(Legendary Chicago-based photographer Art Shay has taken photos of kings, queens, celebrities and the common man in a 60-year career. In this week's look at his archives, reminds us that a picture tells a thousand words, but maybe an extra word can help.) more ›

For this round, we're looking for a feature that will be relevant to our complete network audience of over four million readers in large American cities. more ›

Gothamist is interested in adding more long-form non-fiction features to our websites. Last month, we premiered the results of our first call for features, "Confessions of a 'Rape Cop' Juror", on our New York site. We are happy with the results: Sales have been good, the feature and writer were covered on numerous blogs and newspapers (even on TV), and we learned a lot about how to publish e-books. more ›

For more than a decade Jim Romenesko has been tracking the ups and downs of the media industry, which for the last few years has been more downs than anything. Soon he's entering "semi-retirement." more ›

Trust us, a redesign can be a bit cathartic. The Chicago Reader launches an all new redesign of its print edition, with several events across the city to celebrate the relaunch. It's a marked facelift from the tabloid format in which it's lingered in recent years. The glossy covers and stapled pages suggests more of a magazine than a newspaper, which Creative Loafing chief sales officer Alison Draper told Tribune media columnist Phil Rosenthal is intended to make the Reader less disposable than in the days where folks would pick up copies of "The Old Gray Doorstop" and pocket the music section as a reference guide. In addition to the redesign, including two glossy covers, column names have been dropped in favor of the columnists names and the music section, long one of the Reader's strengths, has been expanded and re-branded. Now known as the "B-Side," Editor Mara Shalhoup told us that the expanded music coverage is one of many links between the paper's past, present and future. more ›

Congratulations are in order for Sun-Times reporters Frank Main and Mark Konkol, and photographer John J. Kim. The three were awarded Pulitzer Prizes today for local reporting for their exhaustive series on 59 hours of violence that occurred between April 18 and April 20, 2008. During those 59 hours, 40 people were shot; seven died. more ›

Last week, I was berated, quite aggressively, by the greatest chef in the Western world. In some circles of foodie-ism, that might be some sort of perverse claim to fame, like finding and saving Anthony Bourdain's used cigarette, but in my world, it was frightening and unpleasant. More importantly, it forced me to reflect on the food/media world in which I live, the hype that sustains restaurants, and the fundamental responsibilities of chefs, restaurant owners and service staff. Oh, and I got to peek inside The Aviary. Want the whole story? more ›

Early and Often, the subscription-based political news website that was a partnership between the Chicago News Cooperative, Center Square Journal/Roscoe View Journal publisher (and Chicagoist alum) Mike Fourcher and Jimm Dispensa of Aldertrack fame, has ceased updates as of today. more ›

It looks as though Geoff Dougherty, most recently Associate Publisher at the Reader for the length of time it takes us to make really good limoncello, has resurrected the online portion of Chicago Current. Chicago Current was, at one point, a print and online concern. Before that Dougherty said at the the Chicago Journalism Town Hall could cover news with its predecessor, Chi-Town Daily News, as well as the Sun-Times and Tribune with only a cool $2 million budget. more ›

Years ago (we forget when or where) we read a bit of advice from Roger Ebert about how he writes his movie reviews like casual conversations, in order for the reader to feel like he could enter the discussion at a given point. It was a point that we took to heart once we began to become serious about food writing, one that greatly helped us as we became more confident in writing reviews. posted this on his blog today. It's a discussion between him and the late Gene Siskel about how to be a film critic that was taped for an instructional video series on journalism for high school and college students. But it can also be used to be a primer of any criticism in journalism, be it art, media, or food. Ebert's comment about "political correctness being the fascism of the 90's" still rings true today. Don't you ever change, Roger. more ›

Reader editor Kiki Yablon worked her final day at the paper yesterday and Michael Miner, who has detailed the struggles and shrinking resources of the paper for years, captures his final moments in dealing with her. Miner writes that Reader publisher Alison Draper called Yablon's resignation "bittersweet" and that she expects a new editor to be named by mid-February. Miner's peeks behind the curtain at the Reader have been engaging reads, both in print and on the blog. As more staff has left the paper, we've long viewed Miner's dispatches as keeping the flame of the paper's past alive, and Miner himself as the canary in the coal mine: if he goes, all bets are off. more ›

Two weeks after announcing he was pulling up stakes and leaving WBEZ's family of blogs, Robert Feder's media blog has found a new home. more ›

Venus Zine, the Chicago-based magazine focusing on women in music, culture, fashion and the DIY scene, is ceasing print operations. Editor-in-chief sent out an e-mail acknowledging the move and her impending layoff, saying that finances are the reason behind the move. more ›

There was a time when newspapers would come out twice a day, sometimes even more if there was a breaking story with the paper boy shouting, “Extra, Extra.” The paper boys have long faded and so did making money with the news. But there are still daily papers and newsstands that try to sell them. In the financial district Dahyabhai Patel has been operating his stand for four years and has seen a steady decline ever since. more ›

Northwestern University's Medill Innocence Project, which has earned a reputation for its efforts in exonerating falsely convicted Death Row inmates, is under scrutiny from the Cook County State's Attorney and the university for ethics issues. more ›

The 2010 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced a short time ago and Chicago came home empty-handed in awards. However, congrats to the Tribune's John McCormick and Marie Dillon who were selected as finalists for the Editorial Writing award. Update: The Reader informs us of one U of C grad who did bring home a Pulitzer today. more ›

Here are your local nominees for the 2010 James Bears Awards. Winners will be announced May 2-3 in New York City. more ›

