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Sun-Times to lay off 20 percent of remaining staff

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Illinois

* As slim as its paper has become, as bad as its website is, as weird as its gubernatorial endorsement was last year, and despite any run-ins I might’ve had with the higher-ups (all water under the bridge), I really don’t want to see Chicago become a one-paper town…

Chicago Sun-Times editorial employees voted unanimously [last night] to let their union pursue an agreement with the company that owns their newspaper that could lead to an exit of about a fifth of the staff.

Reporters and other newspaper staffers gathered in a downtown Holiday Inn hotel conference room and voted 28-0 in favor of offering the buyout to members, said Craig Rosenbaum, executive director of the Chicago Newspaper Guild. That union represents 73 editorial employees at the paper. He declined to provide details of the offer or the agreement with Wrapports, the Chicago-based parent of the newspaper.

Wrapports has been struggling to stem losses amid an industrywide decline in print advertising revenue that provides the bulk of income for newspapers. With a migration of readers to online and social media alternatives, advertisers have followed suit, leaving newspapers to search for new sources of revenue and to chop their budgets and staffs. […]

Employees in the top third of the seniority list could get 20 weeks of severance pay while those in the lower two-thirds would be eligible for 16 weeks, according to details of the offer obtained by Crain’s. Employees can negotiate individually for a higher rate of severance pay.

* Robert Feder…

Wrapports released the following statement from Jim Kirk, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Sun-Times: “We’re glad the Guild members have voted to approve the voluntary buyout program as we realign our newsroom staffing levels in the wake of our recent sale of our suburban titles to Tribune Publishing. We have been going through this process throughout the organization as we work to solidify the future of the iconic Chicago Sun-Times newspaper and deliver strong, local stories to our readers. In working with the Guild, we hope to avoid layoffs. Over the coming days we will talk to interested employees and plan to have the process wrapped up no later than Feb. 17.” […]

The latest round of job cuts has been expected since Wrapports completed the sale of its 38 suburban newspapers to Tribune Publishing November 1. The move left Wrapports with only the Sun-Times and the Chicago Reader alternative weekly among its major holdings.

* Meanwhile, on a much more positive note…

Felicia Middlebrooks of WBBM AM 780 and Greg Hinz of Crain’s Chicago Business have been named recipients of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Chicago Headline Club.

The two will be honored at the 38th annual Peter Lisagor Awards ceremonies May 8 at the Union League Club of Chicago, according to Mary Wisniewski, president of the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. […]

The Chicago Headline Club’s Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes journalists for “their extraordinary contribution to the community and/or the profession.”

I don’t know Middlebrooks, but I’ve known Greg for what seems like forever. Congrats to my buddy.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:06 pm

Comments

Chicago deserves at least two papers. They help keep each other honest and our state.

As for all the grief the Trib gets at times? They must be doing something right.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:10 pm
I will wager most of the Tribune’s readers do not live in Chicago.

Chicago stopped being a two-paper town when the Reader lost its independence.

Comment by Juvenal Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:19 pm
Wonder if this is how Kirk thought he’d spend the end of his career. I can’t imagine that he actually believes the statements attributed to him.

Comment by sorry to see it happening Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:23 pm
I’d settle for one newspaper. I grew up in a newspaper reading family and I loved reading the daily paper before school–Sports first, then comics, but also the rest of the paper. Now, I refuse to subscribe to either rag.

Comment by Carhatrt Representative Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:29 pm
Not to be snarky, but I would call attention to the terms of 20 weeks, or 16 weeks of pay. That’s different than what we’re talking about elsewhere. This is the world a lot of people live in.

Comment by A guy Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:31 pm
If two papers kept our state honest, I fear for the future.
I am sorry to see this medium shrink away. Without a common source of basic information we will live in increasingly different worlds.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:34 pm
You’re right about the Sun-Times web site. It’s cartoonish and makes it difficult to explore even the diminishing content it has. If that’s the future, they better get a better designer.

Comment by Illinois taxpayer Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:38 pm
“Not to be snarky, but…”

You’re never at any risk of being “classy” are you?

– MrJM

Comment by MrJM Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:51 pm
Don’t miss Michael Ferro’s upcoming book, ‘How to Buy a Big City Newspaper and Drive It Into the Ground.’

Comment by Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:52 pm
I grew up reading the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and The Labor Tribune, some news/infotainment delivery systems can identify an audience and evolve. Others not so much.

When was the last time anyone read the actual “Fax” from Capitol Fax?

Comment by Matt Belcher Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:53 pm
I remember the four newspapers growing up. (Two owners, but still.) You got the Sunday Tribune if you subscribed to Chicago Today. I love Middlebrooks’ voice in the am and love a lot of Chicago anchors, but newsreaders are not reporters. Two different skill sets…both unique and rare. They should have two different awards. I hope all Sun-Times folks land on their feet.

