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 ( Read more... )

Last week, Chicago Reader released a long, in-depth expose that made a strong case that Darrell W. Cox, the artistic director at Uptown-based Profiles theater, had a history of physically and psychologically abusing women who worked for him. The theater made its reputation with dark, gritty and violent plays, so I suppose it wasn't that shocking ( Read more... )

Between work, technical issues and, to be honest, procrastination, I didn't really pay attention to media news between Monday and and Thursday evening. And, just as I started catching up, I found out that Chicago Reader staff launched a petition to basically urge current Sun-Times Media/Wrapports head Bruce Sagan to put more resources into their ( Read more... )

I didn't read this year's Valentine's Day issue of Chicago Reader for obvious reasons [Note]well, there are obvious to people who can read this LJ's firend-locked entries. But I was too curious not to read it eventually, and once I did, there was one article in particular that struck a cord.

For (different) obvious reasons.

( Yes - we're talking the Dreaded C-Word )

As the weekend approaches, there are several bits of Chicago media news I wanted to mention. None of them really cry out for a full-fledged post, so I decided to do more a news digest.

( The State of the Chicago Sun-Times )

Last week, Wrapports owner Michael Ferro became Tribune Publishing's largest shareholder. This prompted Brian Hieggelke, publisher of Newcity alternative newspaper, to write about how he would save Chicago Sun-Times is he had the chance. Because, like me, he believes Chicago benefits from having two newspapers instead of just one ( Read more... )

Earlier today, I saw the Chicago Newspaper Guild put up a Facebook status update that I honestly would've never expected to see.

Post by Chicago Newspaper Guild.

For those who haven't read any of my previous posts about CNG, the guild is a labor union of reporters, photographers and other editorial employees in newspapers throughout Chicagoland ( Read more... )

Back in October, E.W. Scripps media company shut down Metro Pulse - the Knoxville (Tennessee)'s alt weekly newspaper. The company also owns the city's daily newspaper, he News Sentinel. The shutdown was, to put it charitably, a bit dubious. After shutting down Metro Pulse, News Sentinel launched a new arts and entertainment section that covered a ( Read more... )

Back on November 14, a day before my 10th chemotherapy session, I submitted a short story to Chicago Reader's upcoming Fiction Issue. It's the story I mentioned in an earlier post. While it's an Urbis Arcana story, one that features a character readers of my earlier work will recognize, it doesn't really require you to read any of my previous work ( Read more... )

Back in April, I wrote about how Tribune-owned Baltimore Sun, the city's only daily newspaper, bought the City Paper - the city's only alternative newspaper. I questioned the logic of this purchase, and the long-term implications for the Baltimore media landscape ( Read more... )