New 'Neighbors' Arrive as the 'Sun' Sets

Only days after Sun-Times Media announced it would close 11 suburban weeklies including the Downers Grove Sun, a new publication appeared in local mailboxes.

Neighbors of Downers Grove is one of several community publications produced by Emerald Marketing, a marketing communications firm. The company's website describes its trademarked Neighbors brand as "a communications strategy dedicated to bringing a community together." The magazine is published six times a year and is delivered to every household, according to the website.

The 46-page inaugural edition includes features on the Rotary Club of Downers Grove's GroveFest and business owners, plus pages of Community News announcements. Messages from Mayor Ron Sandack and publishers Tim Sullivan and ScotPress, Emerald's Downers Grove "partner" open the book.

But Neighbors isn't the only magazine with eyes on Downers Grove. Glancer Magazine will premier a local edition in January 2011. The company currently publishes its community living magazines in Naperville and Wheaton/Glen Ellyn.

That means the already crowded local media scene—Patch, the Downers Grove Reporter, TribLocal, the Bugle—is just going to get that much cozier.

As for the Sun, the announcement it would cease publication in December was perhaps not a surprise to careful readers. It's been years since the paper had a full-time staffer assigned to cover Downers Grove and in recent months much of its content was "from submitted reports."

As a former columnist for the paper, I was distressed to find the "View from Downers Grove" column ended with my tenure in June.

So the Sun sets. But the world of Downers Grove media has never been more interesting.