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It's quite personal to many in the Tower.

I'm especially shocked and terribly upset that Lou Carlozo was let go. I've worked with him in the past and in addition to his being a great reporter/writer, he was a top-notch editor.

Bob Vanderberg let go? He's one of the good guys, a walking encyclopedia of White Sox and baseball history, the guy who helped organize high quality preps coverage and a pleasure to work with over the years. In fact, the other losses in Sports are -- to put it bluntly -- just as shocking: Terry Bannon, John Mullin, Bob Sakamoto, Tom Carkeek. Decades of experience and institutional memory all gone.

... and Missy Isaacson, too.

Too bad they didn't start at the top in this bloodletting. The paper's hard right positions have made it irrelevant to many Chicagoans, especially the younger generation who find it all on the web. I subscribe mostly for the comics, and I don't mean Kass, Krauthammer, Byrne, etc. Freakin' Zellots!

This makes me sick to my stomach, and heartsick for all affected.

--30--

Also lost is sports photo editor John Konstantaras, probably the most talented picture editor at the paper.

Honestly, I don't recognize a lot of these names. And I think a newsroom of 430 (remaining) sounds HUGE. I'm sure these were all good people, and I am sorry they are now out of work, but the place just sounds like it was too fat.

Dix, I'd go back and read Miner's post awhile back on a ChiMag editor. Readers don't notice editors, but writers do. Not saying that the Trib isn't fat (or that it is), just that having heard of them = value.

It takes a thousand people to put on a Cubs game 81 times a year, from advertising execs to beer vendors, but with a few exceptions I bet you only know the names of the players. Same deal. (FWIW, that is the polite version of my original reaction to your comment.)

I am sick to hear that Lou Carlozo was let go. I've worked with him on articles and he is a great guy, and he'd been there for years.

More grim news for the paper and a loss for the city as well. My best wishes to all those hardworking newsfolk shown the door by cold Mother Trib. Can't blame Zell without pointing the finger first at Madigan & Fitzsimons, whom the Chandlers will always love! Shame they got out w/their pockets stuffed, and the folks above paying the price.

It's been a rough day. Very rough. There have been a lot of tears today, with as much grace and professionalism. The best way we can honor those who are no longer with us is to survive and if possible, thrive.

Point taken, Whet. I still don't think that the Trib turned out a product that justified a newsroom of 500+. I wonder how big the NYT staff is (I have no idea).

So sad. Storer Rowley? Melissa Isaacson? Patrick Reardon? This is awful.

@Dix: Get bent. (That again is my polite response.) Also: NYT newsroom had 1,300 as of February 2008, the most recent citation I could find in the 5 seconds of Googling I could spare.

@Pvt. McCormick: Go bend yourself, jack. Business is business, and this company was slow to respond to changes that began to emerge more than 20 years ago. Set aside how poorly managed the place was and is, to cut costs, you cut overhead and that means people. As talented as these people are, you're also looking a lot of seniority and a lot of overhead costs. Perhaps there other places to cut expenses, but the Trib's newsroom is not sacred ground, and this isn't the end of world. As a person I know there is quick to say: "No lives were lost in the process." As difficult as this is to accept, try to keep it in perspective, and that's my polite response.

A decent paper should have at least 1 journalist--editor or reporter--per 1,000 circulation. But that rule of thumb originated long before the Web--and, in the Trib's case, the horrid Redeye. So, at least arguably, the journo/reader ratio should be higher today. Plus isn't the Tribune well below 430 journalists after today? Regardless, it's a rinky-dink operation. Before everyone joins us in a mass cancellation on Friday, please, take a little time and note just how piddling Tribune stories are. Damned near everything is lopped down to lozenge size. And compare with the coverage from a good paper, like the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. At one time, the Tribune could kind of hold its own. You could understand why a subscriber would prefer it to one of the big gray papers. No more.

What a roster of important names here; we don´t know these people personally but as home subscribers, we have read their stories for years: Storer Rowley let go? Tom Hundley? Alan Artner? Robert Elder?! Melissa Isaccson? Patrick Reardon? Lou Carlozo?! Eric Benderoff?!? This is unbelievable....sickening to read. What´s the world coming to?

