Blank pages = blank minds, but will that sway anybody to subscribe?

The Chicago Sun-Times on Monday tried to make a huge, sweeping statement – one of those “moments of awe” meant to inspire a deep thought within us.

Were you swayed?

They published a newspaper with a blank front page. It’s supposed to be symbolic of the quality of information we’d get if there were no newspapers being published at all.

AS IN THERE would be no stories whatsoever if we didn’t have newspapers with their staffs to actually report them. So, we’re supposed to conclude, we need to do whatever is necessary to ensure the continued survival of newspapers.

Of course, this grand statement is part of a larger gimmick. The Sun-Times’ website (at www.chicago.suntimes.com) wants to alter itself so that people can no longer just go there and expect to get the full content of the newspaper unless they have some sort of subscription.

They’d probably like it if people would take the full package that gives them a copy of the daily paper, along with full access to the website. Although they’ll also be happy if people take the digital access, by which people pay a lesser fee for the right to read anything on the website that they wish.

According to the Sun-Times’ own promotional copy, it is such a low subscription rate to do that. It amounts to “less than 25 cents a day.”

WHICH IS MY mind is a magic number of sorts – I’m old enough to remember back to when daily newspapers in Chicago cost a quarter each. That 25 cents would get you the whole paper back then, along with all the advertising supplements that were stuffed in it that supposedly had such value in-and-of-themselves that you’d save money far beyond the quarter you shelled out.

Did you "read all about it" on Waffle House?

Perhaps you can make an older generation feel like the price is returning to the golden days of old, rather than the current cost of $1 per day that a Sun-Times costs (or $2 on Sunday, but with the physical product scaled back to the point where it doesn’t have the “feel” of a traditional Sunday edition).

But a part of me is skeptical the message will take.

I have often wondered if it is going to take the outright demise of several newspapers and the loss of their content before people realize just how serious the loss will be.

I KNOW TOO many people who are foolish enough to think that television broadcasts or the Internet have somehow replaced newspapers in terms of providing information. They really haven’t.

Because if you take a serious look at the content those entities are providing, all too often they remain nothing more than retransmissions of what was first in the local paper.

The local TV news is just following up on the stories that were already in the paper, and the assorted websites are merely publishing the newspaper stories – or more accurately rewriting them in ways to try to make them appear to be their own content.

The original source

I got a subtle reminder of that fact in a story I wrote last week for the Post-Tribune newspaper of Northwest Indiana. Improvements that the Gary South Shore RailCats baseball team will have made to their stadium. Or, to be more honest, improvements that Gary municipal government will make for the ball club.

A WEBSITE, BALLPARK Digest, which covers the professional sports industry, did its own story. Which, if you read it realistically, was just a cheap rewrite of what I had did. At least they were honest enough to attribute the work to the Post-Tribune.

This kind of rewrite is all-too-common. Which is why I find it laughable when people say they don’t read the Sun-Times or Tribune anymore. But then you learn they’re getting those papers’ stories off assorted websites.

I don’t know what the future of the news-gathering business is, to tell you the truth. Only that I fear many of us are going to be a lot-less-well-informed because of the changes.

And by then, it will be far too late to do anything about it.

  -30-

Who’s to say what becomes of Chicago's one-time 'Bright One'?

Wednesday was supposed to be the day that the corporate entity that owns the Chicago Tribune would be able to finalize a deal to purchase its long-time competitor; the Chicago Sun-Times.

Who knows how long there will be two?

It would have seen the city’s two ayem newspapers combine into one corporate entity, even though there were promises that two separate publications would be maintained at least for the short-term.

BUT THE POINT of not permitting the deal to be immediately approved when it was announced two weeks ago was to allow for any potential buyers to come forth who could keep the one-time “Bright One” as a truly separate and independent entity.

Not that anybody expected to. It seems the tronc, Inc. types who now run the Tribune (coincidentally, the same people who used to operate the Sun-Times) were confident no one would come forth.

As it was, Crain’s Chicago Business came out with a report indicating that owners of the Arlington Heights-based Daily Herald considered a Sun-Times purchase, but backed off. Along with the company that owns suburban daily newspapers in Crystal Lake, Geneva and Joliet, and Gannett – the founder of USA Today and operator of many other daily papers across the country (including in Des Moines, Iowa, Detroit, Indianapolis, Louisville, Ky., and Milwaukee – to name a few).

So who’s going to be crazy enough to want to operate a newspaper whose best days appear to be in the past, and has the drawback of being a Number Two paper in a two-paper town? Most people intrigued enough to buy a newspaper (because they think its newsgathering assets can somehow be used to serve other purposes) would want the Number One paper – or preferably a monopoly operation. Anybody who expects Amazon.com (which owns the Washington Post) to swoop into Chicago for the Sun-Times is being delusional.

