Showing posts with label Chicago Tribune. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chicago Tribune. Show all posts

Monday, November 26, 2007

Newspaper Lovers and Train Buffs

Monday, November 26, 2007

From Clark Bell:

Chicago Reader media maven Michael Miner's stinging Nov. 22 column wonders what it takes to keep a reporter on the righteous path in these dismal times. Miner's essay connects the dots between "the twin prophets of Chicago journalism, Sam Zell and John Lavine." Zell is the real estate tycoon who has crafted a deal to take over the Tribune Co., while Lavine continues his controversial quest to maneuver Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism into the modern age of media. Early posters to Miner's Hot Type link were especially ruffled by the assertion that "maybe it's OK that Zell doesn't give a damn about newspapers. The people who like them a lot are beginning to resemble the people who really like passenger trains." For more ouch connect to: http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/hottype/071122/

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Friday, September 14, 2007

The Reader on a Diet

Friday, September 14, 2007

Chicago's most famous alt-weekly, the Reader, is slimming down starting Oct. 5 when it changes from the quarter-fold format to a regular flat tabloid size, according to the Chicago Tribune (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu_phil_0913sep13,0,2454757.story). The free paper also has some additional cost-saving measures in mind, including reducing staff size and transitioning delivery drivers to independent contractors.

The changes come after the paper's recent sale to alt-weekly chain Creative Loafing, which bought the Reader in July. Like most others in the media business, the Reader's classified ad sales have plummeted with the advent of free online listings.

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Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Newspapers--A View From The Past

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Finley Peter Dunne, a Chicago writer who wrote for the Chicago Times and Chicago Tribune in the late 19th century, gave the world some insightful musings on the purpose of newspapers in his nationally syndicated "Mr. Dooley in Peace and War." Here's a particularly good one, in the character and dialect of its Irish immigrant protagonist:

"Th newspaper does ivrything f'r us. It runs th' polis foorce an' th' banks, commands th' milishy, controls th' ligislachure, baptizes th' young, marries th' foolish, comforts th' afflicted, afflicts th' comfortable, buries th' dead an' roasts thim aftherward"

Interesting words, especially in these days when the role of journalism is questioned so closely.

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