Sun-Times in transition - Farewell, Bright One
On October 31, Wrapports officially announced that it sold all of Sun-Times Media's suburban newspapers to its biggest competitor - Chicago Tribune. Since I had chemo earlier that day, I couldn't really do much except sleep. But the next day, I felt well enough to not only write about it, but travel to the Sun-Times offices.
Between the late 1970s and the mid 2000s, Sun-Times Media had its offices where Trump Tower is now - and, not at all coincidently, within walking distance of the Tribune Tower. After the company sold the land to Trump, it moved further west, to an office/hotel building at Wolf Point, where Chicago River's branches meet. The building is coloqually known as the Sun-Times Building, because it's got a pretty prominent "Chicago Sun-Times" sign on the river-facing side, but (at least until recently) it only occupied two floors. The 9th floor was where the newspaper was actually put together - the conference rooms, the newsroom, the design area, etc. The 10th floor was where the corporate stuff was - and, later, where Chicago Reader and Splash had their newsrooms.
There's an above-ground passageway connecting the Sun-Times building. Used to be that, as you entered the Sun-Times building and walk toward the elevators, you'd walk through this hallway with photos from Chicago Sun-Times archives on the side. But a few months ago, the photos were moved to the wall at the end of the hall, and the hallway was painted with generic Chicago cityscapes.
Over on the right, you have a space that used to be occupied by the Sun-Times gift shop. It's been remodeled since then.
The elevator set-up is actually kind of cool. There's a keypad where you touch whichever floor you want to get on (or, if you actually work at any of the businesses in the building, just touch the badge against the screen), and it shows you what elevator to go to.
The elevator then automatically takes you to your floor
When you get up to the tenth floor, you'll see a prominent Chicago Sun-Times sign on the right
And the Sun-Times Media newspaper boxes on the left.
It's not exactly a secret, but it's not something Sun-Times particularly likes to publicize, either. Those boxes contain the most recent issues of every newspaper Sun-Times Media publishes, which you can just grab - for free.
(Pioneer Press newspapers are, alas, behind the office doors, so I had to either ask my editor to grab them for me or ask him to let me in whenever I needed a copy and couldn't buy one)
The first time I visited the building, the left side had the boxes for the Chicago Reader, Elgin Courier-News, Joliet Herald-News, Chicago Sun-Times and the Sunday Sun-Times. Since then, Joliet Herald-News was sold to Shaw Media, and Wrapports did away with Sunday Sun-Times branding (though, in strictly legal sense, it still publishes a separate Sunday Sun-Times), so we got three identical Chicago Sun-Times boxes.
The right side looked the same as I did when I first visited, with boxes for the Reader, Aurora Beacon-News, Lake County News-Sun, Southtown Star, Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune and Naperville Sun.
One thing I always liked about those boxes are the decorative nameplates at the bottom. They have so much personality.
When I got there on Saturday, all the newspapers in the boxes were for Friday - offering an interesting snapshot of the day they all changed owners. When they were printed, nobody knew for sure the sale would happen.
Over to the right of the boxes, behind the elevators, there's a room... I'm not entirely sure what it's for, exactly, but the best I can gather, this is where copies of all Sun-Times Media newspapers get delivered before being sent out to offices and placed in newsboxes. This is what it looked like on Saturday.
Directly across from it, there's a space that Wrapports turned into a game room. The consensus is that most Sun-Times staffers didn't use it, and quite a few of them wondered why the hell the corporate higher-ups spent the money on it when the company isn't exactly profitable.
I guess eventually, someone decided that it really was a waste of space.
Here's the view out of the window behind the newspaper boxes
And over to the left of the newsboxes, we have the Sun-Times cafeteria
As I mentioned before, Sun-Times recently downsized, vacating its 9th floor space. So, as best as I can tell, this is where the editorial and design staff is now, along with corporate staff. I'm not entirely sure how they fit in. And now, I'm never going to find out. Friday was my editor's last day, and now nobody I know can get me in.
Here is the entrance to Wrapports corporate offices. Since it was Saturday, nobody was there, but on weekdays, you'd usually find a receptionist at the front desk.
What I've nicknamed "the wall of brands" by the entrance, a display of logos of stuff Wrapports owns. Now that Pioneer Press has been sold... Well, honestly, the Pioneer Press sign is probably going to stay there for a while.
So long as I was in the building, I decided to check out the ninth floor. Last time I was there, it was still in use. If I knew that it would be my last time, I would have brought a camera. And taken pictures. But as it stands...
Former newsroom entrance...
