How Block Club Chicago reached 20,000 paying subscribers
A $183,000 Kickstarter campaign provided the seed capital to get it off the ground.
When the Chicago news site DNAinfo abruptly shut down in November 2017, it didn’t just eliminate a newsroom — it erased an entire model for how local journalism could work.
But for a small group of its former editors, the shutdown became an opportunity to rebuild that model from scratch — this time with a more sustainable foundation.
Six years later, their new venture, Block Club Chicago, has grown into one of the most successful nonprofit local news startups in the country. It employs dozens of journalists, covers neighborhoods across the city, and is supported by roughly 20,000 paying members.
In a recent interview, co-founder Stephanie Lulay walked through how the company launched, scaled, and diversified its revenue — and why she believes its model can be replicated across the U.S.
From Layoffs to Launch
Like many media startups, Block Club Chicago was born out of crisis.
Lulay had spent years working in local journalism, including at the Chicago Tribune and DNAinfo, where she rose from neighborhood reporter to senior editor. DNAinfo’s core innovation — organizing coverage around neighborhoods instead of traditional beats — left a lasting impression on her.
“It kind of flipped the beat system on its head,” she said. “Instead of covering cops or education across the whole city, reporters were focused on specific neighborhoods and the stories that mattered to those communities.”
That model resonated deeply with readers. So when DNAinfo’s owner, Joe Ricketts, shut down the company overnight — wiping its website and laying off its entire staff — the response was immediate.
“We started hearing from readers all across the city… saying how much they needed this neighborhood coverage and they couldn’t get it anywhere else,” Lulay said.
Rather than disperse to other jobs, Lulay and two fellow editors — Jen Sabella and Shamus Toomey — decided to build something new.
Within three months, they had announced a new nonprofit newsroom: Block Club Chicago.
A Scrappy Start (Not a Billionaire Backer)
Unlike many modern media startups, Block Club didn’t launch with a massive war chest.
Instead, its initial funding came from a patchwork of sources:
A Kickstarter campaign that raised $183,000 from 3,100 backers
Roughly $1 million in seed funding from Civil (distributed over time)
Severance from DNAinfo, which gave the founders a short runway
Even then, the team deliberately kept its ambitions modest.
“We knew there was no possible way that we could get enough public support day one for all of us to have full-time jobs,” Lulay said.
So they launched with:
3 co-founders
5 reporters
Coverage limited to select neighborhood clusters
“We decided to launch small and build it sustainably,” she said.
This decision — to prioritize sustainability over scale — would shape nearly every aspect of the company’s growth.
The Kickstarter That Proved Demand
The company’s first major signal of product-market fit came before it even launched.
Its Kickstarter campaign set a modest initial goal of $25,000. It hit that number within three hours.
Within 36 hours, it had raised $100,000.
“That was the pivotal moment,” Lulay said. “Just seeing that enormous reaction… from people all across the city.”
The campaign ultimately brought in over $183,000 — and, more importantly, thousands of early supporters who were willing to pay for local news.
That early validation helped the founders double down on a key insight:
Reader revenue would need to be the backbone of the business.
Building Around Paying Members
From the beginning, Block Club prioritized subscriptions — even as a nonprofit.
“We knew that if this was going to work, we had to get subscribers to support us,” Lulay said.
The pricing was straightforward:
$6/month
$59/year
And the product followed a freemium model:
Most coverage is free (including breaking news and public health reporting)
Certain premium stories (e.g., development and politics) sit behind a paywall
But the paywall itself isn’t the primary conversion driver.
“A majority of the people who give to us… they give because they think it’s important,” Lulay said.
Instead, Block Club relies on:
Constant messaging about its mission
Strong community relationships
Direct interaction between reporters and readers
“Our best ambassadors… are our reporters,” she said. “They show up to meetings day in, day out… It’s a lot easier to support local news when you see the person who’s serving you.”
That approach helped the company steadily grow its subscriber base:
~3,000 at launch (via Kickstarter)
10,000 → 15,000 → 20,000 over time
And critically, growth was tied directly to editorial expansion.
“Each time we added a reporter, we added more subscribers,” Lulay said.
The Flywheel: Coverage → Community → Revenue
Block Club’s growth model is essentially a localized version of the classic media flywheel:
Add reporters to new neighborhoods
Produce hyper-relevant coverage
Build trust and community engagement
Convert readers into paying members
Use that revenue to hire more reporters
Because each reporter is embedded in a specific neighborhood, the connection to readers is unusually strong.
The newsroom also reinforces that connection through:
Neighborhood-specific newsletters
Direct email replies to reporters
Community events and meetups
Each newsletter is curated by a reporter and includes:
A mix of Block Club stories and external coverage
A personal note or anecdote
Opportunities for reader interaction
“Our newsletters are two-way streets,” Lulay said. “All they have to do is hit reply to reach their neighborhood reporter.”
This structure transforms journalism from a one-way broadcast into a community-driven product — which, in turn, strengthens willingness to pay.