Chicago Defender 'Months' Behind In Rent, Lays Off Two Editors And Others

The Chicago Defender, one of the nation’s oldest black-owned newspapers, is “months” behind on its rent, the paper’s “greatest challenge” right now, publisher and president Michael House told the Chicago Sun-Times.

The only remaining editors on the 18-person staff, executive editor Lou Ransom and news editor Rhonda Gillespie, were shown the door last week as well as turning the paper’s only photographer into a part-time staffer and letting go an accounts receivable employee.

“We’re facing the same struggles as everyone else,” House told the Sun-Times.

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