• by Ray Schultz , February 2, 2025

The Chicago Reader, an alternative nonprofit newspaper, has raised more than $125,000 in donations since its mid-January announcement that it was restructuring and laying off staff. 

“The past two weeks have been some of the most turbulent days in the Reader’s 53-plus years,” writes Publisher Amber Nettles in a Publisher’s Note.  That might sound like an exaggeration, but from everything I’ve been able to uncover, this is as close as we’ve ever been to closure.

Nettles adds: “When speaking to the board, our funders, and our staff, I say, ‘If we get another day, we’re more likely to get two. If we get a week, we probably have another. And if we are here for another month, we could make the quarter.’” 

Despite these pressures, the printed paper “is still revenue positive, for now,” Nettles says. “Maintaining a weekly printing schedule allows us to accept advertising orders and plan for the future.  

The surviving staff is taking voluntary pay cuts, furloughs and deferred compensation to keep the paper publishing. 

The weekly operational cost was $115,000 at the start of the year. But expenses are now down to $88,462 per week and should total $76,462 by March 17. 

In June 2024, the Reader announced it was returning to weekly print production for the first time since June 2020.