Well, you know all of those people were just the best back when I worked at the Tribune, remained the best after I left, and will remain the best after they go, too. I'm very sorry.

Oh, the irony. The banner ad below all these postings on the Trib's ongoing demise is an ad for... the Trib's Breaking News website. You couldn't make it up.

Why do Atlanta and Texas bureaus stay? And why has not a hair been touched on the editorial board?

What Madigan said.

Unbelievable.

[[twitter in the tower April 22nd - 9:38 p.m. Why do Atlanta and Texas bureaus stay? And why has not a hair been touched on the editorial board?]] never mind the edit board, what about those meaningless, self-important "columnists"? yes, please tell us more about yoga, mary. and i can't move a muscle until i know what eric zorn thinks about the news of the day. steve johnson still has a job and bob rowley is bagging groceries? how exactly does that work?

Along with those who see the magnitude of the loss here, there's lots of glib commentary about how it's no big deal. Well, good luck seeing how Daley and Stroger are screwing us when the last of the watchdogs is gone. Good luck forcing the federal government to treat our money like real money once no one is watching. And good luck getting anyone to care about governmental ineptitude or abuse once every story is 400 words. It's coming, and the Huffington Post won't have anything useful to link to soon. And don'te even get me started on how thin the national/foreign report is now ...

Ditto Al Solomon, dittoing Charlie Madigan. And, as long as I'm ditto-ing, Ditto stume2. And, though I do NOT want to see anyone else leave, twitter in the tower has a point: If it's to be local, local, local, then keeping Atlanta and Texas bureaus makes no sense (even though the articles coming out of them are interesting). But, then, what about today and the names/jobs has made any more sense than the other times this has happened?

What Sol said. And Woody, do you really want a newspaper or Web site without staff photos? Now, to those of you who left the Tower when the gettin' was better, perhaps you could post some advice on how to get through the immediate, and not so immediate, aftermath. What does, and can, an ex-Tribster do? (I moved to another country, but surely that's an extreme makeover...)

What a thoroughly rotten day here in the newsroom, which is saying a lot by recent standards. Let's emphasize, again and again, the point that these filthy little Zellites opted NOT to carry on at the current fairly comfortable level of profit, opted NOT to cut salaries and benefits to achieve the same savings but rather deliberately chose to condemn their people to desperate joblessness in an impossible job market. This didn't happen in a vacuum. It came about in the middle of a recession/depression when the newspaper industry is not hiring and likely will not be hiring for a very long time, if ever. THERE WERE OTHER, CLEAR OPTIONS. THEY WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO CHOOSE THE MOST DELIBERATELY CRUEL AND INHUMANE. THIS MUST NEVER, EVER BE FORGOTTEN. It forever guarantees, certifies and seals the nature of these Zell vermin. I understand the need of remaining employees to continue working for the Tribune, but I hope it at least pricks our collective conscience a bit. Also, good points about the Atlanta and Houston bureaus. But don't you see the crafty strategy behind it all? Having crapped all over its workforce and readers in most of the city and burbs, the Trib is now focused like a laser on the "frenzied families" and "carefree couples" on the north side and north shore. And having two bureaus in the SOUTH adds cosmic, karmic balance. . I know. I saw the Lee Abrams memo on this. . One more thought: The idea of people like Gerry Kern and Jane Hirt firing people like Mary Dedinsky, Bob Rowley and Tom Hundley can only be likened to a pet hamster firing the Pope. It's actually worth drying one's tears for a moment to contemplate the uncanniness of it all.

I'm a layoff survivor (twice), and I feel for those Trib folks. Can anyone fill us in on exactly when and how Trib HR dropped the bomb yesterday? The way in which a company lets you go really speaks volumes. I think we all know how horribly mishandled it can be.

Foreign correspondents Paul Salopek, Kim Barker and Laurie Goering have resigned and I think are technically part of this cut.

