title: Block Club Chicago
text: # Block Club Chicago
  
  Block Club Chicago is an online newspaper that reports local and neighborhood news in Chicago. The website operates as a non-profit, subscription-based service.
  
  After DNAinfo was shut down in November 2017, Block Club Chicago was founded by three former DNAinfo Chicago editors – Shamus Toomey, Stephanie Lulay, and Jen Sabella. The new online publication was initially funded with a Kickstarter campaign and with capital from the Civil publishing platform. The Kickstarter was, at the time, the most successful local news Kickstarter campaign. Block Club Chicago went live on June 12, 2018.
  
  Block Club Chicago was founded in order to supply a neighborhood-focused coverage. It therefore adopted a geographic, rather than topical, structure, in which each reporter is assigned a "neighborhood beat".
  
  As of 2021, Block Club Chicago had a newsletter circulation of 140,000 and a paid subscribership of 15,500. It had ten reporters and five editors.
  
  As of 2023, the website had 20,000 paid subscribers, and offered news coverage of 45 of Chicago's 77 community areas.
  
  