Steve Rhodes - Friend of Chicagoist, local journalist, and head honcho over at the excellent Beachwood Reporter - had been writing for NBCChicago.com for about a year, contributing a few posts a day about local news and politics that are much in the same vein of his work at Beachwood. But last Thursday, Rhodes resigned from writing for the website. Yesterday, he let us all know exactly why, and boy is it fishy. more ›

The Tribune reported earlier today that Playboy Enterprises, amidst considerable profit losses, will outsource most of its business operations to the company that publishes National Enquirer, Men's Fitness, Star, Muscle & Fitness and other high-profile periodicals. The company, American Media Inc., will take over Playboy's print edition with the exception of editorial content in a five-year deal that Playboy hopes will return the magazine to profitability by the end of 2011. more ›

We pondered the new Chicago section of the NY Times and even reminded you yesterday and...now it's here. I actually picked up a copy this morning but haven't had time to read it yet. However, lucky for me (and all of you, right?) you can also access the content online here. Besides the CNC's NY Times content, the site also features Chicago-centric headlines from other sources as well as links to other helpful Chicago sites (including us!). Of course, if you're reading this then you probably already know that stuff. more ›

Ex-Tribune folks are everywhere these days. The latest example is over at The Reader, where a former Tribune managing editor, Jim Warren, has been appointed publisher. Warren said in a statement, "I believe the Reader can be an even greater success if it is provocative, makes those in power squirm and yet is willing to entertain and have fun. I hope I can be of help in renewing and reinventing the print version and finding new audiences on the Web.” The Reader's Michael Miner has more on the hire. more ›

While we knew the New York Times was planning a local edition of its paper for the Chicago area, details emerged yesterday about the paper's specific plans. The news for the Chicago-centric paper will be handled by a group called Chicago News Cooperative. The CNC will include former Tribune editor James O'Shea and James Warren; the advisory board will be chaired by journalist Peter Osnos and another Tribune editor, Ann Marie Lipinski, is a board member. The group will receive a bulk of its funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation while also receiving assistance from WTTW. In fact, the CNC will start life as a non-profit affiliate of Window to the World Communications which happens to be WTTW's parent company. The Cooperative is also in talks with WBEZ for potential future collaboration. Two pages of Chicago-related news will appear twice a week (Friday and Sunday) in copies of the New York Times distributed in the Chicago area starting November 20. more ›

On Tuesday, I did something unusual for a 23-year-old journalist two weeks out of grad school: I book-ended my career. I started at Chitown Daily News, the nonprofit public affairs reporting site funded by the Knight Foundation for a few years’ experimentation, in June 2007, just as editor and CEO Geoff Dougherty opened his first office in Andersonville. more ›

We couldn't believe our ears this morning when we heard that editor-in-chief and CEO of Chitown Daily News, Geoff Dougherty, laid off his staff of five yesterday afternoon, effective immediately. We (and the rest of the Twitterverse) thought that meant the end of the website, which has been responsible for several important local stories lately. In actuality, the site, which was started with a Knight Foundation grant, is merely headed to the for-profit realm. In a statement posted today, Dougherty said: more ›

Eater.com is counting down the days until New York Times restaurant critic and "baby bulimic" Frank Bruni files his last review for the Paper of Record, going so far as to speculate who would succeed Bruni and prognosticating the odds of some favorites. more ›

Sad news to report from overnight: John Callaway, broadcast journalism legend and founding host of WTTW's "Chicago Tonight" has passed away at the age of 72. According to his wife, Callaway died from a heart attack yesterday evening in Racine. Callaway began his career in Chicago with the City News Bureau of Chicago and in the mid-60's went to WBBM where he helped oversee the station's switch to an all-news format in 1968. Later that same year, he was named Vice President of CBS Radio in New York where he helped stations all over the country make similar switches. In 1974, he returned to Chicago at WTTW where he took over as news director and in 1975 began hosting "Public Newscenter." Callaway than started and hosted "Chicago Tonight" in 1984 and remained host until 1999. Most recently, Callaway was the host of WTTW's "Chicago Stories" and in February appeared at the Chicago Journalism Town Hall. Among his numerous awards were seven Emmies and one Peabody award. more ›

We looked out the window Saturday morning and thought to ourselves, "Where, where ever shall we spend this glorious spring day?" The answer, naturally, was in a windowless, florescent-lit conference room in Trib Tower. Why? Because the Society for News Design was having a regional meetup to examine the state of our industry - and explore cool stuff going on in and around the Windy City's journalism scene. The best part: intros to a variety of new and growing news projects around the city. Oh, and that keg on the 22nd floor balcony... more ›

Members of the Northwestern community are organizing a hunger strike in solidarity with imprisoned American journalist, Roxana Saberi. The hunger strike - organized by the FreeRoxana campaign - will last from May 3 to May 15. Volunteers are asked to fast in 24-hour shifts. As of this morning, more than 100 people have signed up. Alexis Grant, FreeRoxana campaign manager, told the Daily Northwestern she will fast this Sunday "so that Roxana doesn't have to." more ›

Well, it would be an uneventful and presumably happy 32nd birthday for former Miss North Dakota and freelance journalist Roxana Saberi, but the Iranian-American woman was sentenced to eight years in Iranian prison this month following her conviction for espionage. According to her parents, the journalist has been on hunger strike for five days, protesting her imprisonment. more ›

The Chicago Tribune has had enough of the corruption that has been the big story in our state as of late (and over the years). Yesterday, in an editorial titled "State of Corruption," the Trib rededicated itself to editorial efforts to take on the scandalous lawmakers of our state and to repair The Land of Lincoln's reputation. more ›