A Rally for the Reader - Chicago Reader reporters urge investment in paper, fair contract
In January 2015, Chicago Reader staff voted to unionize, joining what was then known as the Chicago Newspaper Guild (they since dropped the "paper" part). A year and nine months later, they still don't have a contract. Michael Ferro apparently had to be dragged to negotiations kicking and screaming, and things haven't gotten much better since he jumped ship to Tribune Publishing.
In April 2016, the Reader staff and the News Guild launched a campaign to not only get a fair contract, but to put the pressure on what's left of Wrapports to put more resources into the paper. And they recently decided to ramp up their efforts. On my birthday, long-time Reader writer put together a detailed timeline of how the paper fared under Wrapports ownership, documenting every cut on both editorial and advertising side. In the end of the post, he lists what people can do to support that campaign - and one of the things he mentioned was that they were organizing a rally at the Sun-Times building. It would take place on October 6, at noon. I was already planning to attend it - the way it was scheduled, I didn't see any scheduling conflicts - and yesterday's developments made the whole thing all the more relevant.
As I rode the Red Line 'L' train towards downtown, I noticed something that, if this was a work of fiction, would be painfully contrived - an ad for the Save the Reader campaign on the opposite wall.
One transfer and a ride on the Brown Line later, I was at he Sun-Times building. But when I got there, I realized that the instructions at the event listing weren't terribly specific. I walked around, looking for them. The security guard stared at me suspiciously, and, in the moment of "hey, what do I have to lose," I decided to ask him.
"They're on Orleans Avenue," he said in the talking-to-foreigners, slower-then-necessary voice. "Go out there and turn left."
"Thank you!" I said, and I meant it, because I honestly didn't expect him to answer.
And, sure enough, they were exactly where he said they would be.
For those who don't know, what looks like a Russian letter "Я" is a backwards-R Reader logo. It's why I sometimes jokingly call it the Yader.
The attendance was pretty decent. There were plenty of people with Reader press badges and employee IDs, some Reader stringers I recognized and plenty of stringers that I didn't, and other people who were just there to show support.
Scabby the Rat, a frequent prop amidst union protests big and small, was there too. Since I arrived a bit late, I didn't catch the name of the guy who was singing.
Every once in a while, passing cars would honk. Not as much as during the 2012 Chicago Teachers Union strikes, or even the April 1 not-quite-strike, but it was still nice to hear people care.
Oh, and throughout the first few minutes I was there, the building security kept trying to get people to back away from the door in the Sun-Times building. At first, the protesters simply didn't seem to hear them, but after a while, they got their attention, and the crowd slowly moved just a bit to the right.
By that point, the woman holding the "Stop Corporate Greed" sign you see in this photo made her way into the crowd.
More photos with a closer view of the signs.
Several government officials spoke at the rally, including Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), whose ward includes the Sun-Times building
Former Illinois governor Pat Quinn
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), one of the city's most left-leaning aldermen and one of the several progressive aldermen who were able to beat well-funded incumbents during the 2015 election
Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who, as he said in his speech, benefited greatly from the Reader support and publicity during his own long-shot 2011 campaign against Old Guard alderman Eugene Schulter
Staff writer Aimee Levitt, who wrote a feature exposing abuse in the Profiles Theater. I didn't get a video of her, so I will say that, among other things, she made a point of thanking everyone who helped to put the story together, including the copy editor, the layout designer and the editor.
A firefighters union official those name I didn't catch. I also didn't catch about a minute of his speech, so for context - right before the recording starts, he was praising cops who were providing security.
The president of the Chicago News Guild - who decided to ditch her prepared remarks, and for good reason (seriously - I expected better from the Reader, out of all papers)
Originally, she was supposed to be the last speaker, but they wound up inviting long-time Reader reporter/columnist Ben Joravsky (who, you'll notice, got mentioned a few times in the earlier videos) to give closing remarks.
After that... they kept talking about "marching," and I wondered what it would be? March around the Sun-Times building? Around the neighborhood.
Turned out it was lots of chanting.
