The Chicago journalism community is collaborative and close-knit in ways that benefit not just us, but the city we cover at large.
By Ariel Cheung
The other day, I was chatting with some out-of-town journalists who were visiting several Chicago newsrooms. I had the comical experience of repeatedly knowing who they were referring to before they’d even dropped names.
The Block Club editors? Oh sure, I worked with them at DNAinfo — and some even further back in my days as an intern at the Sun-Times (where I also first met City Bureau co-founder Darryl Holliday). A new Tribune food reporter? Yep, we met when I was covering Chicago’s dining scene.
The longer I live and work in Chicago — I just hit my 9-year anniversary in February — the more I realize that it’s just not like this everywhere. The Chicago journalism community is collaborative and close-knit in ways that benefit not just us, but the city we cover at large.
I saw this play out once more in this week’s coverage from Borderless magazine, a Chicago-based nonprofit newsroom focused on centering the voices of immigrants. In an investigation published Wednesday, Borderless highlighted dozens of warnings and complaints about the city-run shelter in Pilsen where a 5-year-old boy died in December.
As our winter fellows chart out their coverage of migrant labor, it’s not surprising there’s quite a bit of crossover with Borderless. And because we share a common goal of centering our coverage on the people at the heart of news issues, sharing resources and working together feels natural.
At least, that’s how City Bureau senior reporter Sarah Conway put it as she recapped how one recent example came about.
Since our winter fellows began in January, their paths have crossed with Borderless a few times as both outlets interviewed recently arrived migrants and advocates.
And when our team met a couple who had been staying at the Pilsen shelter before relocating, our fellow Sebastián Hidalgo — who had recently worked with Borderless on another story — let the Borderless folks know the couple might be a good source for a forthcoming article about the Pilsen shelter.
Not only could they speak about the conditions, but one said she had witnessed some of 5-year-old Jean Carlos Martinez Rivero’s last moments at the shelter. She had offered to perform CPR on the boy, but shelter staff refused, she said.
As our fellows are still in the early stages of their reporting, it would be weeks before this information would be published — unless we worked with Borderless to get it out sooner. For me, it was a no-brainer.
Because at the end of the day, journalism isn’t about the bylines or the page views. Our job is to chase down information the public deserves to know and can use to make our city better.
And here at City Bureau, we’ll work with anyone who wants to make that happen.
A version of this story was first published in a March 1, 2024 edition of the Newswire, a newsletter filled with civic knowledge and opportunities for Chicagoans who want to make a difference in and for their communities.
Want to check out more civic reporting from our fellowship? Take a look at past projects here.