Block Club Chicago Officially Launches

Block Club Chicago officially launched its subscription based news service Wednesday, after securing initial startup funds via Kickstarter and other donors and initially rolling out some stories over the past few months on the platform Medium. “We are incredibly excited to get back to covering neighborhood news,” said Shamus Toomey, editor-in-chief and co-founder in a statement. “We want to thank our readers for their patience and officially say: ‘We’re back!’” The site was founded by former editors of DNAinfo, which was shuttered along with Chicagoist last year by billionaire owner Joe Ricketts after employees attempted to unionize. “Our entire team believes in this so wholeheartedly, and after hearing from our readers and supporters, we think we can give Chicago the community-level journalism it needs and deserves,” said Jen Sabella, co-founder and director of strategy. (Robert Feder)