Meet Hero Journalist Sarah Conway
The new Editor-in-Chief of the Chicago Reader is part of a growing, unseen trend
Full disclosure. My headline is not based on any interaction I’ve had with the subject of this article. I’ve never met the Chicago Reader’s new editor, Sarah Conway. I’ve never texted her or commented on something she’s written. Nothing. The only relationship I have with her is that I snatched her photo from her LinkedIn profile.
Sometimes, though, as we watch the fall of the Fourth Estate and the media empires that once served as its ballast, it feels good to call attention to someone who is doing something well and right.
I might start doing this more, even though nobody reads these kinds of articles. We need to bring our luminaries out of the shadows of the small independent news organizations where they toil without asking for anything in return (ProPublica, I’m looking at you).
Back in August 2025, a progressive-minded Seattle-based publisher, Brady Walkinshaw, purchased the struggling Chicago Reader and committed to honoring its founding mission as a key player in Chicago’s alternative media scene.1
Walkinshaw recognized that an alternative weekly catering to 1970s sensibilities and economics wasn’t going to work, so he announced a plan to turn the Reader into a monthly. He promised that the publication would keep filling its 600 or so metal newspaper boxes scattered throughout Chicago, keep dropping free copies off at local establishments, and that the publication would continue to be free like it always has been.
The result is, hopefully, a new vibrant monthly magazine for Chicago:
As a former creative director, art director, and graphic designer, I approve. That’s a great cover.
I first wrote about the Chicago Reader in August 2025, shortly after Walkinshaw, through his Seattle-based publishing company Noisy Creek, saved it from disappearing completely by purchasing the struggling publication.
Give this guy Bezos money, and the nation’s media landscape would change overnight.
Alas, for now, we’ll need to settle for the Chicago Reader’s new editor, Sarah Conway.
She’s a good thing to settle for. Conway is no rookie or neophyte. She cut her teeth at City Bureau as a reporter, where she progressed to editor. City Bureau describes itself as “an innovation lab reimagining local journalism, civic media, and participatory democracy.”
But it’s much more than that. Over the years, it has established itself as one of the top places in Chicago for ambitious young journalists to start their careers because it “graduates” people like Conway, people who scour the streets of Chicago and report on the murkier parts of city life nobody else wants to cover.
While there, she won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting, the Online Journalism Award for Excellence in Social Justice Reporting, and the Izzy Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Independent Media.” I don’t know what the Izzy Award is, but I love the sounds of it (I know, I could Google it, but so can you!). She is also the Annenberg Visiting Chair of Journalism at Notre Dame University.2
According to Block Club Chicago, Conway has big plans:3
“Broadly, I want the Reader to be a paper that supports young voices, but also to be an intergenerational space,” Conway said. She added that the Reader is introducing a column highlighting the work of incarcerated journalists and writers across Illinois, aligning with her goal of using the Reader as a space for underrepresented writers to develop their craft and amplify voices from across the city.
In other words, this is great news for those of us watching Bezos destroy the Washington Post, which someone like Conway could probably run with her eyes closed on about point zero one percent of the “Melania” budget.
We in the anti-predator echosphere are asked to do a lot when it comes to financial support in this day of oligarchs and toxic hatred. But supporting publications like the Reader seems like a good place to start.
It sucks that we have to do the job we once entrusted rich people with (Substack does not have a sarcasm font). In the good old days, we could trust Randolph Hearst and the Chicago Tribune’s nutty Colonel McCormick to lead the way. (Still looking for sarcasm font.)
These days, we’re stuck with the Sarah Conways of the world and reader-generated revenue to keep things going. (Did I mention that Substack does not have a sarcasm font?)
Chicago isn’t the only city with a growing, vibrant independent media scene, one that includes the Chicago Sun-Times (now run by a non-profit), Block Club Chicago (also non profit), and City Bureau (non-profit), to name a few.
For example, Atlanta has the Atlanta Voice, the Atlanta Community Press Collective, and Rough Draft Atlanta. The Atlanta Voice has been reporting for the Black Atlanta community for sixty years. According to their mission statement:
The Atlanta Voice newspaper was founded by Mr. Ed Clayton, a formidable newspaperman and J. Lowell Ware in 1966 with a defined vision and mission, which has been the publications’ motto and driving force ever since: “A People Without A Voice Cannot Be Heard.” Mr. Clayton died after the first issue of the paper was produced leaving Mr. Ware as the sole publisher.
