Hot off the presses: DNAinfo puts ink to newsprint

DNAinfo LPOne year after its debut as a hyperlocal news website, DNAinfo.com Chicago has launched a print publication targeting one of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods.

Forty thousand residents of Lincoln Park this weekend received the first edition of what is intended to be a weekly print version of DNAinfo’s online coverage of the community. Delivered to every household by U.S. Postal Service, the inaugural issue is 14 color pages in a format that’s slightly taller and marginally wider than a tabloid, but narrower and shorter than a broadsheet.

Shamus Toomey

Shamus Toomey

“DNAinfo has enjoyed great support from that neighborhood since launching one year ago,” managing editor Shamus Toomey told me Saturday. “This is another opportunity for DNAinfo to get neighborhood news to each and every person there. We are excited about it.”

Added Toomey: “We will reach all 40,000 households between Wellington and North Avenue on a weekly basis, creating a unique, unmatched opportunity for neighborhood merchants aiming to capture the attention of Lincoln Park’s highly engaged and affluent residents.”

Billionaire Joe Ricketts, founder and CEO of DNAinfo.com, launched the Chicago franchise in November 2012 — three years after its debut in New York. “Chicago is a city of neighborhoods and neighborhoods are what DNAinfo.com is all about,” he said at the time. In Chicago, Ricketts’ family also owns 95 percent of the Cubs and Wrigley Field.

Led by Toomey, a veteran of the Sun-Times, the staff of DNAinfo Chicago includes an impressive lineup of journalists, including Pulitzer Prize winner Mark Konkol and senior editors Andrew Herrmann, Jen Sabella, Dave Newbart, Justin Breen and John O’Brien.

Here is the letter to the readers that appeared on the front page of the first edition:

Dear Reader,

There aren’t too many media companies starting print publications these days but, by the same token, there aren’t too many media companies like DNAinfo.com.

A year ago DNAinfo.com set out to cover news in your neighborhood like no one else.  To accomplish this, our neighborhood reporter lives, works and is dedicated to Lincoln Park (see Paul Biasco’s contact information on page 2).  We support him with a 35-person newsroom of reporters and editors. The result is the most thorough and comprehensive coverage of Lincoln Park.  While other media companies will cover Lincoln Park from time to time — only DNAinfo.com covers it all the time, making us the first and best source of Lincoln Park news and information.

The DNAinfo.com website is updated seven days a week with everything you need to know in Lincoln Park and Chicago.  However, we want to make it easy for you to be informed through many mediums, the web, mobile – and now print.

The weekend edition of DNAinfo, will be delivered to every household in the Lincoln Park area by mail each Friday or Saturday. We will reach all 40,000 households between Wellington and North Avenue on a weekly basis, creating a unique, unmatched opportunity for neighborhood merchants aiming to capture the attention of Lincoln Park’s highly engaged and affluent residents.

Whether you are reading us online or off, we are confident that DNAinfo’s Lincoln Park news is thorough, relevant and addictive; and we think this print publication paired with our website is an unstoppable combination for advertisers.

We will print the weekend edition for the next two weeks (December 13th and 20th) and then, beginning January 10, 2014, we will publish every week.