{"id":259,"date":"2015-04-24T17:51:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T17:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/2015\/04\/24\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/"},"modified":"2015-04-24T17:51:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T17:51:00","slug":"lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/","title":{"rendered":"LION member spotlight: Evanston Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Q&A with Bill Smith, publisher of Evanston Now<\/a> in Illinois.<\/p>\n

1. When did your site launch, what geography does it cover and why was it founded?<\/h4>\n

Evanston Now launched on March 27, 2006. It covers Evanston, Illinois, a city of 75,000 people just north of the Chicago city limits on the Lake Michigan shoreline that’s home to Northwestern University.<\/p>\n

I launched Evanston Now to fill a gap in the local media landscape after I returned to Evanston, my hometown, after more than three decades pursuing a career elsewhere.<\/p>\n

2. What was your background before becoming an independent local news publisher?<\/h4>\n

I left Evanston after getting journalism degrees at Northwestern and spent about a dozen years in broadcast news, mostly in Detroit.<\/p>\n

I then spent another dozen years teaching journalism, for the last half of that time in Boston.<\/p>\n

After that I worked in the Boston area for online media companies, including work as a product manager for what was then one of the major internet search engines, before deciding to move back to Evanston.<\/p>\n

3. How would you describe your operation and business model?<\/h4>\n

We’re a community news site supported primarily by advertising revenue.<\/p>\n

In addition to myself, Evanston Now’s staff includes three freelance writers.<\/p>\n

4. What do you consider your competition as a local news or information source?<\/h4>\n

Our three primary competitors are a locally-owned fortnightly newspaper, a long-established but fading weekly recently acquired by Tribune Publishing and the campus daily published by NU students. We also compete occasionally on breaking news stories with Chicago TV stations.<\/p>\n

The number of competitors has waxed, and then waned in the nine years since our launch.<\/p>\n

5. What makes your site unique?<\/h4>\n

We offer the most timely, in-depth and comprehensive coverage of the city and host a lively community conversation about local issues.<\/p>\n

6. What is something you wish you had known when you were starting out or would do differently now that could perhaps serve as advice for others?<\/h4>\n

I wish we’d had a marketing strategy to achieve faster audience growth, which would have made it easier to generate more revenue sooner.<\/p>\n

7. What about your operation is your biggest source of pride right now?<\/h4>\n

That it has grown to have the largest audience in our market and is reaching the point of having a sustainable revenue stream.<\/p>\n

8. What do you struggle with the most?<\/h4>\n

Juggling all the demands on my time, especially when I would love to spend more time on a story, but need to make more sales calls.<\/p>\n

9. What are some of your future goals for the site?<\/h4>\n

I hope to reach the point where I can increase staff and provide even more coverage of the community than we do now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

CLICK HERE<\/a> to see other Q&As with LION member independent local news publishers.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evanston Now Publisher Bill Smith talks about audience growth and revenue sustainability as he approaches a decade of independent online local news coverage outside Chicago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":678,"featured_media":2411,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,2],"tags":[],"coauthors":[182],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/evanston.jpg",1295,899,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/evanston-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/evanston-300x208.jpg",300,208,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/evanston-768x533.jpg",768,533,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/evanston-1024x711.jpg",1024,711,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/evanston.jpg",1295,899,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/evanston.jpg",1295,899,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable":"

Evanston Now Publisher Bill Smith talks about audience growth and revenue sustainability as he approaches a decade of independent online local news coverage outside Chicago.<\/p>\n","category_list":"Member Spotlight<\/a>, News<\/a>","author_info":{"name":"LION Publishers","url":"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/author\/opslionpublishers-com\/"},"comments_num":"0 comments","yoast_head":"\nLION member spotlight: Evanston Now - LION Publishers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LION member spotlight: Evanston Now - LION Publishers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Evanston Now Publisher Bill Smith talks about audience growth and revenue sustainability as he approaches a decade of independent online local news coverage outside Chicago.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LION Publishers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LionPublishers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-24T17:51:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/evanston.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1295\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"899\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"LION Publishers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LIONPubs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LIONPubs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"LION Publishers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"LION Publishers\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bfa658b23440c9435ca7853bfff42ba2\"},\"headline\":\"LION member spotlight: Evanston Now\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-24T17:51:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-24T17:51:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/\"},\"wordCount\":475,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/evanston.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Member Spotlight\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lionpublishers.com\/lion-member-spotlight-evanston-now\/\",\"name\":\"LION member spotlight: Evanston Now - 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