I broke Chicago Now...or how I survived everything but Tribune/Alden management

This is a story about how one guy broke a Chicago-based blog site almost singlehandedly. But to get to the end of the story and the big payoff, there has to be a beginning. Here goes:

I began writing at ChicagoNow in 2013, a few years after they opened. In my nine-plus years there I saw many changes….mostly all were bad.

We lost managers…and I survived. We lost many writers…and I survived. We lost all incentives to write there…and I survived. We even lost our beloved yearly Christmas party…and I survived….and so did ChicagoNow.

But all of this was nothing compared to what occurred in the last two months. Our last manager left at the end of June. His final words were that someone would be in touch with us soon. We’re still waiting.

We made it through July fine. Writers kept writing and publishing. We’re a pretty self-sufficient group. But at the same time, you could help but wonder what was next. What would Tribune/Alden do and when?

The shit started to go down a couple of weeks ago. My friend Michelle of Planet Michelle fame had enough. She left with a scathing column that trashed the owners of ChicagoNow. They immediately took it down and wiped it clean. It was nowhere to be found….almost as if it never existed.

That was our first sign that someone was watching.

Last week I decided that I had enough. I was tired of being ignored, plus I was already writing here. After nine years it was time to say goodbye….and that’s what I thought I was doing in my final post there. Yeah, I tossed in a few digs at Tribune/Alden, but nothing like Michelle did….I’m nicer and more subtle than her (even she’ll admit that). My post was mostly a thank you to my readers and to management for giving me the opportunity to write there for almost a decade.

It lasted twelve hours before it was gone. It suffered the same fate as my friend’s post. Wiped clean as if it never existed.

When that happened, I let the current writers know. It was a warning to be careful with what they wrote…something they never had to worry about before. While the group was discussing this, Tribune/Alden shut down ChicagoNow. Everything from the site was wiped clean. More than a decade of work from more than four hundred writers was gone. It was as if ChicagoNow never existed.

Was I upset that ChicagoNow closed up shop? Yes and no. I knew it was only a matter of time so I was prepared. I backed up all my work and had already moved on to a new place to write…and so far so good, at least I think so. But, there were others who didn’t have a clue this was happening. They lost years of work that was important to them with no way to replace it. Brutal!

Okay, so let’s cut to the chase. Did I really break ChicagoNow? Who knows?!

Maybe after seeing what I wrote, so soon after what Michelle wrote, they didn’t want anyone to trash them publically anymore, so they shut it down.

Or maybe it was just a coincidence that the timing of my post coincided with the time they planned to shut down the site? Hmmm…but if this is true, why did they go to the trouble of eliminating my post? It would have been cleaned with the rest of the writing on the site. Maybe it was their way of saying a final fuck you to me and the rest of the writers that provided free content that they could bombard each post with ads that went on forever.

Well kids, this post and the one I wrote yesterday is my way of saying a final fuck you to Tribune/Alden. And the key word to this entire diatribe is FINAL!! This will be the final time I write about this situation. I promise! It’s done, it’s over and I’ve moved on and I’m thrilled with it.

So, that’s my story about breaking ChicagoNow and I’m sticking with it. But, now it’s time to put it in the past. Hey Substack management, just a warning. I may break you, too. Give it nine years or so.