For
the fate of the Chicago Sun-Times, I’m sure the moves that were made by the
newspaper’s owners are a plus. They shore up what was a shrinking publication
by combining all the editorial resources of the various newspapers the company publishes
all at one site.
PERHAPS
SOME ARE deluded into thinking it’s like the old days, with more people working
out of what passes for the Sun-Times building (in my mind, the barge-like
building on the Chicago River at Wabash Avenue will always be the paper’s true
home) to put together a series of publications that when combined cover the
entirety of the Chicago metropolitan area.
But
the reality is that those suburban publications are gutted to the point where
it is questionable whether they should be thought of as separate publications.
Is
the SouthtownStar newspaper really now just the south suburban edition of the
Sun-Times? Is the one-time Gary Post-Tribune really just an Indiana-oriented
edition of The Bright One (which doesn’t look so bright to me)?
The
same could be said for any of the other publications that stretch from Waukegan
south down to Joliet, all of which shuttered their offices in recent days. Many
editors whose duties could be done by someone else found themselves laid off of
jobs.
SOME
ARE NOW commuting downtown to do the work that is supposed to monitor
communities such as Naperville, Aurora or Skokie.
As
for reporters who are supposed to be hitting the streets, they’re now going to
be among those expected to work out of their cars going from assignment to
assignment.
Some
will figure out ways of working from home (Will they get to wear pajamas all
day?), or occasionally finding places with a wireless connection from which to
actually file copy for the next day’s editions.
Along
with the updates that are meant for the same day’s websites.
WHEN
YOU THINK about it, where would modern-day journalism be if not for Starbucks?
Those havens of free Internet connections are inadvertently going to make it
possible for many publications to cut their operating expenses – which is what
all of this restructuring is really about.
Now
as one who has, on a few rare occasions, filed news stories for publication on
deadline from a Starbucks, trust me when I say it stinks. Too many
distractions. Way too many other people around. And invariably, you have to
fight it out with these java-ed up junkies for a seat and table near an outlet.
Otherwise,
you run the risk of your laptop computer losing power in mid-story. Why do I
suspect that in the near future, some award-winning piece of journalism –
perhaps even a potential Pulitzer Prize – will get lost due to electrical
failure!
Although
more important than that factor, there’s something about filing copy under such
conditions that feels downright amateurish. You’d think that at a time when
many publications are struggling to survive, the last thing they’d want to do
is impose such restrictions on themselves?
THEN
AGAIN, THERE are those who will view the cost-savings as impacting the
bottom-line for this quarter. But what will they slash away at the next quarter
so as to achieve their financial goals?
It
is why I feel like the suburban press has suffered a serious blow because many
of the long-running newspapers that covered their communities are now doing
nothing more than propping up the Chicago Sun-Times; enhancing the delusions of
their current owners that (when all put together) they’re a bigger and more
substantial newspaper than the Chicago Tribune.
One
that, it seems, can’t even afford to pay its printing bills to the Tribune –
whose presses now create the bulk of what passes for newspapers throughout the
Chicago area. Which, when you think about it, is a sad set of circumstances all
the way around!
-30-
EDITOR’S
NOTE: As for the film posters, it is little more than some reminiscing on my
part as to the public image of old of newspapers and reporting – the pursuit of which still
has me hanging around newsrooms in search of what little romance remains. What
happens if someone tries to make a “newspaper” film of the 21st
Century? Somehow, I doubt that a film with characters who spend all their time
hanging around Starbucks so they can file their copy about press conferences
where nobody says anything interesting or relevant would seem all that intriguing
to moviegoers.
No comments:
Post a Comment