The venerable, award-winning publication was born out of the refusal of the white-owned majority Atlanta media to give fair and credible coverage to the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement. It was effectively and uniquely spearheaded by the legendary and politically powerful, J. Lowell Ware, who when he died at age 63 in 1991, had been responsible for publishing seven newspapers throughout the states of Georgia and Alabama; The Atlanta Voice, The Athens Voice, The Macon Voice, The Tuskegee Voice, The Pensacola Voice, The Inter-Scholastic Journal and The Atlanta Inquirer.
The Atlanta Community Press Collective, another non-profit, runs stories with headlines like, “Local orgs fear further criminalized homelessness in HB 295,” and “Central Gwinnett High School students are ‘doing it scared:’ Inside the student-led ICE walkout.”
At the national level, Substack isn’t the only source for independent news. New independent journalism publications are sprouting up all over the place.
ProPublica, also a non-profit, is probably the best investigative news organization in the nation. It broke the Clarence Thomas for hire story and works closely with local independent news organizations. Even Texas has independent news organizations. One of the larger ones is the Texas Tribune, another nonprofit that often works with ProPublica to break stories in Texas.
So far, all this growth is not enough to tip the scales against Fox News and its right-wing broadcast friends, profiteers like Joe Rogan, who depend on and encourage ignorance to make their coin, or Apartheid Twitter.
But the media scene is not as bad as you might think it is.
What is the local news organization in your city? There’s bound to be one.
If there is, consider giving it the support it needs. All those lattes aren’t good for you anyway.
Notes
You can support the Reader by purchasing their 50th anniversary coffee table book here (it’s expensive, like most coffee table books).
If you’re in a cynical mood, nope, I get no affiliate pennies out of this. You can tell by looking at the URL: No funky symbols in it, no “?” stuff. Just a link to the site (https://chicagoreader.com/reader-50-book-sales/). No sneaky invisible gifs, either. I don’t even know these people. I’m just a long-time fan.
Or, fund me one time…
Thanks for reading!
Footnotes
Worthington, Clint. “After Layoffs, Chicago Reader Survives with New Seattle-Based Owner.” Block Club Chicago, August 26, 2025. https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/08/26/after-layoffs-chicago-reader-survives-with-new-portland-based-owner/.
Conway, Sarah. “Sarah Conway Journalist about - Sarah Conway.” Sarah Conway, 2024. https://www.sarahanneconway.com/.
Worthington, Clint. “It’s a ‘New Era’ for the Chicago Reader as Iconic Alt-Weekly Shifts to Monthly Magazine.” Block Club Chicago, February 4, 2026. https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/02/04/its-a-new-era-for-the-chicago-reader-as-iconic-alt-weekly-shifts-to-monthly-magazine/.
‘Back in August 2025, a progressive-minded Seattle-based publisher, Brady Walkinshaw, purchased the struggling Chicago Reader and committed to honoring its founding mission as a key player in Chicago’s alternative media scene.¹’
Charles: “I might start doing this more, even though nobody reads these kinds of articles. We need to bring our luminaries out of the shadows of the small independent news organizations where they toil without asking for anything in return (ProPublica, I’m looking at you).”
Charles, I emphatically disagree with you. People will read this. It’s important to introduce such committed, knowledgeable, smart people, women who represent the majority of like minded people. Women like Sarah Conway. I really appreciate this. I mean, check out her CV.
“While there, she won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting, the Online Journalism Award for Excellence in Social Justice Reporting, and the Izzy Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Independent Media.” I don’t know what the Izzy Award is, but I love the sounds of it (I know, I could Google it, but so can you!). She is also the Annenberg Visiting Chair of Journalism at Notre Dame University.²”
Wonderful!! Thank you for this.
Clearly mostly for Chicago residents, but some interesting articles. One comment on the piece on the destruction of homeless encampments. We in Seattle have several organized ones, and for the most part they are left alone. One in particular is near me, on a very busy street, difficult access because of it, but it was set up for folks with trailers and was VERY well self-policed, kept clean, no overspill outside its enclosed area. I donated stuff to it, though pulling over to do so was a hazardous undertaking. But worth the effort.
Then the owner of the land apparently sold it. So the homeless moved elsewhere, I know not where. In its place--a pickle ball court Equally difficult to get to. I don't really wish it well.