Chicago Reader Being Sold (Again)

About This Message Board
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Moderators: please feel free to move this to another forum if it isn’t appropriate here.

The Chicago Reader, the alternative weekly paper which, as I understand it, owns the Straight Dope (and, by extension, the SDMB) has changed hands several times over the past decade, and converted to a non-profit three years ago. It was announced today that it is being purchased by Noisy Creek, a media company which owns the alternative papers in Seattle and Portland. As per this article on the Reader’s website:

Presumably, if the Dope is still part of the Reader, that purchase would include the Dope and the SDMB. I’m not sure if the moderators have heard anything about this yet, or potential impacts, but change is always..interesting. The news seems to be good news for the Reader, but I do wonder if it affects our little corner of the world.

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Current Owners are the Chicago Sun Times. I’m not sure how the Reader plays into this. I don’t think the Reader is still connected to the SDMB.

I believe the Reader was sold off before 2020 and is not connected in fact.

Some confirmation from 2018:

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Thank you for that explanation, @What_Exit. If that’s the case, this thread probably can be closed.

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For the sake of SDMB history, probably worth staying open. It does seem to be kind of about this message board.

I had to double check stuff myself and I’m a moderator. So it is also a little grey at this point I think.

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IMO time for at least one Mod to gently ping Ed for anything he’s willing to share w his dominion.

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As someone from the Seattle area who has occasionally read the Stranger for decades, I think it’s cool for them to be in the same family.

(Even with the explanation that this board isn’t part of that.)

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As I said, the SDMB is not connected to the Reader anymore and as far as the current owners go, we"re still here, so, so far so good. Keep a low profile I guess.

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Reminds me of the childhood joke ending with “When the Foo shits, wear it.”

Yeah, let’s just quietly hide in our backwater lane. Thank you.

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If Wikipedia is correct the Sun Times is now owned by Chicago Public Media (CPM) a not-for-profit radio and print media company, which does NPR.

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I believe that is accurate.

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That is my understanding, too. CPM acquired the Sun-Times in early 2022, making the Sun-Times a not-for-profit, as well. Their other primary channel is operating WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR station.

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So if we want to financially support the Dope, we donate to Chicago Public Media? I expect they need donations now more than ever.

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Indirectly, sure. But no guarantee that would help us. I know I’m clueless to that at least.

If their donation portal lets you say why your donating and you indicate to support Public Radio and especially the Straight Dope Message Board that might help, but it also might upset the apple cart and bring us to the attention of someone important that looks into what this SDMB is? No idea what would happen.

Overall, I don’t really see a downside to supporting Public Radio.

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If they ever threaten to shut down the Dope, we could suggest that instead they run a fund raiser here. Probably get well more than it takes to run this board.

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I just saw this thread and I agree. That is, if the determining factor is money as opposed to just not wanting the hassle (or even a hypothetical future hassle).

If I recall correctly, in one of the former threads about the Dope and finances, donations were mentioned as a way to pay the Dope’s way, but one sticking point was that people weren’t sure if a for-profit entity could take donations. As a not-for-profit, one would think that that particular hurdle would be lessened with CPM.

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Since it seems like our ownership/governance/administration is always a bit unclear, maybe we should start thinking about what to do if worst comes to worst?