Results tagged “newspapers”

The Tribune Company - which includes the L.A. Times, the Baltimore Sun, and our own beloved Chicago Tribune - is preparing for a potential separation from the Associated Press by sleeping on the couch and (for the most part) going without AP content for a week starting this Sunday, November 8. The AP itself is still shaking out how it'll charge for content, including possibly offering stories to some outlets earlier than others for a higher price. The TribCo gave the AP a head's up last October that come October 2010, they may ditch the AP completely. Next week's trial separation will give the company an idea of how life without the AP might be. Of course, the separation won't be complete. The Trib's Phil Rosenthal reports that there will still be a bit of AP content, limited to sports stats and the occasion when the AP is the only source of a "vital" story. Also, TribCo TV station and newspaper websites won't be affected by the trial separation.

Crain's Chicago reported today that two more names have emerged as investors in the yet-to-be-finalized purchase of the Sun-Times. Businessmen Kevin Flynn (casino owner and CEO of Emerald Ventures, Inc.) and William Parrillo, Sr. (chairman of Safeway Insurance Co.) are reported to be among the group that has served up as much as $5 million in an attempt to revive the struggling newspaper.

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.

We were astounded late Thursday night to read Phil Rosenthal's article about a recent breach of the traditional, and cherished, editorial-advertising wall at the newspaper. Not only did a survey sent out to readers share actual story tops and pitches from stories-in-progress with readers and former subscribers, but it revealed information that reporters felt might compromise additional reporting and was apparently done without the knowledge of editor Gerould Kern.

We've just heard that StreetWise, the venerated Chicago publication that provides jobs for many of the city's homeless people, may be going under. The publication, which has been around in Chicago for the past 17 years, depends on an unusual mixture of advertising, grants and vendor fees to support itself. We talked to the magazine's executive director Bruce Crane who said his magazine has been hit in every single revenue stream. "We're receiving lovely letters from organizations that usually fund us," he said. "All of them say 'due to the changes in the financial market...'"

In a letter to shareholders yesterday, the Sun-Times Media Group painted a pretty grim picture of the paper's state of affairs.

The Tribune is reporting that longtime newspaperman, historian, Baseball Hall-of-Famer and Chicago native Jerome Holtzman has passed away over the weekend from a major stroke at the age of 82.

The weather forecast calls for a lot of "brass bra cold" this weekend. It won't stop people from going out and enjoying their weekend, although some serious consideration should be given to hibernating on the couch with movies, a bottle of wine, and a comforter.

We had a nice spit take while drinking our morning coffee and reading the front-page headline of the Sun-Times. The headline accompanying Fran Spielman's story about His Elective Majesty's advice to Senator Barack Obama in the wake of his win in the Iowa Caucuses was to "always be the underdog."