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-

How reliant we are on computers

If you're one of those rare people who actually checks into this weblog on a regular basis, you will have noticed there was nothing fresh on Monday.

My days-old commentary about the coming of winter-like weather had to suffice for an extra day.

IT IS BECAUSE I experienced technical glitches so severe that I had to break down on Monday and spend some money in order to buy myself a new computer. My now-former laptop computer developed a glitch so severe that I could no longer rely upon it to write copy.

I could still scan the internet. But there were certain letters on my keyboard that no longer functioned properly.

Such as the letter "o," which everytime I hit that key would cause the keyboard to start spewing out an endless supply of o's that would have turned my thoughts into even more gibberish than they already were.

And yes, in this particular case, I know exactly what provoked my 3 1/2-year-old computer to crash. A few drops of Coca-Cola got spilled into the part of the keyboard where O, L and P congregate.

IT WAS ENOUGH to make my old device functionally useless and require me to buy my new HP-brand computer, which came already loaded with Windows 8 -- so I get an upgrade technologically for my moments of clumsiness last week.

As it was, I filed the commentary about winter weather from a computer at a public library -- which isn't something I relish the thought of doing on a regular basis.

Besides, too much of my living as a freelance writer requires that I have a functioning keyboard to grind out copy -- along with a reliable way of transmitting it via e-mail.

Which is a condition I suspect most of us deal with in our lives these days. In fact, it amazed me just how cut off I felt from the rest of the world during this past weekend with an inability to just log on to my laptop computer and check things out.

ADMITTEDLY, I STILL had a functioning smart-phone (one of those Nokia Lumia devices) that allowed me to continue to check my e-mail (which I rely on for work-related messages) and to do limited checking of the Internet.

Although off those dinky little screens, it becomes a pain in the buttocks to try to read anything of any length on any particular website.

As it is, this is the first piece of copy I am writing on my new machine. I'm trying to get the feel of how it functions, and my ability to grind out copy is definitely slowed as I try to figure out how all of this works.

Because this particular laptop computer actually looks more like my smart-phone. It seems like it is designed for people who want to view their machines as something to play with -- rather than just a tool to do actual work with.

THEN AGAIN, I always suspected that I was different than many people (particularly the younger generation) in that I'm interested in the actual content I'm viewing on this machine -- rather than spending time on the machine itself.

If all of this reads like I'm some sort of aging malcontent who can't quite get with the program, perhaps you're right. Because a part of me wonders how much different the next laptop computer I purchase will be from this machine.

It definitely makes me reminisce fondly of the first laptop I ever purchased -- one that I managed to get seven years worth of use out of. That is a statistic that manages to amaze every technological geek I ever encounter.

They seem to be too used to the idea of replacing something every couple of years.

ALTHOUGH I DO have to admit to one bit of pleasure from my new purchase -- the price.

For someone who can be a cheap as I can be at times, I was amazed at how inexpensive these devices have become.

Particularly since that aforementioned first laptop cost just over $1,000, while the second one (the one that died last week due to Atlanta's finest soft drink) cost me just over $600.

This one was about $475 -- and that includes a couple of upgrades to add memory, along with all the taxes that assorted county, state and federal entities added to my purchase.

WILL THE DAY come when I can get one of these overelaborate typewriters (I am old enough to remember when professional copy was typed out on actual paper, then mailed to a publisher via the U.S. Postal Service) for a couple hundred bucks?

Perhaps. But I'm also wondering if the day is coming when the machines will be designed to take my oral dictation and convert it into printed words; including all the "uhs," "ums" and "you knows?"

Somehow, it doesn't sound like progress to me.

  -30-

Could we someday see a broke Playboy?

Chicago’s own Hugh Hefner (who hasn’t actually lived in Chicago for nearly four decades, if you want to be exact) managed to work his way into the news on Monday. He wants to “buy” Playboy.

The man who founded the magazine (the first issue supposedly was put together on the kitchen table of his then-Hyde Park apartment) and turned it into an iconic brand that Chicagoans like to brag about whenever it suits our public image desires is determined to ensure that the company that has evolved from his brand name lives on – regardless of how much longer he may have to go.

HEFNER IS 84, after all.

Now why should Hefner, whose official title is editor in chief and chief creative officer, have to buy what he created?

It’s like everything else when it comes to media companies. The trend back in the 1970s was to turn to Wall Street. Go public. Take advantage of the potential for huge revenue streams that can come from having stock traded publicly. People who buy in and cash out at the proper time can become very wealthy.

Look at Hefner. He is a wealthy man and the company has to be taking in serious amounts of money to maintain that suburban-Los Angeles mansion and the constant parties that perennially take place there on assorted cable television shows.

THE PROBLEM WITH “going public,” however, is that one becomes susceptible to fulfilling the whims of Wall Street – which have very little interest in the actual product.

Shareholders buy stock because they want it to continually go up. When it doesn’t, they become upset. The concept that there are up and down quarters in the operation of any business is not one of interest to stockholders. The idea of Playboy controlled exclusively by Hugh Hefner brings to mind the days when the magazine was published from the former (and now once-again) Palmolive Building. Does Hefner know something that could pull off this idea? Or is the long-term fate of the company as dead as the one-time Bunny Beacon? Photograph provided by American Architecture.

