What the helling hell is Wrapports trying to do to Chicago Sun-Times?
This picture, alas, continues to be relevant
The last time I wrote about Pioneer Press' former corporate sibling, Wrapports fired a bunch of people. And, unfortunately, this post isn't going to be much different.
This morning, it was announced that Chicago Sun-Times Managing Editor Craig Newman was fired from the paper, and that his position is being eliminated. Unlike the other fired staffers, I actually sort of knew him - we met twice in real life, back when Pioneer Press was still part of Sun-Times Media, and we followed each other on Twitter. I've never been entirely clear whether he knew who Strannk_REB45/Strannik01 really was, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he did.
I never worked with him, but he always struck me as a knowledgeable editor who had passion for news, worked hard and tried to put out the damn best newspaper he could. The reaction from the staff shows that he was all that - and more.
Damn. @craignewman has left the @suntimes. Thanks for everything, Boss. Still gonna call you "Boss," by the way.
- Sam Charles (@samjcharles) August 11, 2015
@samjcharles @craignewman @suntimes Hear, hear. Thanks for everything, Craig. Wish you all the best.
- LeeAnn Shelton (@ByLeeAnnS) August 11, 2015
Wouldn't wish the Managing Editorship of the Sun-Times on anyone, but @craignewman continued to get real stories out against crazy headwinds
- dan sinker (@dansinker) August 11, 2015
Our managing editor, @craignewman, left the @Suntimes today. Craig, thank you for always being patient and respecting us. You'll be missed.
- Reema Amin (@reemadamin) August 11, 2015
Related: still in shock.
- Reema Amin (@reemadamin) August 11, 2015
One more thing: not many people know how to manage a breaking news staff when news happens, but Craig does. Newsrooms need people like him.
- Reema Amin (@reemadamin) August 11, 2015
According to Robert Feder's article about the firing, Newman has been unhappy with his job for quite some time (and given some of the things I've seen him tweet over the past few months, that doesn't surprise me).
I wasn't originally planning to write about this on Livejournal. But then, a few hours later, I saw Sun-Timers (and ex-Suntimers) pass around a link to a post Sun-Times Network CEO Tim Lanton made last month. And I couldn't leave that alone.
To review - not long after Wrapports sold most of Sun-Times Media newspapers to the Tribune, the company launched the "Sun-Times Network," a network of news websites for every major city. Building up on the earlier Aggrego concept, it would aggregate local news and post news of their own.
I said at the time that this was a terrible idea, and I stand by it, for a very simple reason - Sun-Times' brand is meaningless outside Chicagoland. New York Times would be able to do something like this, because it's New York freaking Times. Washington Post might have been able to do something like this, because it's one of the few newspapers that has national recognition (in fact, it has been expanding national coverage online as part of its efforts to increase online traffic, and, so far, it seems to be working). But Sun-Times? Most of the country has never heard of Sun-Times.
What's more, I haven't seen Sun-Times Network do anything that other local media outlets weren't already doing - and continue doing - better. When Baton Rouge Advocate tried to fill in the gap left by New Orleans Times-Picayune's reduced print schedule, it spent money to hire local reporters, open a local office and, you know, actually make some effort to present itself as a serious alternative to the city's dominant newspaper. When DNAinfo launched a CHicago website, it hired a bunch of local reporters who did some great in-depth investigations of local issues that were ready for publication before the site even launched. Sun-Times Network seems to think that all they have to do create a [City] Sun-Times site and it would somehow be enough.
Then, there is the fact that, as Robert Feder pointed out, the Sun-Times Network websites are just not very well-designed. The paper has a terrible track record when it comes to website designs (the only good examples I can think of are, ironically enough, Aggrego-made sites for STM's suburban papers). The current website gets bogged down with scripts and ads, and design-wise... Look at this thing.
In his post, Landon says that Wrapports can emulate the success of Cars.com, CareerBuilder and Apartments.com, which were developed by Tribune Media before its newspapers and magazines were split off into Tribune Publishing. In other words, he argues that because one newspaper company can develop successful online products, Wrapports can do the same thing. There are, however, two very obvious problems with this. One, Cars.com and Apartments.com are classifieds listing websites, and Sun-Times Network is, well, not. News websites, by their nature, are more expensive, because they require you to, you know, actually create editorial content. And the other is that, when Tribune developed them, it was profitable, and Wrapports, by all accounts... is not.
What's more, he talks about improving video months after Wrapports fired all of the video people. Somebody has to point it out.
Interestingly, while all this has been going on, Chicago Sun-Times seems to put bigger focus on being a local newspaper. In March, the paper singed a contract with USA Today,with the national paper agreeing to provide international, national, business and entertainment coverage. While Chicago Sun-Times already meager business coverage petered down to zero, and the paper's entertainment coverage shrank significantly, the number of pages devoted to coverage of local and state politics, local news and crime has actually increased. Chicago Sun-Times also got some national sports coverage out of the deal, while, as best as I can tell, local sports coverage remains pretty much the same.
Which begs a question - why, at the time when Chicago Sun-Times has been doing more local coverage than it has in years, would the company fire a managing editor?
According to Feder's article, Sun-Times EIC Jim Kirk would take over Newman's responsibilities. Which strikes me as... dubious. I've seen what happens when editors have to deal with an increased workload, and when there are fewer people to delegate responsibilities to. Things slip through the cracks. Leads get ignored. Decisions take longer. Editors become less responsive.
That doesn't bode well for the paper's newsroom.
The article said that Kirk said that he wants to "retain as many reporters and columnists as budget constraints would allow." Which is not especially encouraging.
As I wrote before, what makes Chicago Sun-Times important, what makes Chicago Sun-Times valuable, is that it presents an alternative to Chicago Tribune. That, at least in theory, it acts as the couterbalancing force to the Tribune. At its best, it's the voice of the less well off, the fearless investigator of corruption, the advocate for the disenfranchised. It offers unique voices, unique perspectives. That is what the Sun-Times brand means.
Instead, the Wrapports higher-ups seem focused on trying to build a network on websites without putting in the money and effort to actually make it successful, to make it stand out. They use the brand name that is meaningless in most markets they are trying to expand into. And they seem content to cripple the part of Wrapports that actually does have brand value.
Wrapports executives like to say that their detractors are just afraid of change, that they are doing what must be done to make Sun-Times successful in an increasingly digital world. But, in the three years since Wrapports bought Sun-Times Media, nothing has convinced me that they have any idea what they are doing.
Or that they are capable of learning from their mistakes.
Good luck, everyone at Sun-Times. You're going to need it more than ever.