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Since journalism’s going digital, there must be advantages to a new medium that’s digital from the ground up. Testing this proposition, which has held up pretty well in New York City, DNAinfo.com on Monday launched its Chicago operation. Front and center on the new website was its first scoop: half a million dollars has mysteriously disappeared from former county board president Todd Stroger’s reelection fund. The scoop was dug up by DNAinfo’s new man in City Hall, Ted Cox. You might remember Cox from his years writing sports for the Reader. That sideline came to a halt when DNAinfo signed him on: it doesn’t share its staff writers.
Sheer professionalism also slowly but surely gets people’s attention. On the basis of a couple of conversations I’ve just had with DNAinfo representatives, I’d say professionalism is the ace in the hole they’re counting on in Chicago.