BUT NOW, VARIOUS reports are cropping up saying there may be a buyer after all. Although we’re not being told who it could be.

Officials with the Chicago Newspaper Guild are saying they are aware of two entities that are expressing interest in taking over the Chicago Sun-Times. While it seems the Sun-Times chapter of the guild that represents news reporters is making statements saying it would like to see more time beyond Wednesday’s deadline to consider the newspaper’s future.

It’s hard to say whether there’s really someone with interest capable of running a newspaper that would be worth a damn. Or if this is just wishful thinking from people who see the idea of being the junior partner in a two-paper combo as being about as dreadful an outcome that could possibly occur.

It could turn out that we’ll learn by week’s end that there is NO ONE else out there willing to plunk down some token fee to buy the publication.

WHOSE TOTAL PRICE paid may wind up becoming an embarrassment for the Sun-Times; because it could be such a low figure that it would be interpreted as evidence of just how far the ship has sunk!

Of course, I can’t help but remember my former employer, United Press International, which in 1992 was sold for $3.95 million to Middle East Broadcasting Centre. Eight years later, they sold it for nearly $40 million to News World Communications – which operates it these days as an affiliate of the Washington Times and its other right-leaning publications around the globe.

It may be possible that someone could come in, take the carcass of the Sun-Times and figure out a way to dredge some bucks out of its remains. Similar to what billionaire investor Sam Zell intended to do when he bought the Chicago Tribune nearly a decade ago.

Although it’s possible that any new purchaser of the Sun-Times would wind up resembling Zell more than the Saudi royal family that had UPI for a few years a couple of decades ago.

MY POINT IS to say I’m not sure how all of this is going to turn out.

Except for the fact that it’s always a loss whenever a newsgathering organization of any type is diminished. Even for those people who want to believe that the Internet now contains a slew of places where one can find much more information than you ever could in an ink-on-paper medium.

For the reality is there are so many places that rely on the existence of newspapers and their assets to generate the content they publish. Even with the Sun-Times, which remains an entity capable of covering a news story and picking up pieces that otherwise would be missed.

One less newspaper means less content; and the eventual outcome of websites whose business models are predicated on the concept of being able to aggregate copy from elsewhere winding up with nothing but blank space to try to fill our minds.

  -30-

News media too trivial to be liberal; the reminisces of a reporter-type person

I get noble ideas occasionally about how being a reporter-type person is my contribution to society, but some of the modern-day world realities make me contemplate that what I do is spread triviality instead.

I still own one, although I can't recall last time I used it

I can’t help but reflect upon what has become of the newsgathering business – and not just because some dink voters these days enjoy the idea their newly-elected congressman committed assault on a British newspaperman.

TOO MANY NEWS people spend too much of their time trying to recycle the stories they’ve already reported into so many venues so as to draw attention to our original published reports. It takes time away from finding new news stories.

Yet I suspect that too many of the people who think they’re being informed by what appears on their social media accounts never bother to go beyond the dinky 140-character blurbs (if they use Twitter) or pithy single-sentence (if on Facebook) accounts to see the real story. It’s no wonder the masses are clueless.

It can be a humbling experience to think that the 1,100-word story I wrote recently out of Gary, Ind., for the Post-Tribune will only capture the public attention for about 20 words – and no more.

It causes a trivialization of the information we gather, which is what leads me to say that the concept of a “liberal” media really is a myth. We have a “trivial” media, with too much space taken up by fluff that fills column inches.

WHICH MAY BE why readership is down, publications shrink to offer less space and the quality of the product declines even further. An endless cycle – even though the ideologues amongst us want to believe it’s because we don’t pander to their narrow thought.

Yet still, I have to confess to feeling the urge to be a reporter-type person. In some ways, the desire to be the eyes and ears of the community is all the more important now in this hyper-partisan era than it was that day some three decades ago that I walked across a stage and was handed a college diploma.

My strongest memory from that day (aside from thinking that our commencement speaker was deadly dull and that it rained during part of the outdoor ceremony) was that I felt pleased in knowing that I had a job interview scheduled for later that week.

Still a comforting sensation

As things turned out, that newspaper in suburban Chicago Heights didn’t think I was totally useless and wound up putting me to work beginning Monday.

THE 30-YEAR ANNIVERSARY of which occurred this week. My first news assignment was covering a plan commission hearing in Orland Park held entirely in executive session (meaning I sat outside while officials met privately) and I had to try to decipher what was taking place inside.