Comment by Mr. Moto Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:56 pm
Belcher: August 2006? That was my last one.

Comment by Mr. Moto Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 1:58 pm
==If two papers kept our state honest==

==help keep==

Emphasis on ==help==. The more, the merrier.

Comment by Formerly Known As... Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 2:02 pm
People have long saved historic headline newspapers as souvenirs of the times. When I cleaned out my parents’ attic I found a metal trunk that contained the headline pages of yellowed newspapers covering major events going back to the time of both world wars which I am sure my grandparents had saved. I saw the parents had added to the pile Kennedy assassination, moon landing, Berlin Wall teardown, and I’ve subsequently added a few headline pages of my own, (Michael Jordan era championships, 9/11, White Sox 2005 World Series Champs) It’s hard to imagine that this practice is nearing the end as fewer and fewer newspapers are printed, read, and saved. I can’t imagine that finding a stack of printouts of websites and Drudge Headlines will have quite the same impact on future generations as us opening a trunk of musty newspapers with their screaming headlines.

Comment by Responsa Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 2:10 pm
The death spiral of Chicago major dailies is simply a continuation of the cycles that suburban papers went through; cut staff and content, see distribution drop, low distribution drops ad revenue, newspaper absorbed, then closed.

I think the blame here has to go to the arrogance of the paper media, and their overestimation of paper buyers of “habit”.

I used to subscribe to three newspapers, one for local news about school and village meetings, crime developments and events, a citywide/statewide paper to look for things in the state and region that may be of interest, and a national newspaper.

The locals stopped even sending stringers to cover schools and village hall, and thought that we’d just keep buying. We didn’t.

The city and state newspapers became pretty slanted in reporting and didn’t tell both sides of the story very often, so I had to go to online sources for balance.

National news is easily found online, and the NYT and Washington Post are so one sided they’re no longer of any analytical value.

WSJ and Crains are about all worth reading these days. AP and Reuters keep injecting bias in their reporting to the extent you can’t trust them anymore.

Blogs and nightly non-network news shows are the best sources of information now, so of what value is the tree-killer media?

The worst part of this may be that the lack of solid information sources has led to perhaps the least well informed electorate of modern times, and we all suffer from it.

Comment by Arizona Bob Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 2:15 pm
===National news is easily found online, and the NYT and Washington Post are so one sided they’re no longer of any analytical value.

WSJ and Crains are about all worth reading these days. AP and Reuters keep injecting bias in their reporting to the extent you can’t trust them anymore.===

Hilarious.

Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 2:24 pm
Guy, what other severance packages are you referencing? Like the one at College of DuPage, the role model county we’ve been hearing about?

What severance packages are those getting pink-slipped by state government getting these days?

The hand-writing’s on the wall for the Sun-Times, as the quick agreement to the buyout indicates. Get what you can, while you can. The suburban papers were their cash cows, but they’re gone.

FKA, if you’re sold on what the Trib is doing, they’ve been for sale for a long time with no takers, even after a lot of liability was shed in that long, long bankruptcy.

They’re not in a whole lot better shape, thanks to disastrous management over the years that, shockingly, had nothing to do with state government.

Just a lot of bad business decisions. They managed to buy the LA Times all on their own for $8.3 billion, then turned down a cash offer from David Geffen to take it off other hands for $2 billion.

Now, the whole Tribune Publishing shooting match — LA Times, Trib, Orlando Sentinel, Baltimore Sun, et. al. — has a market cap of $514 million.

And nobody wants any of it.

Comment by Wordslinger Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 2:38 pm
It’s amazing how far the Sun-Times has fallen. Does Wrapports really think some goofy shell website with bad design is even going to do any business? That’s what they’ll be left with when the lights go out on the paper.

The one good that has come out of this is that at least the suburban papers are now in better hands at the Tribune. The website integration is kind of crappy, but much better than what Sun-Times was doing. Hopefully the Tribune will beef up content as well. It feels like the Southtown has been down to 2 or 3 reporters.

Comment by Precinct Captain Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 2:38 pm
Capt- The southtown is down to like 3 or 4 reporters plus Phil Kadner.

Comment by Dee Lay Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 3:04 pm
Dee Lay, the Southtown is now owned by the Tribune.

Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 3:05 pm
The Sun-Times has been on the ropes since Rupert owned them. They’ve died harder than Rasputin.

But the owners are cashing out, as evidenced by the sale of the suburban papers. Those still attract local print ads and classifieds.

The fall of Tribune Co. has been much more striking and accelerated. It only took Zell about 18 months to run their debt up to $13 billion and crash into bankruptcy. This, a bedrock Illinois corporation founded in 1847.

Comment by Wordslinger Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 3:17 pm
The Suntimes website is just horrible. I can’t find the columns I want to read anymore. Has anyone had any luck navigating it?

