“Will we ever invent anything this useful again?” wonders the cover of a recent Economist, and the query is illustrated by Rodin’s Thinker sitting on a flush toilet.
Unfortunately, arguing in my head with the Economist doesn’t make me any less gloomy. No wonder journalists can’t figure out how to monetize the rising digital tide—the economy can’t, either! It’s not lifting our boats because it’s not lifting anybody’s.
The 21 things Fourcher learned are all discouraging. In 2004, when he was involved in the launch of Chicagoist, “I was stunned at how I could write a post at 8:00 a.m. and by noon thousands of people had read it.” That was then. Today there’s so much competition that “launching a new brand and gaining mind share is getting logarithmically more difficult to do.”
At least Fourcher’s not going away quietly. He’s scheduled a community meeting for the evening of January 31 at the DANK Haus in Lincoln Square, in order to ask for help. Announcing the meeting online, he explained that the “economics just aren’t there for a set of stand-alone neighborhood news sites in Chicago. They need a sponsor and a different kind of community support.” What kind of support? “I believe that if the community wants to keep the sites going, they will have many more ideas than I will,” Fourcher tells me. “I think a good number of people will be there. But I’m not holding my breath.”