...with a stack of Chicago Tribunes in the front.
Which isn't actually that out there. As I discovered, Sun-Times newsroom was full of newspapers from the competition - I've seen copies to Wednesday Journal, Shaw Media's Suburban Life newspapers, Journal & Topics newspapers, Daily Herald, you name it.
A look inside the door
And what used to be the Sun-Times newsroom. Looking at it, I couldn't help but remember the desks where the Pioneer Press editors and a few reporters used to sit, the photo desk, the TV monitors playing CNN. Last time I was there, I actually got to sit at one of the desks and finish an article, and my editor went over it with me once I was done.
All of that is gone now.
I went back down to the second floor to finish up the post on the Sun-Times sale. But I came back on Monday, just to see what I would find.
When Joliet Herald-News was sold to Shaw Media, the newsbox that contained issues of the paper stopped getting refilled pretty quickly. I figured that it was very possible that most of the boxes would be empty. But no - they still had the latest issues.
Here's what the Room of Delivered Newspapers looked like
As for the newspapers themselves... At first, I didn't quite realize what was off. But then it hit me - the front pages no longer had the "A Chicago Sun-Times publication" inscription below the nameplate.
Looking inside, I saw something interesting. If you looked on the second page of any Sun-Times Media daily newspaper, you'd find a copyright notice, the mailing address and the subscription rates. Elgin Courier-News, Aurora Beacon-News and Naperville Sun still had the old information.
The Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune, on the other hand, has a copyright notice marking it as part of Chicago Tribune Media Group and a mailing address.
While Southtown Star only had the Tribune copyright notice, but no mailing address.
And Lake County News-Sun had neither
My mom thinks those are just ownership transition hiccups - and she's probably right.
An interesting aside. In almost two years I've been writing for Pioneer Press, I never had problems taking any of Sun-Times newspapers from the boxes. Heck, one time, a Sun-Times employee who was moving the newspapers was there. I asked him if I could take any newspapers, and he told me to go ahead - anything that didn't get taken in the end of the day would be sent to recycling anyway.
But when I stopped by on Monday, as soon as I took the newspapers, a Sun-Times employee in a Wrapports shirt came up and asked me if I was a reporter. I told him I was a freelancer. He asked me for what paper. I told him. I gave him my full name.
"We've had a problem with people who weren't reporters taking papers," he told me.
Again, over the past two years, nobody really cared. Was it a new policy? Or was it perhaps an overzealous employee.
All I know is that he let me take the papers and pictures of the newspaper boxes - but he watched me like a hawk until I left.
As I headed out, I decided to stop by the Merchandise Mart food court. This is where a lot of Sun-Times employees who didn't want cafeteria food went to lunch. One of the eateries at the food court was a Billy Goat location.
Now, the original Billy Goat location is a Chicago journalism landmark. Located at the lower level of Michigan Avenue, right between the Tribune Tower and Sun-Times' pre-Trump building, it was a place where journalists from both papers went to grab a meal. The food, to be honest, is just okay, but the place has history. Some of the biggest names in Chicago journalism ate there on regular basis. So it was only natural that a Billy Goat would have a location near the current Sun-Times building.
When the staff of the Sun-Times Media's suburban newspapers got the word of the sale, they went out to mark the occasion at the original Billy Goat. My old editor invited any and all journalists to join, but I couldn't, because, again, chemo.
(Fuck cancer)
So, on impulse, I decided to, however belatedly, mark the occasion with a Billy Goat cheeseburger.
Now, everybody knows that Billy Goat does not carry Coca Cola products (just Pepsi products), and it's certainly doesn't have any fries (just chips). Both the original location and the Navy Pier location are pretty strict about that. So I was caught off-guard when the guy at the Merchandise Mart location asked me if I wanted fries.
I suppose the fact that they also carried Coca Cola drinks like Fanta and Sprite should've been a tip-off.
And so, I marked the sale of the papers where I've done most of my writing for the past two years with a not-quite proper Billy Goat meal.
There's symbolism in there somewhere, but I'd be damned if I knew what it meant.
As I ate the cheeseburger and fries (which were actually decent, all things considered), I went to stop by Pioneer Press' new home.
A place where you can't just pick up free newspapers without going past reception - but also a place where the front lobby is a freaking temple to the power of the press.
I plan to stop by Sun-Times building this weekend, see if the suburban newspaper sure still there and if there are any copies left to grab. But it won't quite be the same. Sun-Times Media as we knew it for the past 14 years is gone. And a new, expanded Chicago Tribune Media Group is taking shape.
