CSJ's Mike Fourcher Examines His Options
Center Square Journal’s Mike Fourcher held a public meeting at the Dank Haus, in Lincoln Square Thursday evening to discuss the future of the Center Square Journal. Approximately 50 people attended the meeting.
Several weeks ago, Mike Fourcher announced that his hyper-local news outlets, Center Square Journal and Roscoe View Journal, would cease operations. The purpose of the meeting was to seek input from the Community about what should become of the 3 year old hyper-local news website, centersquarejournal.com and its spinoff, roscoeviewjournal.com.
Citing his inability to generate sufficient income and his lack of affection for selling advertizing, Mr. Fourcher explained that he could no longer justify his keeping the CSJ and RVJ going. It would take approximately $56,000 in revenue to keep the CSJ and RVJ operating for a year without him.
After opening up the meeting for input from those in attendance, the options for the CJS/RVJ boiled down to leaving the site up as a static archive of old stories, partnering with an existing new operation like WBEZ, turning the operation over to a consortium of chambers of commerce and neighborhood associations or increasing contributions and work of volunteers.
Fourcher promised to announce his future plans soon. See more photos from the meeting at the Welles Park Bulldog facebook page.
Mike Fourcher was co-founder of the Center Square Ledger with the Welles Park Bulldog’s publisher Patrick Boylan. A dispute arose between the partners and they went their separate ways. Fourcher opened the Center Square Journal and Boylan opened the Welles Park Bulldog. The Bulldog has no plans to close.
Oh nuts! I missed out on this meeting. I was a big follower of Center Square Journal. Hmmm. I really like the list that was generated. The one key element is to have a good (actually great) leader for the website, if it continues. It needs the body and soul of a dedicated person. Mike did a fantastic job with the site. I hope it continues on.