The Reader on a Diet

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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The City That 'NETworks'

Community Media Workshop (www.newstips.org) recently hosted a lively – and timely - Community Media Summit at Columbia College in downtown Chicago. The forum featured speakers such as media consultant Richard Somerset-Ward, Julia Stasch of the MacArthur Foundation and Sandy Close of New America Media. The provocative issues discussed included:

 What role can local media play in community life?

 What is the role of collaboration in community media?

 How will access to broadband affect community life?

The event highlighted the work of a number of community media leaders from groups throughout the Midwest such as Radio Arte, Grand Rapids Community Media Center, the Twin Cities Media Alliance and We the People Media. To see video segments from the summit click here.

The event featured release of the long-awaited report from the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Closing the Digital Divide, “The City That Networks: Transforming Society and Economy Through Digital Excellence.” To see it click here.

The Benton Foundation, a key sponsor of the summit, recently released a report “What’s Going On In Community Media?” To see it click here.

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California Journalist Murdered

Chauncey Bailey, who was recently named editor of the Oakland Post, a weekly newspaper in Northern California serving the Oakland, Berkeley and Richmond communities, was killed this morning by an unidentified gunman. Witnesses say that the gunman fired on Bailey, then fled the scene. Police have no suspects in custody yet, but have said that the killing appears to be a “deliberate hit.”

The killing comes during a year that has been cited by the International News Safety Institute as the deadliest yet for journalists worldwide.

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Alternative Owners

It seems no media outlet is safe from the consolidation and economic changes hitting the biz, as Chicago's own Reader just got sold to Tampa-based Creative Loafing Inc., according to Editor & Publisher magazine. The city's well-known alternative weekly, with an average circulation of about 135,000, was founded back in 1971.

The paper - which was purchased along with the Washington City Paper- will join the collection of Creative Loafing, which owns alt weeklies in Tampa, Sarasota, Atlanta and Charlotte. For more, check out E&P's news brief: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003616208

Chicago media critic and blogger Michael Miner - reacting to the news - wrote that there's some apprehension at the Reader, with the thought that the paper won't continue the kind of "serious journalism the Reader is known for" under the new ownership. Writing in News Bites, Miner notes: "How the Reader will change, and how much it will change, are questions that preoccupy everyone concerned at the moment." (For more: http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/news-bites/)

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