With the publication of its November issue, the Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle marks a full year of bringing a local print newspaper to the H-F community. This issue will include a special section, a Holiday Guide including a list of holiday events. Copies will be available Thursday at local businesses and Homewood and Flossmoor libraries.
favorite holiday performances like this one in Homewood
District 153, which warmed a lot of hearts in 2015.
(Provided photo)
Editor’s note: The November print edition of the Chronicle will be published Thursday, Nov. 17. Look for it at local businesses and Homewood and Flossmoor libraries.
With the publication of its November issue, the Homewood-Flossmoor Chronicle marks a full year of bringing a local print newspaper to the H-F community.
“As soon as we started handing out the paper last December, we started hearing how many people were glad to have a local newspaper they could hold in their hands,” said Eric Crump, who founded the Chronicle as an online publication in June 2014. “The response was overwhelming.”
Since then, the Chronicle has been published on the third Thursday of each month, with 5,500 copies printed and distributed to more than 50 locations throughout both towns. A team of volunteer “deliverators” takes on the task every month.
Despite its easy availability, nearly 200 local residents have become subscribers, some for the convenience and others as a way of supporting their new local newspaper.
From the start, the Chronicle received a warm welcome from the business community. The number of advertisers, which topped 100 in September, grows with every issue.
“They are the heroes of the Chronicle,” said Patty Houlihan, public outreach manager. “People may not realize it, but advertising support is what we need to keep printing the paper and getting it out to the community free of charge month after month.
“We couldn’t do it without them.”
The advertising support also enabled the paper to hire Houlihan as its sole employee; she is responsible for selling ads and managing the company’s finances. The Chronicle was formed as an LLC in 2015 by Crump and longtime community journalists Marilyn Thomas and Tom Houlihan, who invested their own funds and volunteer as reporter/editors.
Last summer, the Chronicle welcomed its first interns, Brittney Ermon and Joseph Dorsey. In October, the paper hired its first correspondents, including journalists Sharon Filkins, Ashley Cady and Nikitta Foston.
“Thanks to all those who’ve worked with us and supported us,” Crump said. “Homewood and Flossmoor have a local paper again, and we intend to be here for years to come.
“A great community deserves a great newspaper.”
