After nearly nine years as co-founder and co-leader at City Bureau, I’m moving on to my next chapter.
By Bettina Chang
In 2015, co-founder Bettina Chang hosted weekly Editor Office Hours at Build Coffee.
After nearly nine years of being a co-founder and co-leader at City Bureau, I’m stepping down to begin my next chapter. It’s an honor to share that I have been awarded a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University to explore and test new ideas for the future of news.
I am brimming with gratitude and optimism as I reflect on this transition: gratitude for where we’ve been together, and optimism for where we’ll go from here.
City Bureau launched in 2015, but I didn’t leave my full-time magazine job to become an official City Bureau employee until 2018. It was both terrifying and freeing for someone like me (the daughter of immigrants!) to leave behind a corporate salary and health insurance to work on this startup passion project of ours.
One of the first things I started with this newfound freedom was Editor Office Hours. For one afternoon each week, I sat at our adopted workplace at Build Coffee to offer my skills and advice (for better or for worse) to anyone who wanted it. It was, in internet parlance, a real-life Ask Me Anything thread. More importantly, it was a raw test of a core City Bureau tenet: that journalism skills are life skills, and that they should be shared generously and often.
The first few hours: crickets. I consumed an absurd amount of coffee. I applied for Obamacare. I Photoshopped a classic Peanuts illustration to advertise my offerings better.
But then, people began to approach. I spent a decent amount of time attempting to explain what skills I had to offer (turns out, as journalists, we’re not great at doing that). Others had specific questions to ask — would I look at their resume? could I review their daughter’s college essay? how do news editors make decisions about what stories to publish? how do aldermen choose to spend money in their wards?
As word got out, more people showed up each week and soon I barely had time to grab my own cup of coffee before sitting down. I talked to people looking for their first job, people applying for graduate programs, people who were just grabbing a cup of coffee and wanted to know more about City Bureau. I recruited fellowship applicants, Documenters and Public Newsroom attendees and hosts. I even chatted with Trina Reynolds-Tyler about beginning her journey as a data scientist – fast forward five years, and with Sarah Conway we co-published the Missing in Chicago investigation together. Just this week, we learned that our investigation was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. It was an honor to be part of this project and I’m grateful that this recognition will help more people access the investigation and its resources.
Bettina promoted City Bureau’s Ask An Editor sessions with a playful editor’s riff on a classic Peanuts graphic.
My Editor Office Hours showed that we were onto something. Sure, trust in news media is at historic lows. But trust in the skills and knowledge that journalists have was apparently high — I was amazed how much people were willing to share with me. The trust only grew stronger as we got better at reaching community members, offering tangible resources and asking them to come back and share more with others.
City Bureau has always been more than a job to me — it’s a proof point for what happens when journalism truly belongs to everyone. The City Bureau team has not only embraced this ethos, they have helped to shape it and evolve it into something special, reimagining with creativity and care what local news and civic life can be.
The last nine years could play back to me as a highlight reel, recounting moments I’m incredibly proud of: A fellowship investigation into home lending inequities led to state legislation and community organizing that pressured big banks to change their practices. Documenters surveyed Chicagoans and we used their feedback to drive hyperlocal election coverage and award-winning engagement projects. We hosted 155 Public Newsrooms (ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE, y’all!), including one where we danced in Care Bear costumes, and one where we met our future Executive Director … years before we knew we’d be hiring one.
I’ve stood on award stages; I’ve presented our work on multiple continents; I’ve laughed and cried and argued with and about and for my colleagues. I’ve been part of a movement that has made it nearly impossible to talk about local news without talking about information equity and authentic engagement.
But those are just highlights. At this moment, I am simply sitting with this immense feeling of being part of a community — not a “community” just in name, but one that I feel deeply in my bones, and one that I’m endlessly grateful to be a part of.
As co-founders we wrote, “We don’t believe in heroes,” because our work here is not about a single person, it’s about collective effort. To me, that means it’s not just OK, it’s beautiful, for other people to carry the work onward.
While my time as a staff member at City Bureau is coming to end, I’m excited about what lies ahead. Our work is sticky; it’s bigger than the sum of its parts, it’s far-reaching, and it’s just getting started. With Morgan’s visionary leadership as our new Executive Director and strategic planning on the horizon, I’m confident that City Bureau’s best days are still to come. And I’ll always be a co-founder and enthusiastic advocate for the mission.
Thank you all, sincerely — I’ll see you at the coffee shop, and next time maybe you can offer me an edit.
Betting Chang
City Bureau Co-founder
With Gratitude from All of Us
When Bettina shared this news with staff, there was an outpouring of moving stories and expressions of deep gratitude. Some of our staff members are also alumni of our programs, and many people shared how Bettina impacted their lives and careers long before they even joined City Bureau as staff. This response was a testament not only to Bettina’s impact as a leader and colleague but also to her incredibly generous spirit, encouraging mentorship of hundreds of emerging journalists, and passionate community building.
With immense appreciation, I want to thank Bettina for her visionary leadership and steadfast dedication to City Bureau. Her warmth, enthusiasm, and good humor have cultivated the vibrant community that makes City Bureau feel special. I have no doubt that she’ll have a tremendous impact in the John S. Knight Fellowship program community and beyond.
Bettina’s description of her Editor Office Hours serve as an illustrative example of City Bureau’s broader story – created intentionally to foster accessibility, transparency, meaningful exchange, and building connections. These values have always been core to City Bureau’s approach, even as our organization evolves. Above all, our mission remains constant: to cultivate and sustain communities of civic learning and engagement in service of more equitable local media, inclusive placemaking, and participatory democracy.
As we embark on strategic planning this year, ask big questions, and set the course for City Bureau’s next era, we’re unified by our shared commitment to reimagining journalism as a tool for building community power. I’m grateful to continue the work alongside our dedicated team and all of you who make this work possible as part of the community Bettina helped to build.
With gratitude,
Morgan Malone
City Bureau Executive Director