Comment by Lincoln Parker Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 3:27 pm
==== Wordslinger - Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 2:38 pm:

Guy, what other severance packages are you referencing? Like the one at College of DuPage, the role model county we’ve been hearing about?====

I’ve got to sit here and just take this one from you. It sickens me.

Comment by A guy Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 3:33 pm
Daily Herald has a couple of openings.

I know it’s been tough for them too, but they keep on trucking. How do they do it?

Comment by walker Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 3:41 pm
I left the Sun-Times when Mike Royko left. Still, I’ll be sorry if the paper folds. Chicago needs two major publications.

Comment by Wensicia Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 4:08 pm
Isn’t DNAinfo doing most of the local reporting now anyways?

I guess you could argue that it takes big media outlets to have the manpower to dig through city, county and state budgets and to really analyze what’s happening.

The thing is, Chicago Trib and Chicago Sun-Times don’t do this.

Chicago newspapers are stale. Who are there columnists? Which columnist started in the last 20 years? Which columnists have something new or interesting to say about Chicago or the world?

Everything that’s happened in politics since 2000, and the newspapers–editorial boards and columnists–see Chicago through the lens of the 1980s.

In the blogging era, all sorts of new voices emerged who saw the world in new ways and were much smarter than the existing newspaper columnists.

How many of these people got tryouts at Trib or Sun-Times? At other local papers?

Newspapers are like Republicans, chasing after old White people who are affluent enough to own a home. The more newspapers chased this base audience, the more irrelevant they seemed to those of us living in the real world.

Remember all that great reporting newspapers did on the Financial Crisis? The fraud–government and corporate media–that was the raison d’etre of invading Iraq?

That’s right. The newspapers were reassuring affluent old White people that everything was fine.

Don’t expect me to shed a tear for the Trib or the Sun-Times.

Comment by Carl Nyberg Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 4:15 pm
Corporations, Governments, News-sources—It’s all the same message which is pay the CEO and Directors a lot and underpay of lay-off the workers. There doesn’t seem to be an understanding that it will kill the business off.

Comment by Belle Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 4:22 pm
Rich - I’m well aware. Before they were mercifully bought by the Trib, they were down to the barest of bones for staff. It was sad to see such great reporters get their lunch eaten by the Patch on bigger news stories.

Comment by Dee Lay Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 4:40 pm
Walk, the Herald works their their suburbs, zoning I think about 30 local sections.

Comment by Wordslinger Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 4:57 pm
Hate the Trib’s website. Love the Trib on my Kindle. Mary Schmich is a Pulitzer prize winning writer. Eric Zorn is a top notch columnist. Printers Row Journal is excellent. Overall, national, international, business & real estate coverage is good. I don’t read sports unless it’s front page.

I love Felicia Middlebrooks and Greg Hinz. I’m so happy to see them get the recognition they deserve.

Comment by Emily Booth Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 5:16 pm
Hold the phone - you mean to say that SunTimes workers have a union? Maybe that’s why Rauner divested. Better get on bustin’ this one too, Governor!

Comment by Wait a minute Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 5:56 pm
Schmich and Zorn are good. So are Huppke and Melissa Harris.

Why the Trib continues to embarrass itself featuring Kass is beyond me. You’d think it was The Onion, satire of a maudlin, self-reverential, willfully ignorant gasbag.

Is it supposed to be funny, insigntful, thoughtful — what?

And the writing and structure — did they give up on editing him? He just wanders around, unfocused, tossing off the same tired and juvenile nicknames and catch phrases.

Seriously, what other big city paper features a columnist who produces at such a low level?

Comment by Wordslinger Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 7:27 pm
maybe we should all chip in and buy the Suntimes?

What do you think we would get if we crowd-sourced it?

This nonsense about right-sizing the paper is ridiculous.

Just admit you are going under and spend the next three months navel-gazing.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 8:28 pm
Oh gooness, Word is so erudite! And thank gooness for OW! How professional can it get. Thanks guys.

Comment by A Citizen Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 9:18 pm
—Why the Trib continues to embarrass itself featuring Kass is beyond me. You’d think it was The Onion, satire of a maudlin, self-reverential, willfully ignorant gasbag.—

Yes, yes, yes. You might as well hang a sign out front: “Next generation of thoughtful, informed, and *paying* readership not wanted.”

Comment by ppanda Wednesday, Feb 11, 15 @ 10:19 pm
Yellow Dog Democrat, did you get a job yet? Or still navel gazing after you got fired from the state for f’ing up the DCFS response to the Sun-Times stories?

Comment by The last train to Clarkin Friday, Feb 13, 15 @ 4:47 pm
I am a long-time subscriber to the Chicago Sun-Times, about to cancel my subscription. I would love to read this newspaper, but I can’t seem to get it delivered, even though that is what I pay for. I get it about half the time. Delivery is not only sporadic, but the “Customer Service” both by phone and online cares not a whit! I give up.

Comment by Carole Monday, Mar 2, 15 @ 10:39 am