After that, some people left, but others hung out for a bit. Figuring it was a great opportunity to put some faces to bylines, I walked around and wound up talking to Reader film editor/critic J.R. Jones, Reader contributor (I highly recommend her latest article, which profiles on Chicago's most unique public housing developments), and Brianna Wellen. Though that last one wasn't much of a conversation. Alas.
I also wound up having a surprisingly nice chat with Lee, a Reader contributor and a long-time TribLocal/Pioneer Press stringer who wound up taking over my beat at the Niles Herald-Spectator. I say "surprisingly" because when we ran into each other during Niles meeting after I started writing for the Bugle, she didn't really seem like she want to talk to me or Tom from the Niles Journal. I didn't push the issue - if a person doesn't want to talk, no sense trying to force them - so I was surprised that she seemed much more willing to chat in this context. And, like I said, we actually had a nice conversation.
Oh, and Pat Quinn was handing out petitions for a cause he currently champions - imposing term limits on Chicago mayors. Personally, I don't think it's the term limits that's the problem - it's the amount of de facto power that the office commands, and the current incumbent's reluctance to share - but I don't see why it shouldn't at least make it to the ballot.
Will the rally help the campaign? It's hard to say. We don't know what the Wrapports' finances are like, and how much the Reader contributes to them. Honestly, I think the Reader would be better off in the hands of another owner, a committed local owner who is willing to put some money into the company. Or maybe take a cue from Knoxville Mercury's non-profit structure. But that would require Wrapports to be able to part with the Reader... Which I'm not sure they would be willing to do.
I do think the investment is necessary. If you're going to ask people to advertise in the Reader, you're going to have to show to would-be advertisers that the Reader has value, that it has readers who would be interested in buying their product. And I do think that, in spite of the herculian efforts of the Reader employees and freelancers, it's not the best product it can be.
I am reminded of a conversation I had with my then-editor shortly after my trip to New Orleans. I showed him a copy of the Gambit, the city's alternative newspaper, figuring that he would be one of the very few people who'd appreciate a newspaper.
But his reaction surprised me. As he flipped through it, it wasn't the articles, or the design that caught his eye.
"Look at all those ads," he said, almost in awe. "How do they do it?"
"I guess the people of New Orleans really like their paper," I offered.
I have been thinking about this a lot of the past few months - and not just because of the Reader.
I guess one can only hope for the best.
And that having politicians and a firefighter speak on the Reader's behalf would help move the needle at least a little.
In April 2016, the Reader staff and the News Guild launched a campaign to not only get a fair contract, but to put the pressure on what's left of Wrapports to put more resources into the paper. And they recently decided to ramp up their efforts. On my birthday, long-time Reader writer put together a detailed timeline of how the paper fared under Wrapports ownership, documenting every cut on both editorial and advertising side. In the end of the post, he lists what people can do to support that campaign - and one of the things he mentioned was that they were organizing a rally at the Sun-Times building. It would take place on October 6, at noon. I was already planning to attend it - the way it was scheduled, I didn't see any scheduling conflicts - and yesterday's developments made the whole thing all the more relevant.
As I rode the Red Line 'L' train towards downtown, I noticed something that, if this was a work of fiction, would be painfully contrived - an ad for the Save the Reader campaign on the opposite wall.
One transfer and a ride on the Brown Line later, I was at he Sun-Times building. But when I got there, I realized that the instructions at the event listing weren't terribly specific. I walked around, looking for them. The security guard stared at me suspiciously, and, in the moment of "hey, what do I have to lose," I decided to ask him.
"They're on Orleans Avenue," he said in the talking-to-foreigners, slower-then-necessary voice. "Go out there and turn left."
"Thank you!" I said, and I meant it, because I honestly didn't expect him to answer.
And, sure enough, they were exactly where he said they would be.
For those who don't know, what looks like a Russian letter "Я" is a backwards-R Reader logo. It's why I sometimes jokingly call it the Yader.
The attendance was pretty decent. There were plenty of people with Reader press badges and employee IDs, some Reader stringers I recognized and plenty of stringers that I didn't, and other people who were just there to show support.
Scabby the Rat, a frequent prop amidst union protests big and small, was there too. Since I arrived a bit late, I didn't catch the name of the guy who was singing.
Every once in a while, passing cars would honk. Not as much as during the 2012 Chicago Teachers Union strikes, or even the April 1 not-quite-strike, but it was still nice to hear people care.
