Mediated: Chicago Journal does West Town

Qu'est-ce que c'est? Perhaps I've jumped into another medium at its peak, to ride the downward slide — a pattern set by my Watergate-era entry into journalism and Netscape-era move online. As represented by the Division Street entry at Chicago Bloggers, my young neighbors abandoned blogging at its first whiff of popularity, or were so profoundly self-absorbed as not to notice. But what of it? As a certified blogger I pick up neat coding tips, and an excuse to watch less HGTV.

When I have nothing to say, I'm reading. So I'm looking forward to the West Town launch of Chicago Journal, the literate-minded West Loop weekly. Editor Laura Putre tells members of the East Village Association she's looking for help as the paper expands its turf west to Western and north along the Kennedy.

Putre succeeds founding editor Brett McNeil, a facile writer now trying to break formulas at the Trib. A year ago, he raised his cub-reporter profile with an online eyewitness or perhaps nosewitness report on the Dave Matthews Band's tour-bus discharge.