Time Out Digs In

By Margaret Lyons in News on Jun 2, 2004 3:58PM

Dust off your résumés, aspiring journalists! The much-hyped yet still nonexistent Time Out Chicago is a step closer to reality after hiring an editor and a publisher, and they need a staff of 75. Chad Schlegel, formerly of Metromix, will be the editor, and Steve Timble will be the publisher. Their first product will be a user guide to the revamped Millennium Park, and after that, on to typical weekly publishing in early 2005. “One of the things I need to do is hire a sex columnist and also look for someone to do horoscopes,” Schlegel told to the Sun-Times, so brush up with a couple extra hours of Sue Johanson and send in some clips.
Schelgel said also that TOC was especially exciting because “no one in town has ever really done what we're going to do,” and then the Sun-Times got all defensive about Chicago publishing, which was actually kind of cute.

Aimed at readers in their 20s and 30s, Time Out Chicago faces plenty of competition. The Chicago Reader boasts extensive entertainment listings and is free, while Time Out Chicago is likely to cost over $2 per copy. Tribune Co.-owned Chicago magazine covers high-end entertainment and dining, while Metromix targets the youth market. Tribune also publishes the youth-oriented RedEye, and the Sun-Times has its own youth paper, Red Streak.

Chicagoist is psyched as hell for our very own Time Out, and no matter how much we love the Reader, use Metromix, do the crosswords from RedEye and Red Streak, and gush over the ultrabank lifestyle of Chicago magazine, there is plenty of printed word love to go around.