As awful as it was, it could have been handled a lot worse (see the Southtown reports). Various angels of death prowled the newsroom and asked to talk privately with the affected. No extra security, no "pack your things in 15 minutes." Computer access continued. A few finished the stories they were working on; others didn't. All spent as much or as little time as they wanted gathering their stuff, downloading clips and hugging friends and enemies alike. Many will be back today to finish. In short, people were treated like adults. Go figure. I do not know about severance. And all that said, everyone was twitchy as hell, especially in the first few hours of their shift. We were afraid of our shadows, and we hated to see colleagues gone for more than a few minutes, thinking the worst.

Hard to believe Bob Sakamoto,who worked endlessly to cover high school sports, is going, and Mary Schmich will still be around, writing about putting away her sweaters in the spring.

Thank God the editorial board remains at full strength and John Kass still has an assistant to help him compose his tedious taunts.

And why have we not seen any editorial managers on the list. As more and more rank and file are cut, the management remains in tact. They could have fired one manager and that would have had the same cost cutting salary effect as saving 2 employees. What about double dippers at the Tribune, those husband and wife teams that are still employed. In the photo department alone there are 3 such teams. Cut one of them. Of course not, they are all friends and vacationing buddies and they are not going to ruin their perks. Shamefull

Take all these people, put them in a newsroom under competent management, and you could put out a paper that runs circles around what Zell and his minions are putting out.

Interesting list. I don't like to see anyone laid-off, but the Trib is over-padded. There remains a good bit of fat at that paper, and quite honestly they could still make a good number of cuts. Fluffy reporters abound over there, light-weights. And on the editor front there's one right under Kern who is absolutely useless. But unfortunately some very old ways of rising to the top exist.

This is heart-breaking. My condolences to all. As you know, I've been there.

And yet Dawn Turner Trice and Eric Zorn will still be getting a paycheck. Not to mention Teddy Grenstein and Rick Morrissey.

At least Zorn does actual reporting and takes a stand on things. He was an early blogger and an active Internet presence, and he gets a lot of traffic. Schmich can't be bothered with such hightechery. She commits all the fouls of bad columning: imaginary characters, writing in verse, quoting her friends (by first name only, if that) and often dubiously, writing about the weather four times a year, and, worst of all, having nothing to say. As for Trice; I don't know how she got the gig.

The Atlanta and Houston bureaus will close soon. Today's Tribune carries the last bylines on stories and photographs by Artner, Cusic, Van Dyke, Benderoff. The caliber of journalist lost over the last 16 months is unmatched.

Are any of the still-employed incompetents old FOAMs (Friends of Ann Marie)? Just wondering whether there's lingering protection here. Or maybe these folks were just cheaper and/or more visibly compliant?

The FOAMs have all been replaced now by FOGs (Friends of Gerry).

stume2, You're making that argument about a paper that has consistently endorsed almost every incumbent legislator and alderman? The paper that endorsed George Ryan AFTER the licenses for bribes scandal broke, because they just couldn't believe it about such a nice guy? The Trib's fat laziness is a big reason we have the city and state we do. We need a Mirage, but all the Trib gives us is a mirage.

list of the many sports folks who were let go is at www.ChicagoBusiness.com/sherman

Too bad some commenters think this difficult occasion is a good excuse to trash people who didn't get fired (no doubt for a wide range of reasons).

It's interesting that many of those who remain are FOAMs--especially many of the hub-and-wife couples. Guess she worked her voodoo on Kern.

When the Tribune reviewed the (alleged) nutritional content of the new Kentucky Fried Chicken, as it did this week, the paper crossed an ethical line, moving from serious journalism to community shopper.

Horrifying.

Speaking of cozy relationships, the new "presentation" editor is a former paramour of the manager who named him to the job.

Those laid off get one week of pay plus a week for each year of service with Tribune, up to, I think, 26 weeks of pay. At least the Chicago Tribune handled the layoffs with some class. The Tribune paper in South Florida, the Sun-Sentinel, has security guards escort people out the door. They can only return to get their belongings when the newsroom is empty and said security guard can watch while they clean out their desks. The editor, Earl Maucker, personally laid off one of the main columnists, Ralph de la Cruz, by inviting him outside. Then Maucker blocked de la Cruz from returning to the newsroom to get his keys, wallet and cell phone! De la Cruz had to wait for the security guard to bring out his belongings!

