One of the advantages and disadvantages of not having a smartphone is that I have no way to check the Internet when I’m on the go. Not unless there’s a wi-fi hotspot. So, when I came home on Thursday night from an assignment out in Austin and saw an e-mail alert from Tronc about a “statement regarding the Annapolis shooting” my first thought was “ ( Read more... )

Ten years ago, the idea of Chicago Tribune staff unionizing would have been unthinkable. The paper has always been economically conservative, and it’s been anti-union for as long as unions existed.

But a lot things have changed since then. The company went through a bankruptcy, the newspapers and magazines got spun off and settled with some of the ( Read more... )

On Monday, media in Chicago and other areas served by Tribune Publishing/Tronc newspapers woke up to a surprising news. Michael Ferro, the company’s majority shareholder and thus de facto owner, resigned as chair of its Board of Directors. It was surprising because, as I’ve written before, he went through a lot of trouble to take control of the ( Read more... )

Happy Birthday to kaffyr

Yes - I know that, as far as birthdays go, your employer has, to use a Russian expression, stuck you with a pig. And that you would really much rather be actually celebrating your birthday than doing what you are actually doing this morning. But a birthday is a birthday, regardless of what life throws at us. I hope that, at the ( Read more... )

When, back on May 15, Tronc officially announced that it was going to buy Sun-Times Media and, with it, Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Reader, I didn't expect things to quite end up like this ( Read more... )

It says something about how tough the past three weeks have been that I'm only now getting around to reacting to something that I normally would have responded to within days.

On May 15, the news broke that Tronc, Chicago Tribune's parent company, is formally making a move to buy Shicago Sun-Times, Chicago Reader and, presumably, a few other ( Read more... )

On the morning of June 2, Tribune Publishing was supposed to elect a new board - which would not-so-coincidently shift the balance of power even further in chairman Michael Ferro's favor. Ganett, which has been trying to buy Tribune, urged shareholders to withhold their votes as a symbolic "no confidence" gesture. I think everyone figured that ( Read more... )

This has certainly been an interesting week for what is shaping up to be a long, drawn-out slog that is Gannett’s attempt to acquire Tribune Publishing.

On Wednesday, May 4, Tribune officially announced that they are definitely, officially rejecting Gannett’s offer. And because it’s a public company, it had to justify the rejection - which lead to ( Read more... )

It seems like not a month passes without some major, potentially status-quo altering Chicagoland media news breaking.

On Monday morning, we found out that Gannett, owner of USA Today and about a hundred newspapers in small and medium-sized towns throughout United States (and almost 300 newspapers in United Kingdom), wanted to buy Tribune ( Read more... )

Earlier today, Chicago Reader's Michael Miner gave his own take on Michael Ferro's decision to put former Splash Publisher/EIC Susanna Homan in charge of Chicago magazine.

Miner shares a lot of my concerns about Homan being put in charge of the magazine - he is just a bit harsher. And his article gave a few interesting tidbits about the process.

( Read more... )