Since then, I’ve had my share of interesting (and historically-significant) moments. But much has changed since the days when Ronald Reagan and Harold Washington were actual living beings, rather than pseudo-iconic figures to differing segments of our society (including the ones most upset we don’t cater exclusively to their ideological beliefs).

For one thing, that Chicago Heights newspaper is no more. Neither is the old City News Bureau for whom I once toiled. United Press International for whom a part of me will always think myself tied still exists in some form, but the old bureaus in Chicago and Springfield, Ill., where I worked are no more.

In fact, I was the one who had to pack up the belongings of that latter bureau when it closed. It’s enough to make me feel like a professional “kiss of death” to news organizations. Perhaps I should keep quiet about it, lest my current employer get paranoid about my potential influence and give me yet another job layoff.

A long-lost image we'd like to keep of ourselves

ALTHOUGH IF I think of the equipment I have used throughout the years, it seems like a collection of antique junk – although I must confess to still owning a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 computer. The famed “Trash 80” that a generation of reporters relied upon to file copy – which can’t do anywhere near what my laptop can these days.

I recall when a “fax” machine was a newsroom novelty and it was considered a revolutionary act that organizations could instantly send us statements or other detailed information. Honestly, I can’t even remember the last time I got a fax. And I’m sure that when I did, it was for something stupid and trivial.

I also recall the habit of always scanning a room for the nearest payphone in case I had to make a quickie call. Actually, I still do that, even though more and more there are no payphones anywhere to be used.

But the ultimate change may be that I actually wrote my first stories on typewriters, whereas one of my contemporary (and about two-decades younger) news colleagues admitted recently to never having touched a typewriter in her life.

IT’S ENOUGH TO make me feel antique. Particularly since some people think these changing tools ARE the significance of the news business, instead of merely new toys to “play” with on the job. As though I endured all that prep time early in life just so I could talk to anonymous schmoes what they think of the latest mindless ramblings of our political geeks.

Even more so than the fact I remember who were Carmen Fanzone and Harry Chappas, while most people merely draw a blank in their eyes at the mention of the one-time infielders who bobbled many a ball on both sides of Chicago but were entertaining in their own unique ways.

  -30-

¿Un enemigo? Methinks Trump needs to find himself a hobby for amusement

Much rhetoric has been spewed from all angles with regards to President Donald J. Trump’s need to go on a rant last week in which he labeled those people who work in the newsgathering business as “the enemy.”

TRUMP: Does majority listen?

Which amuses me, in a sense. Because it does not come as a shock to me to learn that certain political-type people are basically insecure enough in their own existence that they see great conspiracies at work by those who serve to keep the public informed as to what takes place in our society.

HECK, I HAVE been called worse. I know of a rant that exists somewhere on the Internet that labels me a subversive and suggests I have no business being in this country.

The person who wrote that did so after I wrote a commentary for a former employer pointing out his own crackpot nature. Besides, I later discovered that the website he used to publish his rant was also filled with rants lambasting several television news anchors and reporters – and in fact the entire Telemundo television network.

I felt in good company then, and I’m going to feel like I’m on the right side of things now by having the Trumpster tremble at the very thought of my news brethren. I can make people of his ilk tremble and quake in their pants just by pulling out my notepad and pen and taking down what they say.

Which is what really bothers the people who have such negative sentiments. The idea that they can’t control every thought they spew out into the world – although the truth is if they only put a little thought into what they said, there’d be no reason for them to be fearful.

JUST LIKE TRUMP’S most recent rant – the one about the terrorist attack in Sweden that apparently never happened. I suspect that what really happened is that Trump became aware of reports indicating an increase in the number of non-native people coming to Sweden.

They're not supposed to be presidential 'friends'

And if they’re foreigners, of course they have to be up to no good. So naturally, there has to be terrorism at its root.

At the very least, it could turn out that a Swedish bikini team (remember those ads for Old Milwaukee beer?) of the future wouldn’t be filled exclusively with blondes whom Trump could fantasize about grabbing by their most personal of body parts.

Oh, the horrors!

IF IT SEEMS like I mock the people who are most critical of my professional life, you’d be correct. It’s just too difficult to take them seriously.

The extent to which Trump likely comprehends Sweden

Besides, I find enough government officials who are secure enough in their personalities that they comprehend the nature of the give-and-take of dealing with a reporter-type person. I’ve also been encouraged by the sense of support I have read coming from many people who are offended at how paranoid our president appears to be.

There may be that poll of a few weeks ago that said some 90 percent of people who voted for Trump back in November were satisfied with his behavior. But I sense that the 54 percent who voted for Hillary Clinton or someone else because they absolutely did NOT want the concept of a “President Donald J. Trump” are emboldened even further.