It's shocking for me to read some of the comments posted, from Woody, Josie, Pvt. McCormick, who all act like it's just a job, and hey, layoffs happen to everyone. People, this WAS the Chicago Tribune, at one time one of the most serious newspapers in America. Last time I was in town (a former long time Chicagoan, I live in Brooklyn now) and saw the sad, sorry state of the Tribune I nearly cried. You talk about job layoffs, I see a major city, one that just delivered one of it's own to the White House, that now has no serious newspaper. This is nothing short of a crime. And, seriously, it will be when all of the people in power slowly begin to take advantage of the fact that Chicago has lost it's Fourth Estate. Good luck with that, "City That Works".

Jon, the way the Trib is quickly deteriorating into mere texting and tweeting by twentysomethings, it won't be long before a nutritional content review of Kentucky Fried Chicken becomes the new "Sunday Supplement."

"The End of Print" thats what David Carson said.... I think print has died in 2009. Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg would be upset! Print Newspapers are unfortunately are about 10 hours late with the news, and with technology today, thats to slow for "breaking news". We have come accustom to news at our fingers in seconds. News papers need to think out of the box and have a paid online version thats bundled with other papers for there revenue stream.

Kip, I think you're getting the presentation editor mixed up with the new national editor, who was a paramour of one of the masthead editors -- who is in turn the ex-wife of another masthead editor. Welcome to Days of our Tribune.

Remember when the Tribune devoted a year's worth of coverage to individuals who were murdered in the city? It was labor-intensive effort to introduce the victims to readers who might otherwise have reduced them to statistics or police-blotter fodder. I'm not sure the series kept another Chicagoan from being murdered, but it drew attention to the plague of murderous violence in the city. The concept also would be copied by other newspapers, including those (like the LATimes) that would employ the same bio-pix format for soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, don't think for a moment that I'm attempting to equate the firing of a journalist to the death of a soldier in combat ... because I'm not. But, a significant toll is now being paid by the many for the shortsidedness and greed of a few. Sam Zell should be in jail, not requesting the right to give bonuses to his henchmen and flunkies in bankruptcy court. If there's one thing that I've noticed from afar, it's that very few Chicagoans outside the business seem to appreciate what would be lost if the Tribune, S-T, Herald, Reader and other papers disappeared. Given time, of course, readers will be so fed up with stories about homeless cats and Lottery hostesses, it will be good-riddance-to-bad rubbish. In Los Angeles, at least, a broad cross-section of readers, business leaders and city officials have loudly decried changes made to the Tribune-owned Times. And, here's the rub, the LAT hasn't really changed all that much. The editor has, so far, resisted calls to turn the paper into a loudly designed piece of crap, and even the advertising department lobbied against the recent fake-news atrocities that appeared on Page 1 as ads. If Chicagoans haven't been sufficiently motivated to demand of Zell that he quit gutting the paper, maybe they actually believe that the Tribune's Internet presence will be meet their future needs. It won't, because the only editors left will be those assigning stories on those cats and models. Who would be left to cover prep sports, the Art Institute and local ramifications of the economic crisis, or take pictures of surging floods, approaching twisters, starving children and athletes pumping their fists into the air? No one. Perhaps, if only as agitprop, the Reader could print bios and pictures of all the dearly departed journalists -- from Pulitzer winners to copy clerks --with a tight focus on how they contributed to their various publications, their community and the country. Or, maybe the press club, guild and Legion of Billy Goat Veterans could combine their talents to create the Internet equivalent of a broadside, which could be linked to from various websites -- like Poynter, HuffPo, Drudge, E&P -- and posted there. Printed broadsheets could be handed out one day at places where Red Eye is available. Why not? In France, angry workers have taken failed executives hostage. Here, though, laid-off journalists write stories about how weird and/or cruel it was to be given the bum's rush by security Nazis and reminisce about the good ol' days. Think how much coverage CNN, Fox and local news outlets would give to a throng of fired journalists, who, one morning, chained themselves to the doors of the News Museum in D.C., the Tribune Tower and other newspapers where the carnage has gone on unabated. Those who signed confidentiality clauses could wear ski masks.

