Why We’re Creating the Press Club, City Bureau’s Membership Program

Join us in our commitment to reimagining local journalism. Plus: from now until Dec. 31, your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $1,000.

One year ago, City Bureau launched the Public Newsroom after the success of a month-long Kickstarter campaign. Contrary to crowdfunding best practices, we asked people to donate only $10 each — even discouraging larger donations, asking donors to spread the word instead — to create a truly democratized space where people could learn from each other, share skills and hear about amazing things happening in the local media world.

It may have sounded crazy, but it worked. We raised over $13,000 from 662 people in 30 days.

Since then, the Public Newsroom has gone from twice a month to once a week. Our workshops has been led by a wide array of community members, from civil rights icon Timuel Black to journalists to game designers. It’s always free, and always public. And most importantly, it was made possible by the collective efforts of our supporters.

Join the Press Club / Make a Donation

It struck us that this model — creating a program that’s not just for the people and by the people, but funded by the people — was the truest expression of City Bureau’s mission. We wrote back then:

Despite being widely considered a public good, American journalism is largely funded through big-dollar bets by a few decision makers, whether it’s corporations or foundations. Foundations have an important role to play, and we’re proud to have the support of some of Chicago’s best. But we also believe that if our coverage is going to be inclusive, our funding model should be too.

City Bureau is grounded in the belief that when community members get involved in journalism, everybody benefits. We built our nonprofit newsroom around the ideals of inclusion, equity and trust. The Public Newsroom is just one part of that — we’re also expanding our Documenters program and running an innovative Reporting Fellowship, all with just two full-time employees. As we enter our third year of operation, we are taking the next, critical step toward truly putting the public at the center of all our work: building a membership program.

The Press Club, as we’re dubbing it, will have many of the hallmarks you might expect from media memberships. We’ll have members-only events and newsletters, a cute coffee mug and other fun swag, and opportunities to give feedback at the earliest stages of our projects. (You can read all about it here.)

But becoming a City Bureau member means something more. Your contribution represents our shared commitment to reimagining local journalism. We often say that we started City Bureau because we thought that local media could be better — and we didn’t want to wait around for someone to improve it for us. In the last two years, hundreds of people have agreed; they’ve showed us by joining our programs, attending our events and sharing our work on social media.

If you believe in the power of journalism — the kind that gets citizens involved and makes people proud to live in their communities — then we hope you’ll make a financial commitment as well.

We’re also proud to announce that any donation (up to $1,000) to City Bureau between now and December 31 will be doubled, due to generous support from News Match, a collaboration between Democracy Fund, Knight Foundation and MacArthur Foundation. The News Match program is aimed at supporting nonprofit news organizations like us, which play a vital role informing the public and holding those in power accountable. We are excited to have such essential support in our launch of our new Press Club program, and as we prepare for our launch party, the Soap Box Ball, on November 2.

Every little bit counts. If every Chicagoan donated just a single dollar per year, we’d be a nearly $2.7 million organization. (It would only take 28,000 Bronze-level members ($8/month) to reach that same figure.)

Your donation ensures City Bureau has the resources to grow sustainably, independently, and — most importantly — to be accountable to you, our readers, supporters and neighbors. With your support, we are able to keep our core programming free and open to the public.

We invite you to join us in our civic journalism mission and become a Press Club member today.

Join the Press Club / Make a Donation

• Want to tell us, face-to-face, what you think about the Press Club? We’re hosting a Public Newsroom on Oct. 12, with the help of Emily Goligorski of the Membership Puzzle Project, to get your early feedback and incorporate it into our program.
• Celebrate the launch of our membership program with us on Nov. 2 at the Soap Box Ball.