Building on a Niche

By W.J. Hennigan
January 30, 2009 12:30 PM

Todd Allen spent years wondering when the quality of technology coverage would improve in Chicago. In December, he decided he couldn’t wait any longer.

Just before the New Year, the Columbia College Chicago professor took matters into his own hands when he launched chicagotechnews.com. Allen wants the Web site to be Chicago’s main source for technology business news.

Unlike other business owners that are fearful of the current economic climate, Allen is optimistic. He sees the venture as an opportunity to jump in while major print publications are suffering. His advertising prices are half of what they’re asking, and he believes he offers a better product.

Content is currently generated by Allen and two columnists. If they do their job right, Allen said, the site could ultimately attract between 20,000 to 30,000 regular daily visitors - with about 50,000 subscribing to their weekly newsletter.

“Everybody and their pet dog wants an alternative news source for Chicago’s tech industry,” he said. “The market has been underserved for so long that they’re begging for it.”

Allen plans to provide “coverage you just won’t find from the lumbering print monoliths.” The monoliths – to which Allen is not so subtly referencing - are the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Crain’s Chicago Business, whose dismal tech reporting, he said, motivated him to start the kind of news site that tech professionals could enjoy.

For now, he will work on the Web site part-time. In his day job, Allen, 36, is an adjunct professor in arts, entertainment and media management at Columbia College Chicago. He is the author of four books, including “The Economics of Web Comics, Second Edition” and a humor anthology “E-Mail from Nigeria.” And his freelancing work has appeared in publications such as the Chicago Tribune and Publishers Weekly.

Fellow Columbia professor Leonard Strazewski agrees that there is a void in tech coverage in Chicago. He said that tech reporting “has fallen to pieces” over the past several years, as more publications have cut it out of their budgets. Strazewski knows the situation well, as he once wrote a tech column for Crain’s before the paper cut it.

Strazewski, a tenured journalism professor, said what separates Allen from the rest are his technological know-how and business connections. The problem with most journalists covering tech issues, he said, is that they don’t comprehend new technology and often don’t know where to go for scoops on new stories. Allen won’t have that problem, he said.

“Todd is an insider with plenty of contacts in the tech world,” Strazewski said. “He knows the beat and knows the major players very well.”

Allen’s expertise centers on technology and new media. He’s worked as a technology consultant for more than a decade, working with all types of firms from Fortune 500 accounts to the American Medical Association.

Allen admits that there are areas within the industry that he is not familiar with, which is why he enlisted two longtime friends for help.

Government affairs will be covered by Levi Moore, Jr., who once served in former Illinois Governor Jim Edgar's cabinet and also as a vice president of the state’s Chamber of Commerce.

Moore will break news about legislation dealing with tech issues. For now, he plans to write extensively on President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan and its impact on tech companies.

“There are impending issues like the digitizing of the utility grid and electronic medical records that will directly affect tech companies,” Moore said. “These companies should know about the contracts and what’s happening. In the past, they haven’t been given a chance to do that.”

Legal coverage will be followed by lawyer Jason Fliegel, an associate with Mayer Brown whose practice focuses on electronic discovery preparedness and compliance. He plans to write a monthly column explaining to readers the parameters of the law and the latest news in the field.

“I’m not aware of any other business publication that is wrapping in the legal component,” he said.

Another major goal of chicagotechnews.com is that it will serve as a reference tool for people eager to get into contact with Chicago-area tech businesses. Allen has compiled a list of more than 350 companies on the site and plans to add hundreds more. He hopes that tech businesses will use the list as a tool to reach one another – that includes businesses based in other cities looking to enter the Chicago market.

Because the site will be tailored toward tech businesses, Allen hopes that companies will be eager to advertise with him. He said his advertising price point is based on what other Chicago publications currently charge. He intends to offer ads at about half of what their proposing, but over time, it could change.

“When starting a site like this, you want to be in the same ball park as the other publications, but not the same,” he said. “As traffic increases, so will your rates.”

Allen has spent about $200 to get the site up and running. This includes marketing, which, at this point, are simply business cards he plans to hand out at tech social and business events.

“Right now, everybody is in a panic,” Allen said. “When they break out of it and start breathing again, they’re going to find that online advertising is much cheaper than print. And that my site is providing the best tech coverage in Chicago.”

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Copyright © 2009 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism