After Nov. 14, the Evanston RoundTable LLC will take a hiatus from the print version of its newspaper to focus on digital news through its website, evanstonroundtable.com. Although winter is approaching, we view these next weeks as a period of incubation, not hibernation. What comes next may surprise us all.
But the new focus on digital presentation is by no means a harbinger of diminished quality of reporting. Readers will still have access to our unbiased news, illuminating features and in-depth policy explanation and analysis.
There will be fresh stories daily and breaking news as we learn of it. We encourage community members to sign up to receive email alerts of what’s new and important. The sign-up button is in the upper left-hand corner of our homepage, evanstonroundtable.com
We have received many letters, emails and phone calls in reaction to our Oct. 31 announcement that we would become primarily a digital news source. For 21 years, the RoundTable has brought fair and objective reporting, in-depth news stories, outstanding features and high-quality photography and design to the Evanston community. We offered a physical newspaper that could be held, folded, left on the dining room table for someone else to read and finally recycled (in a bin or elsewhere, as Martha Rosenberg’s droll cartoon on page 7 suggests).
In our Oct. 31 issue we said that our advertising revenues did not match our expenses. To keep the paper in print this long, senior editors have foregone any salary and employees reduced their hours and volunteered their time. It was time to call it quits.
Many readers have suggested that we become a subscription only paper – print or website or both. While we appreciate the suggestions, and, even more, the support implicit in them, we want our paper to be free and, as much as possible, accessible to all.
A bolder and cleaner website will replace the current one in the next few weeks. As an online-only paper, we will maintain our commitment to bring high-quality journalism to the Evanston community.
We will continue to welcome interns, who will join the many who have taught us while they were learning.
Our mission, to search for truth and the finest chocolate, will remain the same. We plan to ask the community to support our efforts to keep local journalism alive.
The climate catastrophe is on a fast track to outpace efforts to address it. With an eye to the future and a commitment to the people of Evanston, we invoke the late Canadian philosopher and scholar Marshall McLuhan: Our paperless medium is indeed the message – sustainability.