Oh, and throughout the first few minutes I was there, the building security kept trying to get people to back away from the door in the Sun-Times building. At first, the protesters simply didn't seem to hear them, but after a while, they got their attention, and the crowd slowly moved just a bit to the right.
By that point, the woman holding the "Stop Corporate Greed" sign you see in this photo made her way into the crowd.
More photos with a closer view of the signs.
Several government officials spoke at the rally, including Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), whose ward includes the Sun-Times building
Click to viewFormer Illinois governor Pat Quinn
Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), one of the city's most left-leaning aldermen and one of the several progressive aldermen who were able to beat well-funded incumbents during the 2015 election
Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), who, as he said in his speech, benefited greatly from the Reader support and publicity during his own long-shot 2011 campaign against Old Guard alderman Eugene Schulter
Staff writer Aimee Levitt, who wrote a feature exposing abuse in the Profiles Theater. I didn't get a video of her, so I will say that, among other things, she made a point of thanking everyone who helped to put the story together, including the copy editor, the layout designer and the editor.
A firefighters union official those name I didn't catch. I also didn't catch about a minute of his speech, so for context - right before the recording starts, he was praising cops who were providing security.
The president of the Chicago News Guild - who decided to ditch her prepared remarks, and for good reason (seriously - I expected better from the Reader, out of all papers)
Originally, she was supposed to be the last speaker, but they wound up inviting long-time Reader reporter/columnist Ben Joravsky (who, you'll notice, got mentioned a few times in the earlier videos) to give closing remarks.
After that... they kept talking about "marching," and I wondered what it would be? March around the Sun-Times building? Around the neighborhood.
Turned out it was lots of chanting.
After that, some people left, but others hung out for a bit. Figuring it was a great opportunity to put some faces to bylines, I walked around and wound up talking to Reader film editor/critic J.R. Jones, Reader contributor (I highly recommend her latest article, which profiles on Chicago's most unique public housing developments), and Brianna Wellen. Though that last one wasn't much of a conversation. Alas.
I also wound up having a surprisingly nice chat with Lee, a Reader contributor and a long-time TribLocal/Pioneer Press stringer who wound up taking over my beat at the Niles Herald-Spectator. I say "surprisingly" because when we ran into each other during Niles meeting after I started writing for the Bugle, she didn't really seem like she want to talk to me or Tom from the Niles Journal. I didn't push the issue - if a person doesn't want to talk, no sense trying to force them - so I was surprised that she seemed much more willing to chat in this context. And, like I said, we actually had a nice conversation.
Oh, and Pat Quinn was handing out petitions for a cause he currently champions - imposing term limits on Chicago mayors. Personally, I don't think it's the term limits that's the problem - it's the amount of de facto power that the office commands, and the current incumbent's reluctance to share - but I don't see why it shouldn't at least make it to the ballot.
Will the rally help the campaign? It's hard to say. We don't know what the Wrapports' finances are like, and how much the Reader contributes to them. Honestly, I think the Reader would be better off in the hands of another owner, a committed local owner who is willing to put some money into the company. Or maybe take a cue from Knoxville Mercury's non-profit structure. But that would require Wrapports to be able to part with the Reader... Which I'm not sure they would be willing to do.
I do think the investment is necessary. If you're going to ask people to advertise in the Reader, you're going to have to show to would-be advertisers that the Reader has value, that it has readers who would be interested in buying their product. And I do think that, in spite of the herculian efforts of the Reader employees and freelancers, it's not the best product it can be.
I am reminded of a conversation I had with my then-editor shortly after my trip to New Orleans. I showed him a copy of the Gambit, the city's alternative newspaper, figuring that he would be one of the very few people who'd appreciate a newspaper.
But his reaction surprised me. As he flipped through it, it wasn't the articles, or the design that caught his eye.
"Look at all those ads," he said, almost in awe. "How do they do it?"
"I guess the people of New Orleans really like their paper," I offered.
I have been thinking about this a lot of the past few months - and not just because of the Reader.
I guess one can only hope for the best.
And that having politicians and a firefighter speak on the Reader's behalf would help move the needle at least a little.