I can speak – a bit – to the economics. Perhaps not as definitively as you would like but I can give some perspective.
The management of Sun-Times Media – our corporate parent – has been busy setting its house in order over the last year and change. They’ve been through some management changes, they’ve been instituting new ideas and policies, they’ve been resetting the tone of the paper, they’ve been very involved with all things Chicago. They have new partners and fresh content and they’re moving in all sorts of interesting directions all based around “The Workingman’s Newspaper.” You gotta love that.
(Didja see where Ed Zotti is now a regular columnist for the Sun-Times? On his other beat, which is urban planning. Good stuff too, go check it out, especially those of you who live in Chicago.)
They sold the Reader and spun it off to new owners.
Note that when they sold the Reader, they kept us. Not only that, they kept us running. They could just as easily closed down the whole deal – who does message boards today? What does that have to do with a hometown newspaper? But we’re still here. They let us stand.
We are not the biggest thing on their plate – the Chicago Sun-Times is their meat and it only makes good sense that they tend to that first before they look at any of the sides.
We are still here. The site still works, with occasional hiccups, but damn, it’s old. (Like a lot of us.) Life goes on.
Yeah, we’re asking you to be patient. To keep supporting us with your participation on this site, with your enthusiasm and energy, with your laughter and tears and occasional aggravations. To keep asking questions, to keep sharing your problems with us, to look out for your fellow Dopers and the odd new person that falls in the door from time to time. To keep putting your money where your mouth is and continuing to support us financially and in every other way. To keep playing these reindeer games.
We been at this in one way or another since 1996. We all built something here over all that time since. Coming up on 22 million posts. That’s a lot of history and a good sized place in bits and pixels. And as long as we got a place for two or more of us to meet – and if myself and the moderators have anything to say about it – we will always have a place. You will always have a place.
John, I’m sorry you’re so disheartened. It’s not easy times and there’s so many things out there that can make your head asplode being made manifest in this messed up insane world. it would be easy to look to this place as a refuge from all that, but we are not the Big Rock Candy Mountain. Much of the same stressors and aggravations and negativity and etc. live here too. Because humans bring them, like carrying in germs on your hands or dirt from your shoes. (This is why we can’t have nice things.)
We cannot promise you that this place will not have people you disagree with. We can promise you that there’s other people you can choose to focus your attention on for more beneficial outcomes. Because, you know, being happy is the best revenge.
I hope this long-winded post is some use to you.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator