite web |url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/04/24/the-tribune-company-finds-success-in-homegrown-hyperlocal-news-site-chicagonow/ |title=The Tribune Company Finds An Audience For Homegrown Hyperlocal News Site ChicagoNow |last=Rao |first=Leena |work=TechCrunch |date=April 24, 2010 |access-date=February 25, 2012}}</ref>

Notable ChicagoNow contributors included the staff of the ''Chicago Reporter'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-muckrakers/about/|title=About &#124; Chicago Muckrakers|work=ChicagoNow|access-date=2013-05-23}}</ref> and Shimer College president Susan Henking.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-campus/about/|access-date=2013-05-23|title=About Shimer Prez|work=ChicagoNow|archive-date=May 7, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130507090844/http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-campus/about/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On August 18, 2022, the site was shut down with no announcement.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Kaufmann |first=Justine |date=August 25, 2022 |title=ChicagoNow is now Chicago history after Tribune shuts down blog network |url=https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2022/08/25/chicagonow-now-chicago-history |access-date=April 3, 2024 |website=Axios}}</ref>

== History == ChicagoNow was launched in August 2009.<ref name="aboutcn">{{cite web |url=http://www.chicagonow.com/about-chicagonow/ |title=About ChicagoNow |work=ChicagoNow |access-date=August 31, 2011}}</ref><ref>[http://www.tribunemediagroup.com/portfolio/chicago-now/ Tribune Media Group, "Reach and Engage Chicago's Blogging Community"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120127170024/http://www.tribunemediagroup.com/portfolio/chicago-now/ |date=January 27, 2012 }}</ref> Its launch coincided with the Tribune company's bankruptcy.<ref name="mersey">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qx_mZacoIcUC&pg=PA73|pages=73–74|title=Can Journalism be Saved?: Rediscovering America's Appetite for News|author=Rachel Davis Mersey|isbn=978-0313392085|year=2010}}</ref> 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".<ref name="mersey"/>

ChicagoNow used Movable Type as its blogging platform when it first launched, then switched to WordPress in 2011.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chicagonow.com/chicagonow-staff-blog/2011/06/whats-new-at-chicagonow-2-0/ |title=Welcome to ChicagoNow 2.0 |work=ChicagoNow |date=June 29, 2011 |access-date=August 31, 2011}}</ref>

The website of the ''Tribune'' daily ''RedEye'' was initially hosted on ChicagoNow but later moved to its own domain.<ref>{{Cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091218185032/http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/redeye/|archive-date=2009-12-18|url=http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/redeye/|title=RedEye &#124; ChicagoNow}}</ref>

After the acquisition of the Tribune by Alden Global Capital, ChicagoNow was shut down without warning on August 18, 2022.<ref name=":0" />

== Reception == In April 2010, the World Editors Forum described ChicagoNow as a "hyperlocal blog network" that has "a personal quality that many larger newspapers lack."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.editorsweblog.org/web_20/2010/04/chicagonow_offers_hope_for_hyperlocal_ne.php |title=ChicagoNow offers hope for hyperlocal news sites |last=Jaffe |first=Alexandra |date=April 26, 2010 |work=World Editors Forum |access-date=February 25, 2012}}</ref>

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."<ref>{{cite web |last=Sennett |first=Frank |date=September 23, 2010 |title=''Trib''{{'}}s ChicagoNow hosts cop's racist rant three days and counting |url=http://timeoutchicago.com/things-to-do/out-about-blog/120177/tribs-chicagonow-hosts-cops-racist-rant-three-days-and-counting |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100926155446/http://www3.timeoutny.com/chicago/blog/out-and-about/2010/09/tribs-chicagonow-hosts-cops-racist-rant-three-days-and-counting |archive-date=September 26, 2010 |access-date=February 25, 2012 |work=Time Out Chicago}}</ref> ChicagoNow removed the posts in question, stating that while they don't edit posts, they reserve the right to remove them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.chicagonow.com/chicagonow-staff-blog/2010/09/why-we-removed-2-arresting-tales-posts/ |title=Why we removed 2 Arresting Tales posts |work=ChicagoNow Staff Blog |date=September 23, 2010 |access-date=February 25, 2012}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{official}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20111119190433/http://multimedia.tribune.com/CN/ChicagoNow.html Tribune Media Group's ChicagoNow 2009 introduction]

{{Tribune Publishing}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chicagonow}} Category:American blogs Category:Defunct American websites Category:Tribune Publishing Category:Internet properties established in 2009 Category:Internet properties disestablished in 2022 Category:2009 establishments in Illinois Category:Blog networks

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