I don't know what the future will bring. But the future is coming - and for now, at least, I'm coming along for the ride.
Farewell, Sun-Times Media.
Fare well.
Between the late 1970s and the mid 2000s, Sun-Times Media had its offices where Trump Tower is now - and, not at all coincidently, within walking distance of the Tribune Tower. After the company sold the land to Trump, it moved further west, to an office/hotel building at Wolf Point, where Chicago River's branches meet. The building is coloqually known as the Sun-Times Building, because it's got a pretty prominent "Chicago Sun-Times" sign on the river-facing side, but (at least until recently) it only occupied two floors. The 9th floor was where the newspaper was actually put together - the conference rooms, the newsroom, the design area, etc. The 10th floor was where the corporate stuff was - and, later, where Chicago Reader and Splash had their newsrooms.
There's an above-ground passageway connecting the Sun-Times building. Used to be that, as you entered the Sun-Times building and walk toward the elevators, you'd walk through this hallway with photos from Chicago Sun-Times archives on the side. But a few months ago, the photos were moved to the wall at the end of the hall, and the hallway was painted with generic Chicago cityscapes.
Over on the right, you have a space that used to be occupied by the Sun-Times gift shop. It's been remodeled since then.
The elevator set-up is actually kind of cool. There's a keypad where you touch whichever floor you want to get on (or, if you actually work at any of the businesses in the building, just touch the badge against the screen), and it shows you what elevator to go to.
The elevator then automatically takes you to your floor
When you get up to the tenth floor, you'll see a prominent Chicago Sun-Times sign on the right
And the Sun-Times Media newspaper boxes on the left.
It's not exactly a secret, but it's not something Sun-Times particularly likes to publicize, either. Those boxes contain the most recent issues of every newspaper Sun-Times Media publishes, which you can just grab - for free.
(Pioneer Press newspapers are, alas, behind the office doors, so I had to either ask my editor to grab them for me or ask him to let me in whenever I needed a copy and couldn't buy one)
The first time I visited the building, the left side had the boxes for the Chicago Reader, Elgin Courier-News, Joliet Herald-News, Chicago Sun-Times and the Sunday Sun-Times. Since then, Joliet Herald-News was sold to Shaw Media, and Wrapports did away with Sunday Sun-Times branding (though, in strictly legal sense, it still publishes a separate Sunday Sun-Times), so we got three identical Chicago Sun-Times boxes.
The right side looked the same as I did when I first visited, with boxes for the Reader, Aurora Beacon-News, Lake County News-Sun, Southtown Star, Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune and Naperville Sun.
One thing I always liked about those boxes are the decorative nameplates at the bottom. They have so much personality.
When I got there on Saturday, all the newspapers in the boxes were for Friday - offering an interesting snapshot of the day they all changed owners. When they were printed, nobody knew for sure the sale would happen.
Over to the right of the boxes, behind the elevators, there's a room... I'm not entirely sure what it's for, exactly, but the best I can gather, this is where copies of all Sun-Times Media newspapers get delivered before being sent out to offices and placed in newsboxes. This is what it looked like on Saturday.
Directly across from it, there's a space that Wrapports turned into a game room. The consensus is that most Sun-Times staffers didn't use it, and quite a few of them wondered why the hell the corporate higher-ups spent the money on it when the company isn't exactly profitable.
I guess eventually, someone decided that it really was a waste of space.
Here's the view out of the window behind the newspaper boxes
And over to the left of the newsboxes, we have the Sun-Times cafeteria
As I mentioned before, Sun-Times recently downsized, vacating its 9th floor space. So, as best as I can tell, this is where the editorial and design staff is now, along with corporate staff. I'm not entirely sure how they fit in. And now, I'm never going to find out. Friday was my editor's last day, and now nobody I know can get me in.
Here is the entrance to Wrapports corporate offices. Since it was Saturday, nobody was there, but on weekdays, you'd usually find a receptionist at the front desk.
What I've nicknamed "the wall of brands" by the entrance, a display of logos of stuff Wrapports owns. Now that Pioneer Press has been sold... Well, honestly, the Pioneer Press sign is probably going to stay there for a while.
So long as I was in the building, I decided to check out the ninth floor. Last time I was there, it was still in use. If I knew that it would be my last time, I would have brought a camera. And taken pictures. But as it stands...
Former newsroom entrance...
...with a stack of Chicago Tribunes in the front.