Society as a whole has the right idea. Besides, I know personally that as a reporter-type person, I’ve never viewed my work as a potential source of material for making friends. Being able to tolerate each other is the best I often hope for in my professional dealings.

Obama relegated to lesser role with each passing day

SO DO I fear being labeled “the enemy” (or the “opposition party,” as Trump aide Steve Bannon put it a few weeks ago)? I do realize that Trump has shown signs of being unstable enough to try to go too far. But I also believe that sense will prevail in our society.

There have been too many times during the three decades I have covered news that government officials have surprised me by doing the right thing. Who knows, it may even turn out to be Trump himself who comes to his senses? Maybe, maybe not!

All I know is that I now find humorous that Columbia Journalism Review study of 2014 that found former President Barack Obama’s press relations to be terrible – he “gives long answers, leaving little time for other questions and rarely makes news.”

Somehow, I sense many now feel a longing for the good ol’ days of a month ago – and the Trump legacy could be that it makes many realize how much more sane and sensible the Days of Obama truly were!

  -30-

Where have all the news boxes gone?

I have to confess to not really noticing until the past couple of days – I can’t remember the last time I bought a copy of the Chicago Tribune from a news box.
 

Is this now a historic relic?

I happened to be in downtown Chicago on Wednesday and had no problem finding an honor box for the Chicago Sun-Times in which to deposit four quarters in order to get a copy of the Bright One.

BUT LOOKING OVER at the nearby spot where there should have been a white and blue box hawking the Chicago Tribune resulted in vacant spaces. I wound up having to walk into that DePaul University bookstore that doubles as a Barnes & Noble franchise in order to spend my $1.99 for a copy of the modern-day incarnation of the World’s Greatest Newspaper.

It got me to thinking around all the locations that I used to stumble into and find a news box from which to buy a Tribune. They are all gone.

And now, Crain’s Chicago Business confirmed it with a report they published Thursday on their website. Newspaper officials won’t say, but the News Media Alliance confirmed that the Tribune really is eliminating those boxes in which people are trusted to deposit the correct amount of change before taking a copy of the paper.

The Tribune does still use honor boxes for the free publications they want people to take – such as the Spanish-language “Hoy” or the pseudo-alternative “Red Eye.”

BUT THE DAYS of reaching into one’s pocket and picking out some spare change in order to get a copy of the newspaper seem to be fading away. Which is a shame, since I have always been the odd-ball (at least as far as newspaper management is concerned) who wants the printed paper, but doesn’t particularly care for home delivery.

Although when one considers how much newspapers are costing these days, I suppose I can see where the idea comes in that you’re better off trying to get people to walk into stores where they can pick up a paper along with whatever goods they buy. Just think of trying to put $6 worth of quarters into a box for a Sunday New York Times.

The beginning of the 'downfall?'

In my case, the Walgreen’s about a block from where I live is a common spot for buying my copy of the Tribune. Either that, or whatever gas station I happen to stumble into while out and about with my life’s business.

Still, there is something about the news boxes that added to the character of the urban community. And not just because they’d have a tendency to eat peoples’ quarters and jam up – thereby refusing to provide people with the paper.

IN A SENSE, it was Chicago city officials themselves who began this trend when they required publications to put their wares in those massive multi-news boxes that were supposed to eliminate the clutter on the streets.

But instead, they often turn into a filthy, grimy mess, particularly when one looks at them and sees that most of the slots are empty. Not exactly something that anybody wants to deposit money into.

Besides, with the Tribune now charging $1.99, it makes me wonder if a news box would have to be built to accept pennies. Or if the Tribune would just want people to pay an even $2 – with all those extra pennies adding up to additional profit for the paper.

In short, newspapers cost quite a bit more than they used to – although I can recall decades ago when then-Gannett CEO Al Neuharth openly said major metro newspapers ought to charge in the dollars for their product rather than for spare change.

HIS THEORY WAS that it would increase the demographic of people buying the paper because the rabble who think in terms of the news box were less attractive to would-be advertisers.

I’m sure there are those people reading this who are screeching and screaming at their computer screens that I’m an idiot – I can read all this stuff for free via the Internet. Except that I really don’t like reading anything on a computer screen – I will go to my grave preferring ink on paper as a medium.

Even though it makes me wonder how much, at the end, I will be shelling out for copies of the paper. Since I can recall selling copies of the high school newspaper I wrote for, and being taunted by fellow students that they could buy copies of both the Tribune AND Sun-Times for the 50 cents I was asking for “The Arrow” of Thornwood High.

