Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth
Chicago Reader protest
The Reader editorial union protest outside co-owner Goodman’s house drew labor allies, nonunion staff and supporters.
Transitioning Isthmus to a nonprofit wasn’t easy, and there were some bumps in the road. But our journey looks pretty uneventful when compared to what our colleagues at the Chicago Reader have been going through.
One of the nation’s oldest alt-weeklies, the Chicago Reader was founded in 1971, five years before Isthmus put out its first issue. It has changed hands several times over the last decade or so and in 2020 became a biweekly. In 2018, developer Elzie Higginbottom and attorney Leonard Goodman bought the paper for $1 and veteran journalist Tracy Baim, who co-founded Chicago’s LGBTQ newspaper Windy City Times in 1985, came on as publisher. According to news accounts, Goodman and Higginbottom have invested some $2 million in the paper since becoming owners.
The owners’ intent was to support the paper for only a couple of years so in 2019 Baim suggested establishing an independent nonprofit; once the nonprofit received 501(c)(3) status from the IRS, it would purchase the paper from the owners for a nominal $100. The owners and board agreed to the transition and Baim got to work. In February 2020 the paper applied to the IRS for nonprofit status through a new entity, the Reader Institute for Community Journalism. The next month, the COVID-19 restrictions began. The Reader was awarded nonprofit status in fall 2020, but the transition was delayed because the paper had received funds through the Paycheck Protection Program.
In November 2021, just as the paper’s second and final PPP loan was forgiven — clearing the way to finalize the sale and transition to a nonprofit — co-owner Goodman wrote a column in the Reader about why he was disinclined to vaccinate his 6-year-old daughter against COVID. When the column generated backlash from editorial staff, the editors hired an independent fact-checker to review the piece. The fact-checker found 15 inaccurate or misleading statements in the column, but Goodman disputed the findings.
Baim says in an interview that she proposed several ways to address the situation — including pulling the column, adding an editor’s note, posting the fact check with the column or running a rewrite. “We gave him many options and they were all shut down,” she says.
Baim says what happened next took her completely by surprise. Goodman and his supporters on the board stalled plans to turn the Reader into a nonprofit, citing concerns about the future of free speech at the publication. They ordered an investigation into possible First Amendment violations, put Baim under a financial audit and asked for her resignation as president of the new nonprofit, among other things. In recent weeks, the dispute focused on the future of the new nonprofit board, with Goodman and the people aligned with him seeking majority control. “The nonprofit board was adamant that they would not cave to a majority of people representing any one owner,” says Baim. “We knew that staff would be outraged. The community would be outraged. And most importantly, our funders…would walk away. So we stood firm.”
On April 14, members of the Chicago Reader Union, which represents the editorial staff at the Reader, published an open letter to Goodman in the Chicago Tribune, pressing him to allow the paper’s transition to a nonprofit to continue. On April 21, the union also held a rally outside of Goodman’s house on North Lake Shore Drive. The situation was getting pretty desperate: the paper was running out of money, and staffers were worried about whether they would be getting paid and able to make their rent. Incredibly, writers kept writing and sales reps kept selling ads through it all. The struggle received national press, including in the Washington Post.
Goodman suddenly reversed course on April 26, saying in a statement that he and his supporters could not continue the fight “without destroying the Reader.” He said he was stepping aside and would sign off on the sale so that the Reader could immediately transition to a nonprofit. On April 27 Baim and Karen Hawkins, co-publisher and editor-in-chief, posted the news to the Reader’s website. The message was celebratory, but also grim: “Due to the last four months of extra expenses in the fight for independence, and not being able to fundraise until the deal was done, we’re a half million dollars behind where we should be. So, once again, we turn to you to help keep the Reader going….”
Baim says a number of factors fortified their efforts, including a united front from all staffers, union and non-union, and employees from both editorial and sales. “And the journalism community was very united behind us,” says Baim, noting that some 400 writers signed on to the union letter to Goodman. Also important, adds Baim, is that co-owner Higginbottom came out strong in her corner.
Baim says he recognized her efforts in recent years to stem the financial losses at the organization and to diversify revenue streams and staff. “I felt seen,” she says.
She says she doesn’t see nonprofit journalism as the “savior of community media,” but for the Reader it was the right move. It fit with the paper’s history of being free in print and online, and its commitment to continuing that tradition. Also important was the paper’s “history as an incredibly important legacy outlet” that was still very much loved. “And not just the love from the generation from 1971, but a lot of younger people really loved and appreciated it for its coverage of culture that was emerging.”
In an email, one Isthmus reader asked whether the situation at the Reader had any implications for us, good, bad or otherwise. I don’t think the specifics of the Reader’s transition melee has any particular relevance, but what we do share is that both papers — and countless others like us — continue to struggle for economic stability during a period of industry destabilization. And we’re both banking that nonprofit status opens up additional sources of revenue from foundations and philanthropists that help keep our respective publications afloat.
While writing this column, I received a call from the always exuberant Lindsay Wood Davis, the retired broadcast executive and co-founder of WVMO-FM, the city of Monona’s radio station. Davis has been a steadfast supporter of Isthmus’ early efforts as a nonprofit and he told me his call was related to a conversation he had with an old friend about the fate of the Reader.
Davis, it turns out, has some ties to the paper, dating to the 1970s, when he and his wife were living in Evanston, Illinois, and were members of a group known as the Amazingrace Family, which ran a coffeehouse and concert production company. They advertised in the Reader — a lot! — and knew the founders of the paper. Davis said he was calling to connect me with someone he thought I should talk to; someone who had expressed interest in Isthmus and its future.
Baim says she felt isolated at times during the fraught battle and considered quitting. But she also felt buoyed by the support of staff, other writers, and the community. While our journey to a 501(c)(3) lacked the rancor and drama of the Reader’s, I can relate in general to all those feels when it comes to working on a new nonprofit. So it means a lot when someone like Davis calls on his own volition to offer connections, assistance, and comforting words. “This is a crusade,” he told me before signing off our call, “and a lot of us want to help.”