Which isn't actually that out there. As I discovered, Sun-Times newsroom was full of newspapers from the competition - I've seen copies to Wednesday Journal, Shaw Media's Suburban Life newspapers, Journal & Topics newspapers, Daily Herald, you name it.
A look inside the door
And what used to be the Sun-Times newsroom. Looking at it, I couldn't help but remember the desks where the Pioneer Press editors and a few reporters used to sit, the photo desk, the TV monitors playing CNN. Last time I was there, I actually got to sit at one of the desks and finish an article, and my editor went over it with me once I was done.
All of that is gone now.
I went back down to the second floor to finish up the post on the Sun-Times sale. But I came back on Monday, just to see what I would find.
When Joliet Herald-News was sold to Shaw Media, the newsbox that contained issues of the paper stopped getting refilled pretty quickly. I figured that it was very possible that most of the boxes would be empty. But no - they still had the latest issues.
Here's what the Room of Delivered Newspapers looked like
As for the newspapers themselves... At first, I didn't quite realize what was off. But then it hit me - the front pages no longer had the "A Chicago Sun-Times publication" inscription below the nameplate.
Looking inside, I saw something interesting. If you looked on the second page of any Sun-Times Media daily newspaper, you'd find a copyright notice, the mailing address and the subscription rates. Elgin Courier-News, Aurora Beacon-News and Naperville Sun still had the old information.
The Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune, on the other hand, has a copyright notice marking it as part of Chicago Tribune Media Group and a mailing address.
While Southtown Star only had the Tribune copyright notice, but no mailing address.
And Lake County News-Sun had neither
My mom thinks those are just ownership transition hiccups - and she's probably right.
An interesting aside. In almost two years I've been writing for Pioneer Press, I never had problems taking any of Sun-Times newspapers from the boxes. Heck, one time, a Sun-Times employee who was moving the newspapers was there. I asked him if I could take any newspapers, and he told me to go ahead - anything that didn't get taken in the end of the day would be sent to recycling anyway.
But when I stopped by on Monday, as soon as I took the newspapers, a Sun-Times employee in a Wrapports shirt came up and asked me if I was a reporter. I told him I was a freelancer. He asked me for what paper. I told him. I gave him my full name.
"We've had a problem with people who weren't reporters taking papers," he told me.
Again, over the past two years, nobody really cared. Was it a new policy? Or was it perhaps an overzealous employee.
All I know is that he let me take the papers and pictures of the newspaper boxes - but he watched me like a hawk until I left.
As I headed out, I decided to stop by the Merchandise Mart food court. This is where a lot of Sun-Times employees who didn't want cafeteria food went to lunch. One of the eateries at the food court was a Billy Goat location.
Now, the original Billy Goat location is a Chicago journalism landmark. Located at the lower level of Michigan Avenue, right between the Tribune Tower and Sun-Times' pre-Trump building, it was a place where journalists from both papers went to grab a meal. The food, to be honest, is just okay, but the place has history. Some of the biggest names in Chicago journalism ate there on regular basis. So it was only natural that a Billy Goat would have a location near the current Sun-Times building.
When the staff of the Sun-Times Media's suburban newspapers got the word of the sale, they went out to mark the occasion at the original Billy Goat. My old editor invited any and all journalists to join, but I couldn't, because, again, chemo.
(Fuck cancer)
So, on impulse, I decided to, however belatedly, mark the occasion with a Billy Goat cheeseburger.
Now, everybody knows that Billy Goat does not carry Coca Cola products (just Pepsi products), and it's certainly doesn't have any fries (just chips). Both the original location and the Navy Pier location are pretty strict about that. So I was caught off-guard when the guy at the Merchandise Mart location asked me if I wanted fries.
I suppose the fact that they also carried Coca Cola drinks like Fanta and Sprite should've been a tip-off.
And so, I marked the sale of the papers where I've done most of my writing for the past two years with a not-quite proper Billy Goat meal.
There's symbolism in there somewhere, but I'd be damned if I knew what it meant.
As I ate the cheeseburger and fries (which were actually decent, all things considered), I went to stop by Pioneer Press' new home.
A place where you can't just pick up free newspapers without going past reception - but also a place where the front lobby is a freaking temple to the power of the press.
I plan to stop by Sun-Times building this weekend, see if the suburban newspaper sure still there and if there are any copies left to grab. But it won't quite be the same. Sun-Times Media as we knew it for the past 14 years is gone. And a new, expanded Chicago Tribune Media Group is taking shape.
I don't know what the future will bring. But the future is coming - and for now, at least, I'm coming along for the ride.
Farewell, Sun-Times Media.
Fare well.