Thursday, August 21, 2008
News / News Bites Hirt In; Warren Out
Posted by Michael Miner on Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 6:15 PM
RedEye editor Jane Hirt has been named the new managing editor of its sister the Chicago Tribune, and my colleague Whet Moser explains why this might be not such a bad thing. Moser believes RedEye does what it does brilliantly, though whether what it does can be called journalism is another matter. Hirt replaces both Hanke Gratteau, who'd already resigned as ME/news, and James Warren, whose decision to quit as ME/features was announced along with Hirt's appointment.
Warren had an impressive career at the Tribune -- media writer, Tempo editor, Washington editor, features editor, to name the highlights -- and if the fates hadn't started looking cross-eyed at the Tribune he might have wound up running it all. Gerould Kern, the new editor, and Warren were never close, lost a face-off with Warren for head of features a few years ago, and when Kern returned to the paper and other top editors started bailing out, the question over Warren's head shifted from what will happen to him now to why hasn't he already quit. I'll miss the daily weather report on Warren's voicemail and I'll miss Warren, a talented eccentric whose staff, in the best of times, swore by him.
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Warren's weekly magazine survey always had several good tips, and it was always sharply written, leaving me to wonder where he found the time--the time to digest all the digests and the time to write intelligently about them.
Warren is a real loss. Kern is making a mistake by letting Warren get away, although I suppose it may end up being hard to square Warren's style with the new RedEye-ization of the broadsheet. Then again, maybe not; as editor of Tempo way back when (pre-1993), Warren assigned some stories that were damn quirky. And his Media Watch column back in the day was out of this world. I agree with Tim McGrath's column above about Warren's "Magazines" column as well. I hope Gerry lets Warren stick around until next month at least; i.e., until the end of the Tribune As We Know It. What a loss. (and no, I don't know the man; I've only ever talked to him on the phone once, and man, was he chilly toward me on that call!)
Whoops, meant to write Tim McGrath's *comment*. And, when I wrote "I don't know the man," I was referring to Warren, not Kern! (I've also met Gerry once or twice, and he also was fairly chilly toward me!)
Your "facts," dear journalist, are wrong. First, Kern preceded Warren as features editor. Kern left the paper for Tribune after he lost the ME sweepstakes to Jim O'Shea. That's when Warren got the Features job (another one of Lipinski's idiotic moves). Second, it's obvious that Warren didn't "decide" to leave. That was decided for him when Kern eliminated Warren's ME/Features job. Quit skewing your coverage to make your friends look good.
Extribber you have your facts correct with regard to the professional history of Mr. Kern and Warren. However, your bitterness toward Mr. Warren is obvious. You have no factual basis for your assertion that "Warren didn't decide to leave." Your sloppy investigative reporting dismissed the fact that Warren was offered the ME job by Kern/Michaels/Gremillion and he turned them down. Do your research friend before spewing your lame journalistic acumen here.
truth in advertising: So he sticks around long enough to fire a bunch of people and then turns down the job? Right...
ExTribber may have an axe to grind with Mr. Warren but Jim was not included in the re-org. If you believe that Jim left by choice you must have been hanging around Lee Abrams office. End of story...
Jim Warren is a talented writer with unusual insight - he will be missed. So will Sam Smith, Ed Sherman, AM Lipinski and many others during this tragic and comical redo. Why do I subscribe to this paper any more? Today's editorials in the Trib included a reflection on a warm summer, a piece about working out while reading the paper and a hard-hitting stance on "crowd-estimating" at the Beijing Olympics. It looks like the Jane Hirt transformation has already begun.
It's the fucking Saturday paper that no one reads, elitist snob moron. And it must be nice to be a phony liberal that's really a sexist pig.
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