Kip, I'm sure both my wife and Joe's would be interested to know that I am his "paramour." Man, these are some strange times we live in. Please do us all the favor of not gossiping about people's private lives, especially when you can't get the facts of them correct. It's not like Joe doesn't have great legs or anything, but he's just not my type. Steve

Pelham wrote: "Before everyone joins us in a mass cancellation on Friday, please, take a little time and note just how piddling Tribune stories are." Pelham, I'm not sure how the paper will handle a mass cancellation. To date, it's been unable -- or maybe unwilling -- to act on the unambiguous, written request I e-mailed to Managing Editor Jane Hirt (as well as to the Trib's Online Customer Service department) on March 11. March 11, of course, was the day Linda "The Lottery Lady" Kollmeyer graced the Trib's front page. That evening, I sent Ms. Hirt the following note (which she, in turn, forwarded to Standards Editor Margaret Holt, who then told me she was forwarding it to her friends in Circulation): Dear Ms. Hirt, We live in serious times. Our economy is in the tank. Our nation remains mired in two wars. The State of Illinois is buried in debt and experiencing a tremendous leadership crisis. Chicago's public school system and public transportation system are bleeding cash and falling apart. And our city's biggest newspaper is damn near broke. But today, the Chicago Tribune's editors chose to use the paper's front page to tell the story of Linda Kollmeyer, the "lottery lady" who happens to be a staple on the Tribune's own WGN-TV. Perhaps the story owes its front-page placement to "cross-promotion," "brand synergy," or whatever buzzwords are now in vogue at the Tower, but for my money – only a small amount of which is at issue here – today's front page is indicative of the continued "dumbing down" of your once excellent paper. I've truly lost interest in your product, so please count me out -- again. You see, last year, I got so frustrated with what I perceived to be the Tribune's increasing shift toward a "least common denominator" approach to daily news (http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/news-bites/2008/02/05/so-meantime-just-puppies/) that I cancelled my subscription. But old habits die hard; I eventually gave in to your telemarketers and agreed to resume delivery – albeit just three days a week. Since then, however, hard news has all but disappeared from the re-designed page three, and the business section is a shell of its old self. Today's front-page paean to the "lottery lady" simply did me in. Make no mistake -- it pains me to watch what's happening to great and once-great newspapers around this country. I crave and value good journalism. I purchase a lot of it. I also have friends who write for your paper and other friends who used to write for your paper but were recently laid off. There's obviously still a lot of talent at the Tribune, and I will certainly miss reading whatever folks like Messrs. Mihalopoulos, Becker, Reich, and Morrissey have to say. For now, however, I'm done. Please cancel my subscription. My account number is *******. The paper is delivered to my home on ********* Avenue in Chicago. Please refund the remaining portion of my pre-paid subscription. Sincerely, Matt Farmer Of course, it's now April 23, six weeks later, and the paper continues to arrive on my doorstep. My sincere condolences go out to the latest round of journalists, photographers, and staffers who lost their jobs in this mess.

Come on, Steve. There's no point in hiding it any longer.

suicide by pink slips-this paper is is running on nothing

@ at.tribune: "The FOAMs have all been replaced now by FOGs (Friends of Gerry)." I understood, from folks still there (& some not still there but still connected), that some of the FOAMs---hmmm, how can I put this politely and with a straight face---instantaneously transformed into FOGs when his appointment was announced. Of course, some new FOGs obviously appeared, too.

Alan Artner? Not that I like him but geez, *someone* needs to write about art. At least Luis Arroyave is still there to cover soccer.

I cancelled my subscription not just because so much talent was jettisoned but also because such useless, has-been hacks as Fred Mitchell still draw paychecks. I will not miss reading his prose about upcoming luncheons and athletes' aging aunts.

Every workplace has its own FOAMs and FOGs. Like Mama used to say, "Whoever said Life was fair?"

Shame on any Tribune executive who accepts a bonus while quality people like these are laid off. My condolences to all of you who lost your jobs--I know quite a few of you and your only "crime" was that you're good at what you do. Take heart, though--there IS life after the Tribune.

