What happens when communities lose their local news organizations?
The evidence is clear. Participation in local elections falls and elections are less competitive. Corruption goes unchecked and the cost of government rises. Disinformation becomes the norm as people get their news from social media.
Local newspapers are the connective tissue of communities. They introduce people to their neighbors, provide a trusted, balanced forum for debate and discussion. And they throw light on problems that need to be addressed.
The RoundTable is on a mission to make sure Evanston continues to be served by a free, nonprofit source of local news. In 2020, we rebooted what had been a venerable name in print journalism as a digital nonprofit news outlet. With the support of the community, we are making tremendous progress toward our goals.
Our Spring Membership Drive is on during the month of May – if you have not yet become a member of the RoundTable, won’t you join us today? Help us build Evanston’s only free, nonprofit newsroom serving our entire community.
We continue to emphasize coverage of what matters most in Evanston: city government, our schools, the arts and culture scene, and the local business and economic climate.
Recently, we expanded our editorial leadership team with the addition of veteran Chicago journalist Susy Schultz as our editor. We’ve added new staff members with expertise in marketing and fundraising to help us foster growth.
We’ve also added great new multimedia features, including daily photo portraits of Evanston by photographers Richard Cahan and Joerg Metzner; Evanston Rules, Evanston’s leading podcast about the people who make our community unique, and People You Should Know, a video series focused on fascinating Evanstonians that we’re producing in partnership with the Evanston Chamber of Commerce and Byline Bank.
As a nonprofit newsroom, we depend on the community’s support to fund our growing coverage of Evanston. Please support us and become a member of the RoundTable today!