The Future of the Chicago Tribune

[ChairmanAgnostic]

The Colonel must be spinning in his crypt. Conservative, pro-business, wary of foreigners, he took great pains hating, , in no particular order, the League of Nations, the United Nations, Roosevelt, the New Deal, The World Court, US entry into WWII, Democrats, liberals, moderates, socialists, and most of all, sloth. McCormick was described by history professor Art Preis as a "fascist-minded multi-millionaire " and elsewhere as "the greatest mind of the fourteenth century." His hatred of sloth caused his newspaper to be peppier, better researched, and far more willing to travel to get the real story. Much like yesteryear's Wall Street Jurinal (pre Murdock), the editorial pages clearly held a very conservative view, while the news (slightly tainted and edited) still managed to report facts, including many that no other paper managed to get.

The Tribune's journey into the 15th century began when Colonel McCormick created his flagship radio station WGN (World's Greatest Newspaper). But, alas, McCormick succumbed to age in 1955, at the age of 75. Although the Trib's most biting commentary was tamed over the decades, it still held a conservative, even a very conservative view. Recently, the Trib hated Clinton, loved Bush 1, promoted Bush II both times, and reluctantly, (for the first time in the history of the paper) supported a Democrat for president when an Illinoisan named Barack ran for office.

For some time, the ChiTrib seemed unbeatable. Its finances were sound, it had a steady readership (although surprisingly, the largest hit in subscribers it took was due to its unwavering support for President George the Tooth and his little iraqi invasion), and it had maintained fairly decent local, state, and international reporting outlets and journalists.

And then came the Zell. Sam Zell, a man who is best known for his hand shake (because if you shake hands with this snake, it is best to immediately count your fingers) created a real estate fortune, using questionable techniques, lies, bribes, oddly passed special interest legislation, and some of the scummier, underhanded methods of enriching his own pockets. Sam thought his fortune could make him even more famous, so he concocted a highly leveraged buyout of the Tribune Company. (translation: He used the Tribune's own substantial assets, plus other people's money, taking the TribCo heavily into debt, in order to buy the entire company). His gamble was that he could cut costs and make bits and pieces of the whole worth more than the parts. The parts included the Chicago Cubs, WGN, Chicago Tribune, LA Times and other famous assets.

So, in a stunning move (stunning, in that he promised never to do what he did), he took a hatchet to his newsrooms. Exces at the LA TImes actually had to be fired by Zell, because they refused to cut the newsroom any further. As the quality of his papers sank faster than a witch in a Monty Python movie, readership took a look, and decided to complain. Zell's response? More cuts. And again the readers voted with their feet. Finally, Zell took his greatest risk (again, with other people's money), and changed the venerable paper into a tabloid styled flashy, color-filled, photo-heavy daily. He called it a "newspaper" but by the time Zell was through with it, few others dared call it that.

The fall of the Tribune has been stunning, both in its speed and its scope. Even if you hated its politics, the Trib was so full of news and stories, that it was a must read paper. Sunday papers rivaled the NYT. The news had been solid, in depth, and while conservatively based, it remained informative.

Today? Let's just say that the readers of that 9/11 book that President Bush was reading with those school kids, would find this current paper about their speed. The only reason one finds any news within the pages of today's newspaper, is simply due to the fact that advertisers are leaving the paper even faster than its readership. Its current content is notable mainly for its absence.

Today, the news came out, the paper lost another 7.5% of readers.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. The list of the top 25 newspapers and their falling readership:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003966608

[truedelphi]

2. I grew up in a household that got both the Tribune

and the Sun Times. Remember running down to the little newspaper stand at the corner of 90th and Loomis every day after School.

Just read a lot of the history of the "Colonel" compliments of the autobiography of George Seldes.

Seldes had his name erased from the plaque that listed the Trib's influential reporters - as he didn't always get along with McCormack.

To hear of its recent problems leaves me slightly ill. No wonder we don't get decent coverage of our financial crisis - the pigs at the top of the trough now own the printing presses. And most papers are now major corporations - war is usually good for their business so we don't get the truth about the wars we enter either.

[juno jones]

3. So sad.

I became a news junkie reading the trib in study hall (grew up outside of Chi).

Bye.