On
the one hand, it seems that when the great Chicago newspaper war comes to an
end in the future, it will be the Chicago Tribune as the “last man standing,”
so to speak.
BUT
THE TRIBUNE Publishing company that now controls the newspaper has a new
majority shareholder – and it’s the guy whose management of the Chicago
Sun-Times has turned that publication into the skimpy, scrawny sorry excuse of a
newspaper that it has become.
Tribune
officials announced Thursday that Michael Ferro will become the new
nonexecutive chairman of Tribune Publishing’s governing board. His Merrick
Media company now owns nearly 17 percent of Tribune Publishing, and Ferro
himself will maintain an ownership share of Wrapports, Inc., the company that
operates the Chicago Sun-Times.
Of
course, some would argue that since the Tribune already is printing the
physical copies of the Sun-Times, there is a tie between the two publications
that makes them one.
How
long will it become before the kind of copy-sharing that the Sun-Times brought
to the suburban publications it used to own (and which it sold to the Tribune
late in 2014) comes about between the two major metro dailies.
I
REMEMBER THE Tribune’s efforts to create a tabloid format version of itself.
Will we eventually get a Sun-Times consisting of Tribune copy, but put together
in the smaller page format that always was a plus to people riding on commuter
trails.
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| What would the colonel think? |
At
least until they figured out that those freebie papers the Tribune publishes cost
less out of their pockets!
Now
it should be acknowledged that such a merger is speculation on my part. Nobody
is talking such talk right now. And Ferro did publicly say his purchase of the
stock in Tribune publishing will cause him to cut back on the amount of control
he exerts over the Sun-Times.
In
theory, it’s not going to be one man running both newspapers. Which is what
Col. McCormick himself would have done had he ever had circumstance to buy into
the opposition newspaper.
ALTHOUGH
IF YOU study your history, you’d realize the reason Marshall Field created the
Chicago Sun (and later merged it with the Daily Times) was to create an
alternative to the isolationist nonsense that was being spewed on a regular
basis by McCormick’s Chicago Tribune.
How
much times have changed. What with it now being routine for the idea of
competing voices to be considered unnecessary in a city. And don’t give me the
nonsense of the Internet creating all kinds of new journalism.
What
it often does is merely reapportion the content that’s already out there.
People who claim they “Never read a newspaper!” all too often are merely
reading the stuff that was originally intended to be read on top of a girdle ad
before it gets wrapped around fine china or other precious items before being
stuffed into a box prior to Moving Day.
Perhaps
we should hear it for Ferro – the guy whose many innovations meant to revive
the Sun-Times have failed and has turned it into the shell of the newspaper I
once actually used to fantasize about writing for someday.
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| How long will Tower be company focal point? |
BECAUSE
NOW HE could claim to be a part-owner of both of the daily newspapers that
remain in the Second City proper. And also now has a say over the newspapers
throughout the suburban areas that he sold off more than a year ago to come up
with some cash to keep the Sun-Times alive for a while longer.
We’re
definitely a long way away from the days when the newspapers hired thugs to
harass the opposition’s newsboys and, on occasion, drive the competition’s
delivery trucks into the Chicago River.
I
don’t know how this all will shake out in the end between the two publications.
Although
I must admit the thought of seeing the Tribune and Sun-Times turn into the
equivalent of step-sisters was an outcome I wouldn’t have dreamed of back when
I got into the newsgathering business in the days of Harold Washington.
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