Last week I wrote that, because of difficulty in raising philanthropic funds,  the editorial staff of the Daily News would be moving on to launch a new, for-profit local news organization.

Apparently my corporate PR skills are lacking, because the announcement gave rise to a wave of questions, confusion and misinterpretations about our plans.

So, in an effort to clear the record, here's a rundown of the common questions we've been asked.

Are you closing down?

Absolutely not. ChiTownDailyNews.org will remain online for the foreseeable future. We are talking with other...more

The editorial team at the Daily News is moving on to launch a new, for-profit local news venture.

Over the past four years, the staff, volunteers and supporters of Chi-Town Daily News have built an impressive thing -- a new kind of news organization that works aggressively to hold public officials accountable to voters and empowers members of long-ignored communities to tell their neighborhood's stories.

We've been privileged to work with a fantastic group of foundations and other supporters, including the Knight Foundation, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, the Abra Prentice Foundation, and others...more

We've just wrapped up our first week with the newly redesigned front page, and so far we've received a lot of compliments.

The other day, when we launched the redesign, I wrote about the increased emphasis on blogs, and the decreased emphasis on traditional news stories.

It's worth expanding on this a bit, I think.

The germ of this idea came from a beer-fueled conversation after a Poynter Institute seminar with my friends Matt Thompson and Sewell Chan.

Both argued emphatically that the "news voice" that has long defined the structure, tone and...more

An anonymous donor just gave us $300.

It's a larger gift than we typically receive through the website, so a hearty thanks is in order.

Donations like these help us keep a watchful eye on public officials in Chicago. And God knows, they sure need it.

If you're the anonymous donor, please drop me a line (geoff at chitowndailynews dot org) I'd like to thank you personally.

Meanwhile, can anyone top his (or her) generosity?

If you've taken a peek at our frontpage, you've probably noticed that things are, well ... different.

After roughly a year with the same site design, we decided to tweak some things.

The type and quantity of content we produce every day has changed a lot since our last redesign (for the better in almost every instance, I think).

We've got staff writers covering public health, education, labor and housing, as well as dozens of volunteer neighborhood reporters. And the strength of our photography grows every day.

The redesign is aimed at...more