by Fred Kuhr

Jake Wittich, managing editor of Chicago-based Windy City Times (WCT), has been named Chicago Journalist of the Year by the Chicago Journalists Association at its annual ceremony on November 14, 2025.

The award recognizes a local journalist who has produced exemplary work throughout the year. Wittich was selected, according to the newspaper, “for his leadership in revitalizing Windy City Times’ digital strategy by launching a series of newsletters while providing in-depth reporting on Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community.”

Wittich was not the only WCT personality to speak at the event. Co-founder and owner Tracy Baim, who now leads Press Forward Chicago, was the keynote speaker. (Press Forward Chicago is the local chapter of a national movement of funders helping to sustain and strengthen local journalism.)

“I am filled with gratitude,” Wittich wrote in WCT’s News on Q newsletter. “… The greatest surprise was having Curtis Lawrence, who has been there for me since the beginning of my journalism career, introduce me for the award. Curtis taught at Columbia College Chicago, where I graduated from in 2017, and worked as my editor at my previous jobs with the Chicago Sun-Times and Block Club Chicago,” a nonprofit neighborhood news organization.

“I spent weeks preparing for my acceptance speech, which served as a reflection on community journalism, my work this past year and the role everyone around me played in getting me to this point,” he wrote. “I shared how I was actually very close to leaving journalism altogether in 2023, but regained my spark after joining the Windy City Times team. What could have been the end of my journalism career ended up just the beginning — and I’m so excited about the road ahead of me with Windy City Times.”

Wittich’s professional development this year was, in part, shaped by two journalism cohorts, according to WCT. “Through the Medill Local News Accelerator, he worked alongside newsroom leaders from across Chicago to expand the publication’s newsletter operation. Later, in the Local Media Association’s Lab for Journalism Funding, he sharpened his fundraising skills and secured his first grant as a newsroom leader to support Windy City Times’ digital transformation.”

WCT now publishes four digital newsletters, up from zero last year, focusing on LGBTQ news and events as well as Black and Latin LGBTQ communities.

During his acceptance speech, Wittich reflected on the role of community-centered journalism. “I am not your capital-I investigative reporter, nor am I chasing national scoops or breaking headlines from the halls of power,” Wittich said. “But I am a community journalist — and I’ve come to realize that can be just as important.”

IN THE NEWS
Volume 27
Issue 10