So when I hear the hedline to this commentary being sung in the back of my mind to the tune of the old Pete Seeger song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” I realize I’m probably alone

  -30-

EDITOR’S NOTE: I wonder how many people these days comprehend the one-time meanings of “The Bright One” or the “World’s Greatest Newspaper.”

Do they think everybody’s rushing to the newsstand to buy a Sun-Times?

I’ve gone about mocking the Chicago Sun-Times for its policy of non-endorsement editorials – particularly since everybody else is still persisting in taking official stances on how people should vote.

Now, it seems I’ll have to go back and mock the Sun-Times for taking lame-brained editorial stances. Because the newspaper put a notice on their website Friday night telling us there will be an official endorsement in the Sunday newspaper – the one whose early editions are for sale Saturday morning – governor.

CONSIDERING THAT THE newspaper published an editorial earlier this week that said Rauner is the preferred candidate for Illinois governor because of the financial problems the state faces – and that no other concerns are relevant – it would be extremely difficult to think there’s a way the paper would officially back Gov. Pat Quinn’s bid for re-election.

Unless they’re really willing to open themselves up to ridicule!

Now I don’t have first-hand knowledge about the goings on of the Sun-Times editorial board. I know what I read in the paper.

Although a part of me wonders if the current Sun-Times ownership saw all the fun being had by all the other newspapers who in recent weeks have written editorials saying people should vote for Rauner.

THEY WANT TO “play” too. What’s the point of owning a major metro news-oriented publication and any Internet-based venues that go along with it if one can’t throw their muscle around and pretend that the political people are actually swayed by such thoughts?

I’ll give the newspaper the benefit of the doubt when it says it’s not being influenced to back Rauner because of the owners’ ties to the man – he was once a minority partner in the company that currently runs the newspaper, although he sold it off when he started thinking of running for government office.

Which makes me wonder if Rauner is a guy who once had dreams of being a media mogul, but decided instead to be a governor instead? What next; will he want to be a fire chief?

Or maybe he’ll start wearing a cape and go running around Chicago pretending he’s some sort of superhero – saving the souls of Chicago from evil super villains who would wreck havoc upon the Second City.

JUST AS A side thought – what kind of evil villain character could be created out of Pat Quinn’s persona?

But back to the Sun-Times editorial policy – which seems like it will be limited to governor come the Nov. 4 election cycle. Although the newspaper wrote Friday that they would make endorsements for the February and April election cycle for municipal office.

Will the Sun-Times throw its support to a mayoral challenger? Or will they convince us that the Dynamic Duo of Emanuel and Rauner is the key to running city and state governments in a way that will bring about the most in reform?

That is a thought that I’m sure would offend many Chicagoans these days. If the Sun-Times’ intent is merely to back people of means whose world view would be oriented to certain upper-crust individuals, they may wind up doing themselves harm in terms of alienating their readership.

THE IDEA OF a Sun-Times editorial endorsement that says Quinn needs to go because none of the business objections brought up by the governor are relevant just seems too similar to the endorsement the Chicago Tribune already gave to Rauner.

But I wonder if some people are going to speculate more about the “Dynamic Duo” concept I threw out there earlier – if Rauner is “Robin,” how ridiculous would he look in those green shorts and yellow cape that actor Burt Ward made ever so popular a half-century ago?

  -30-

State of the Press: Is being dumped by your owner a good thing these days?

I don’t quite know what to make of the newspaper business these days.

How long until it becomes WGN Tower?

On the one hand, so much of the actual content that fills the airwaves of broadcast outlets and the pages of assorted websites continues to originate with the work done by newspaper reporters.

THEN AGAIN, EVERYBODY seems way too eager to dump on those actual publications.

By dump, I mean literally.

The Tribune Co. has made it clear it wants to get into the broadcast business exclusively – and views its newspapers (including the Chicago Tribune) as a drag on the company.

To the point where they plan to break off the newspapers into a separate business entity – which they will then try to sell off to someone else in the near future.

WE’RE AT THE point where the Chicago Tribune will now have to pay rent for the office space it has occupied for nine decades at Tribune Tower – which probably should be renamed WGN Tower and thought of as the place where the radio and television interests named for the one-time World’s Greatest Newspaper (even though it never was) are headquartered.

For all I know, the Tribune newspaper interests may wind up some day having to rent space in the Willis Tower. Or maybe they’ll wind up getting office space in the same building on the Chicago River as the Chicago Sun-Times?



Will NW Herald be better sister ...

That would be the ultimate tacky joke!