Thinking about it that way, it makes Wall Street sound like organized crime, at least as described by the “Henry Hill” character in the 1990 film “Goodfellas.” Businessmen who get pressured into taking on the mob as a partner now have a financial obligation to meet, and the mob isn’t interested in anyone’s problems.

As actor Ray Liotta’s “Hill” character said, “the guy’s gotta come up with Paulie’s money every week, no matter what. Business bad? (Obscenity) you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? (Obscenity) you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning, huh? (Obscenity) you, pay me.”

THE SIMPLE FACT is that the “stockholders” ultimately don’t care about the long-term fate of the company, because when things get really bad, they will hope to have sold out long before and made a nice profit. Some people who invest even take on the attitude that nothing is meant to last forever – and that everything must come to an end.

Even Playboy magazine, and all the merchandise that attracts people because it carries that “bunny” logo (which company officials admit is probably worth more than the magazine itself).

It would seem that Hugh Hefner is sick of being told “(Obscenity) you, pay me.” Which is why Playboy Enterprises issued a statement Monday saying that company founder Hefner told the Board of Directors that he wants to buy all the outstanding shares of common stock that he does not currently own.

According to a statement issued by the company, there are two classes of common stock, and Hefner currently owns 69.5 percent of one class and 27.7 percent of the other. In short, Hefner is going to have to be willing to risk a good chunk of his wealth in order to get back control of the company.

IN SHORT, HE wants to make one big payoff now so that he can get rid of all those people who aren’t devoted to the concept of keeping alive the magazine that some view as a symbol of sexual liberation, and others think of as an essential part of wet dreams (I still remember the scene from the film “Animal House,” where the Homecoming Parade is disrupted and a girl dressed as a Playboy bunny is flung from a float, through an open window, and onto the bed of a young boy reading a Playboy magazine).

To that end, Hefner is talking with financiers, who presumably would find some way of putting up that much money to buy back all that stock.

Does this mean Hefner is risking putting himself in so much debt just so he can claim to be the sole owner of Playboy that he’s risking bankrupting himself? If the thought of Playboy going bankrupt sounds absurd, just think, who would ever have thought the Tribune Co. would have to declare bankruptcy?

I’m sure financial experts, particularly those being paid by Playboy Enterprises, will claim I am oversimplifying my explanation of what Hefner has in mind, and that there are elements of the deal that will reduce Hefner’s financial risk.

BUT I CAN’T believe any deal would eliminate it, which means it sounds like Hefner is making the same move that many newspaper companies did in recent years by continually buying more properties and expanding – thereby creating so much debt that they now owe more money than their publications are taking in during this current period of economic struggles.

Some newspapers have had to cease operations as a result. Could this ego-driven business move have the same ending for Hefner’s magazine (which no matter how much they want to boast has an image that sells merchandise in China is the item that props up the whole company).

Would anyone buy a “bunny” logo sweatshirt if not for an association with the centerfold?

I’d hate to think of the sight someday of an auction at the Playboy Mansion, with all of its contents and the property itself being put up for the highest bidder (would the Gucciones show up just for kicks) to try to repay some of the debt incurred just because Hefner has dreams of once again being the sole boss – just like the days when he lived and worked out of the Near North Side.

-30-

We're back!

The technological glitches that managed to knock my laptop computer out of whack and make filing copy for the Chicago Argus and its sister weblog, The South Chicagoan, such a difficulty appear to have been resolved.

In short, I dug into my wallet and coughed up the cash for a new laptop (my first in over seven years).

SO NOW, I mourn the death of my Toshiba Satellite model 1405, which served its purpose well in terms of my being able to grind out readable copy for many different news outlets and publications. I'm still trying to adapt to my new machine (a Gateway).

But the bottom line is that I should now be able to resume my daily schedule of commentary and analysis of the events of the world, as perceived from the shores of Lake Michigan between Whiting, Ind., and Evanston, Ill.

Thank you for your patience in putting up with my erratic posting schedule of recent weeks, although as best I can tell the readership at this site was not significantly impacted. For that, I am grateful.

-30-

Is the Sun-Times’ future becoming evident in their suburban sister papers?

It is classic newspaper news dissemination – to learn something about a newspaper’s business operation, one has to read the competition.

So it only figures that the Chicago Tribune has been giving us the details about how there might be a buyer for the Chicago Sun-Times after all, and it turns out to be one of the business executives whose name came up in talks previously.

JAMES TYREE SUPPOSEDLY is trying to put together a bid that will be used by the Bankruptcy courts as a base by which all other would-be bidders will be required to compare to, if they’re serious about wanting to take on the company that publishes the Sun-Times and all those other suburban daily papers that probably would not have severe financial problems if they were to exist on their own.

Of course, the word about the Sun-Times is that the company’s cash flow is so tight these days that they may soon not have enough money to pay off all their obligations should they have to shut down.