The point is that the current ownership on Michigan Avenue no longer views the idea of a media entity that controls a major metro newspaper, a television station, a radio station with a signal powerful-enough to reach across the Midwestern U.S., a local cable news outlet and assorted other properties as being worth the hassle.

WE WILL GET to the day when the concept of WGN being both the Tribune’s all-powerful television and radio station that bolstered the newspaper's influence will be an alien concept. Future generations will get the same blank look at the concept just as much as the youth of today don’t get the point of how overwhelming Larry Lujack was in his heyday – and probably think WLS-AM always spewed a batch of political nonsense in between its commercial spots.

... to Joliet newspaper than Chicago Sun-Times was?

The times change, and I suppose we all have to adapt with them. Even if it means becoming something that gets dumped upon. Although the New York Times reported a story that speculated the Tribune Co.’s moves to maintain the broadcast properties may wind up hobbling any chance of the newspaper properties’ long-term survival.

Of course, we can always float down the Chicago River just a few blocks to the Sun-Times situation, where officials in recent days made it official that they’re selling off one of the suburban newspaper properties they acquired in the past couple of decades to strengthen the overall company.

Now, they need whatever cash they can get ahold of.

SO THE HERALD-News newspaper of Joliet goes from being a sister publication of the Sun-Times to being the sister of the Northwest Herald newspaper of Crystal Lake and the Kane County Chronicle of St. Charles. All are owned by the Shaw Media company that will take over Joliet. Although it seems Crain’s Chicago Business deserves credit for breaking this story.

Being dumped on by the Sun-Times may be a good thing here, because the sense was always that the Sun-Times company people were more interested in gutting the suburban properties they acquired to bolster the status of the downtown paper.

Now, the Herald-News may wind up with ownership that will care about it as an individual entity. Although whether they’re in a position to build it back up to a publication that can provide adequate coverage of Will County (the county that had the largest population growth during the past decade) is questionable.

Does remembering 'Superjock" make me old?

Could Sun-Times ownership have hobbled the paper to the point where nobody could rebuild it? We’ll have to wait and see.

THERE COULD BE one negative in this (or a plus for the Tribune, depending on how one wants to perceive it). Sun-Times people have claimed they are now the largest-circulation newspaper entity because they were adding in all the circulation of their suburban properties into one mass – and the total came to a figure barely bigger than the Tribune’s circulation.

Could the loss of the 25,000 or so copies of the Herald-News sold daily be just enough to dump the Sun-Times back into Second Place behind the Tribune?

  -30-

We see the future, and it’s rather cheap

A part of me was appalled enough by the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday to make some sort of grandiose gesture such as calling up the newspaper and cancelling my subscription!

Of course, I didn’t. For a couple of reasons.

FOR ONE THING, I don’t subscribe. I have always been one of those individuals who prefers to buy newspapers at the newsstand or at a convenience store or some other physical place.

But the bigger reason? I suspect that those Wrapports-type people who own the Sun-Times and all the suburban newspapers would probably be incredibly pleased (tickled pink, which phrase do you prefer?) if a lot of people were to quit buying the paper.

Which officially is no longer the Chicago Sun-Times.

It’s now ChicagoSun-Times.com. Even in print! Yes, I think it’s kind of cute that they use one of the Chicago-style stars (as in the city flag) for the dot in .com. But otherwise, the newspaper has made a significant shift that just doesn’t do much for me.

FOR IT SEEMS that management now wants us to think of the Sun-Times as being a Chicago-oriented web site that happens to put out a daily publication based on its content.

As if the newspaper itself were now just an advertising flier for ChicagoSun-Times.com. Flip through its pages, and you can get samples of the types of stories you can find once you put down that dreaded newsprint and boot up your computer, laptop, smartphone or whatever other gadget you happen to use to access information.

I noticed several instances where the stories on the website are longer and more detailed than what appears in print. That doesn’t mean the website is more comprehensive by any means.

Just read the story by top-notch political reporter Natasha Korecki about the polling numbers on potential gubernatorial dreamer Lisa Madigan. All of the interesting detail is only on the website. None of it made the printed paper.

IT JUST MEANS that the hard work of reporter-type people was held back from anyone who actually plunked down $1 for the physical product. To get the whole story, one now has to turn to the medium that likely will never be able to charge the kinds of advertising rates necessary to support a worthwhile news report.

Making the shift makes no sense, unless you really are determined to get people into reading the website and want to view a newspaper as a pain in the butt – despite the fact that ink on paper is so much easier on the eyes for those people who actually try to read extended bits of copy.

Which strikes me as wanting to chase away one’s most loyal customers to try to attract more people who likely aren’t going to want them, no matter what gestures are made.