So this could very well be a race to see if someone is willing to buy these newspapers for something other than a complete fire sale price before they run out of cash.

In short, be sold or crash!

NOW I’M NOT about to think that the people whose names have come up as possible buyers know all that much about the news business. In fact, much of the speculation has centered around how much in concessions they could get the labor unions affiliated with the Sun-Times to make.

As though that company hasn’t already been run on the cheap for decades. That is the true legacy of the Conrad Black years in Chicago, the Number Two newspaper in town tried to operate so skimpily as though it were more like Number Four or Five.

Yet through it all, the newspaper continues to come up with stories. Just on Friday, we get the interview with the one-time gubernatorial brother, claiming he didn’t do anything wrong.

It generated talk and buzz. Any publication that can come up with stories that get people talking deserves to have a life (just as papers that fill their pages with vacuous crud to surround the little bit of space around the advertisements won’t be missed in the least if they die off).

BUT WHAT IS the future? I’m not claiming to have any inside knowledge.

I just have my belief that the Sun-Times probably is best thinking of itself as being something along the lines of a neighborhood paper, rather than a major metro daily like the Chicago Tribune, which in its own right has scaled back its ambitions in recent months from thinking it impacts Congress to trying to pressure Crestwood to clean up its water and get the University of Illinois to have an honest board of trustees.

Personally, when I hear those stories, they have the feel of the types of copy that the Sun-Times has tried to generate for years.

If the Sun-Times were to become the neighborhood paper, it’s neighborhood would be Chicago proper. Which I think makes it pair up well with all those suburban daily papers they own throughout the rest of the Chicago area.

WHICH IS WHY it is with interest that I see the changes that have been made in recent weeks to the Tinley Park-based SouthtownStar newspaper and that are being proposed for the one-time Gary Post-Tribune (which now likes to think of itself as the voice of Merrillville, Ind.)

The SouthtownStar of the South Side and suburban Cook County went tabloid (although some people who hate that word because of its modern-day connotations prefer to call it “compact”). The Post-Tribune plans to make the same change.

The Sun-Times has been a tabloid for decades, so that change in page size is not something they can adjust to.

But the SouthtownStar has taken on a change that catches my attention – no more Saturday paper. To tell you the truth, I don’t miss it much.

THE NEWSPAPER THAT comes out on Friday is labeled the “weekend edition,” and the thicker Sunday paper with a few extra feature sections has an early edition on Saturday for those people who are determined to plunk down some money to pick up a piece of newsprint (personally, I can wait until the final edition on Sunday for the late sports scores) on that day – instead of using it to catch up on errands and personal business.

I must admit that in recent years, about the only reason I felt compelled to read most Saturday editions of newspapers was because I was writing for them, and I wanted to make sure that the copy editors didn’t mangle my prose in the stories that were published on Saturday, rather than held for Sunday.

If making this change were to enable a little more resources to be thrown into improving the Sunday product, it would be one change I would not mind seeing come to the Sun-Times.

It would be a change that I would hope new ownership would consider, because the bottom line is that it is stupid to buy a newspaper company these days purely as a financial investment (which is what ultimately was Sam Zell’s downfall with Tribune Co.)

IN THINKING ABOUT who is crazy enough to want to buy the Sun-Times and its legacy, one must figure out what they would want to do with it.

At the very least, that is more interesting than speculating about how much more in concessions union workers can be pressured into giving up.

-30-

EDITOR’S NOTES: Will the Chicago Sun-Times soon have new ownership, or will it (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri-sun-times-0904sep04,0,4021947.story) run out of cash first? And how many changes to the nearly seven-decade old newspaper (http://nwitimes.com/business/local/article_0d03d63e-d661-5fd4-b280-9e88d08df889.html) can be seen in the changes being made these days to the company’s sister newspapers throughout the suburbs?

The Trib?

The Chicago Tribune is trying to go the splashy graphics route, in hopes of making itself more enticing to people who don’t want to pick up the physical paper on a regular basis.

There’s only one problem with the look, as far as I’m concerned. It’s still a broadsheet, not a tabloid. Take a look at the Editor & Publisher story (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003842794) for a glimpse of what could become this city’s leading circulation newspaper.

SERIOUSLY, THE GRAPHICS that try to play up a single story or two (rather than the six or seven that now make up the front page of the Tribune on any given day) work well on a tabloid-sized newspaper. It’s almost like one can think of the newspaper as a daily news magazine. But on a broadsheet-sized page, it looks bad. It looks like the graphics are trying to overtake the content.

If the quality of writing is good, it creates an intriguing publication. Of course, if the writing is worth squat, then the publication merely becomes trivial.

That’s the problem with too many of the redesigns being done for newspapers today. Ultimately, a publication lives and dies with the quality of its writing. Graphic elements can support prose, but they can’t replace it.

Also, I couldn’t help but notice the potential new slogan “Home of the Midwest’s largest reporting team.” That’s the same rhetoric that Tribune executives are using to try to distract attention from all the staff cuts they have made in recent months.

-30-