One other point about the NEW ChicagoSun-Times.com – something about that shade of red for the nameplate, combined with the white lettering. It looks like a cheaply-printed comic book. Hoy and RedEye (both Tribune-published tabloids) have a more sophisticated look than the read tabloid-format newspaper in town.

THAT IS PARTICULARLY ironic, because most “graphic novels” (who’s kidding whom, they’re comics) go to great lengths to achieve high-quality printing standards. The cheap look drags down the overall image.

Although I have to admit to finding some humor in that front-page story (“Feud or Fraud?”) about Illinois Senate President John Cullerton and state House Speaker Michael Madigan, both D-Chicago.

If this really is a comic book, they both came across as sinister-looking arch-villains engaged in a wicked plot to undermine that never-impressive super-hero, the Mighty Pat Quinn, on yet another issue.

All in all, it has me thinking I need to pick up the New York Times national edition on a more-regular basis. Either that, or start trying to figure out what kind of costume a Quinn super-hero character would wear?

  -30-

EXTRA: Loss of photographers not about adapting to new technology as much as ol’ fashioned union-busting

A trekkie on the picket line?

It has been a week since the Chicago Sun-Times and all of its sister suburban papers made it public that it was letting go its entire photography staff.

They try to claim it is a matter of adapting to new technology and accepting that people want more video clips as part of their news reports on the Internet.

YET IT’S JUST a little too hard to swallow. I’d accept this a lot more easier if those Wrapports types who own the newspapers would just admit that a priority of theirs is getting rid of those photographers who were covered by a Chicago Newspaper Guild contract.

Because a lot of the people who are going to get hired in the future to accommodate all this desire for video clips are going to be younger types, and the company will probably go out of its way to ensure that the guild (a.k.a., the dreaded union) will never get their paws on these new people. Otherwise, at least a few of those photographic veterans would have been retained, and retrained.

Maybe the Sun-Times didn’t call out the cops to crack heads open when the photographers and their supporters picketed the newspaper’s offices Thursday morning. But the desire to not have to deal with a union was just as much a motivation as it was at a place like the old Republic Steel – where East Side neighborhood residents still pay tribute to the strikers who were killed on Memorial Day 76 years ago.

So it was totally appropriate that Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis was among those who picketed the Sun-Times on Thursday, although I’m sure she also gains from the public recognition she will receive.

CTU boss Karen Lewis takes on new labor cause

 

AFTER ALL, SHE got herself on television, and that bolsters her name recognition for her own future causes.

Whereas the Sun-Times’ recognition? They got professional smart-aleck Stephen Colbert to do a segment that on his Comedy Central program that made the newspaper look rather ridiculous.

And for what it’s worth, the difference in images in the newspaper is notable – particularly since the bulk of the pictures now appearing in the pages of the Sun-Times seem to be from the Associated Press.

As for this particular posting, the images accompanying it were shot with my own smartphone. And I’ll be the first to admit they look horrid; just as bad as they do when they get used on television newscasts. But this could be the future, if this particular trend catches on.

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People won’t realize until too late that quality costs more, but also means more

I managed to miss the gathering of a couple dozen people who picketed briefly this week outside the Tribune Tower to express their disgust with the very notion that the billionaire (and highly ideological) Koch brothers could wind up as the new owners of the Chicago Tribune.

But while I don’t doubt the Kochs would do funky things with the content of our city’s larger newspaper (I don’t buy into the concocted math that the Chicago Sun-Times uses to claim it is bigger), I think those people who are concerned about the quality of the news reports we get ought to be more concerned about what’s happening these days at the one-time “Bright One.”

AS I WRITE this, I’m still trying to accept the Sun-Times’ announcement that it found another 20 to 30 people it can lay off from their jobs – the Chicago Sun-Times no longer employs photographers.

Which strikes the historian in me as ironic in that one of the Sun-Times predecessors (the Daily Times created in the 1920s) billed itself as the first Chicago newspaper to rely heavily on photographs to tell the news.

Not that there won’t be photographs in the Sun-Times. The newspaper (along with its websites and any other products the Wrapports company decides to create) says it will rely on freelance photographers, along with the possibility of its news reporters being expected to take a camera of sorts with them to assignments.

A reporter trying to comprehend the intricacies of public policy so as to explain it properly to the public will have to take pauses in their mental process to snap a picture.

AND IF THEY wind up having to spend too much time getting that exact right shot, they’re likely to miss details.

Trust me when I say that it is going to impact the quality of images in the newspaper/website/whatever, it will hurt the reporting as well.

I write this knowing full well that I am not capable of doing both, and I know I’m not unique. I realize there are some professional newspeople who can point to times in their careers where they worked for publications that expected them to do double duty.

But that is evidence of the fact those people worked for cheap publications – ones that were small-staffed enough because they didn’t expect to publish anything of any substance.

SOMEHOW, I DOUBT that the Sun-Times’ key to financial success is to publish a less substantial newspaper – which would lead to less substantial websites and other information-oriented products.

Because the reality of our news is that while an increasing number of people may want to read their stories on the Internet, the websites that are the most highly-read are the ones that are affiliated with existing newspapers or television stations or other newsgathering outfits.

They are the ones that can reappropriate the content for the Internet. And in cases where they first publish a breaking story on the website, it can be updated and rewritten for the following day’s newspaper.

Which can result in better copy – except in cases where editors think the printed word is supposed to be less substantial than what turns up on the website.

I DON’T DOUBT that some, if not most, of the freelance photographers the Sun-Times winds up relying upon will be the same individuals who were, until Thursday, gainfully employed by the newspaper.

Some of them may even draw so many assignments that the amount of money in their paychecks will be about the same as they were taking home before. But freelancers don’t get the benefits or job security that usually inspires an employee to take his company’s product seriously.

What this all comes down to is an attempt to reduce the budget by not having to cover health insurance benefits. Because these workers are now going to have to figure out how to get themselves coverage.

Which means that it would be a heck of a lot of nerve on the Sun-Times’ part if they take up the cause of ranting and raging against “Obama-care,” because they’re adding to the number of uninsured who will have to take advantage of federal benefits – all so they can try to bolster their financial bottom line.

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Government meddling in other people’s business way too headache-inducing!

One of the reasons why I personally would never contemplate running for electoral office is the fact that I’d get stuck taking the blame for the screw-ups of other officials beneath me.

OBAMA: Does the president feel ...

While it may well be true that a public official is responsible for those who answer to him, I can’t help but wonder how much of the Tylenol Barack Obama is consuming these days.

FOR ONE RIGHT on top of the other, a pair of stories have cropped up that would have us think that Obama deserves to be thought of in the same class of people as J. Edgar Hoover or Richard Nixon – if not Joe McCarthy (not the Yankees manager version) himself.

The ideologues are getting all worked up over recent Washington Post reports about how the Internal Revenue Service was giving extra scrutiny to certain groups claiming tax-exempt status.

None of the groups ultimately was denied that status, but it seems they resented having so much attention paid to them. Particularly since many are politically-motivated groups whose desire is to promote candidates who push their conservative ideological thoughts on issues.

We’re hearing the screaming that the government is out to get them – although coming from these ideologues, I wonder if what they’re really upset about is that anyone would have the nerve to “scrooten” them (remember Mayor Daley, the second?).

MAYBE IT’S ONLY okay when their opposition is the one facing the scrutiny from the government?

Now I don’t mean to downplay the concept of the government turning into “big brother” and deciding to meddle into the private affairs of people. It is a serious problem, and Obama himself quickly joined in the gaggle of people criticizing the IRS.

Although I suspect he’s more upset about the fact that everybody on the ideological spectrum against him is going to blame this on him. He’s going to have to take the heat for this – particularly when the sympathetic leadership of the House of Representatives decides to hold hearings to give those voices a microphone and television camera to amplify their thoughts all the moreso.

... something more like this these days?

But what makes it worse is that this has to crop up in the public ear at the same time that the Justice Department decides it has to resort to reporter-harassment in order to advance its criminal investigations.

THAT’S WHAT IS usually behind any incident where prosecutors decide they need to go after a reporter-type person’s notes or telephone records – they are unable to figure out a case by themselves, even though they have subpoena power.

In this case, the Associated Press learned that federal prosecutors had managed to get records of about 20 telephone lines – both at AP offices and, in some cases, the home telephone and personal cellphone lines of reporters.

It seems that a Central Intelligence Agency disruption of a plot to bomb an airliner became known, and someone was upset enough to want to punish someone – most likely whoever let it be known to reporter-types that this was going on.

Personally, I can appreciate how someone might be offended by having prosecutorial-minded people wading through lists of places one called on their telephone. Although if anyone tried subpoenaing my home phone records, all they’d really get is a list of which restaurants I patronize for carryout food.

BUT THERE’S THE greater principle at stake about some respect for privacy – which I suspect the ideologues facing what they see as harassment from the IRS oftentimes are not willing to respect for others.

It is why I am less than sympathetic – even though we may well have IRS agents who stepped across the line of decency in their investigatorial behavior. And a president wondering what he ever did so bad in life to deserve all the harassment he gets dumped on him on a daily basis!

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