Apologies to Cavendish. I believe the full title is something like national/presentation. It's the guy overseeing the prefab pages that Tribune is forcing other papers in the company to use. But as for gossip, gotta disagree. When it involves promotions, who gets to stay and who gets the ax, it's a legitimate topic. Ugly, yeah. But you try going without health care coverage when you've got kids. That's uglier.

Good lord am I tired of hearing about how those of us who are left should rise up and seize control of the paper or leave en masse or chain ourselves to the Tower. As if this were some kind of movie. This is real life. We want our jobs. We need our jobs. And most importantly, most of us love our jobs. We love the people we work with (or most of them, at least). So quit with the absurd mewling about how all of us who love what we do and love the paper should basically shoot ourselves in the face for no reason. Also quit crapping on the paper. I am so sick of hearing how there's nothing good in the paper to read. What about Mike Hawthorne's Sunday story about how Crestwood had been serving its residents water from a poisoned well for 20 years? What about Bob Sector and John McCormick's story today about donations and Illinois politicians, with a massive searchable database online? What about Deb Shelton's story about improvements in chemotherapy? Are these crap? Really? Who else is going to do them if we close down? Nobody. The answer is nobody. Nobody. Are we smaller? Yes. Are we producing less news? Of course, there are fewer of us. Is some of it of questionable value? Of course. But is there still, every single day, stories of value worth paying about the price of a pack of gum for? Of course. Jesus christ.

Re: trib writer A-freaking-men.

I'm with trib writer, and I say this as someone who's working for a company that's in bankruptcy for similar reasons. The Trib is a hell of a platform, and if you're part of it, that's nothing to give up lightly, *especially* if you're still doing important work. Ultimately, it's probably more important to defend good journalism by making and promoting it than to defend it abstractly by quitting; fighting the slow battle to change the culture from within. BTW, The 20somethings with Twitter and whatever will play an increasingly important role, and are still young enough to be malleable - make them your allies. Ultimately they'll inherit what you give them, so be fighting for their ears.

Comments from Solomon, Callaway, Madigan, Lauerman, Dretzka, (and among the "living") Knowles, et al....This is like old-home week for us ex-tribbers. This has been, mostly, a fairly intelligent discussion. But those who trash those who remain (yeah, even Zell or Kern) ought to use their names (though I'll fudge a bit on this for those who still are employed).

Also: not every 20something blogger/twitterer is a bubblehead. The WP made a smart hire by picking up Ezra Klein. I'm still waiting on a local newspaper pick up Daniel Larison. Don't fear the Internet: treat it like the minor leagues.

Thank you, Randy, for pointing out the obvious to most of the posters here: "...those who trash those who remain (yeah, even Zell or Kern) ought to use their names..." (I also agree with your fudging comment, for the same reason.) For the ones Randy takes to task: Want to be taken seriously? Want us to to give any thought to what you say? Then use your name. To not give it is, of course, the Comment equivalent of wearing a ski mask. Want an applicable cliche? Try the one that includes "grain of salt."

Appalling. Absolutely. But after all this time, did we really expect better from that twit Zell and his minions? Kiss whatever the Trib used to be goodbye.

Michael, you and the people who helped you with this post are to be congratulated. Outstanding!

@ Jon Anderson - you mean "Taste test pits KFC's fried goodness against its healthy grilled chicken" piece by by Monica Eng that ran on Monday? i think it's called service journalism. true, those of us who wouldn't touch a chicken unless it was allowed to roam freely as a youth & never feed antibiotics, didn't gain much, but still...unless, of course, the paper ran a KFC ad nearby (did they? didn't see one online - though the KFC provided photo came close), don't see how informing the public about a new product's fat/salt content is a move from "serious journalism to community shopper." given the obesity/hypertension health issues this nation faces, i can't say it was an unwarranted 301 words.

I worked at the Tribune for twenty four years and must say that during that time I was treated more than fair. There were some people even back in the glory years who did not belong there were lazy did not give a dam about there jobs. What is new ? Some have made it threw the cuts and some have not,that is the problem, Bob Rowley is one who was let go I will never understand the reason in that. 30 is all I can say to most but you will be back. The problem is the Tribune is trying to be U-Tube and someone beat them to it. There are few well done story's most of what they run is second hand. The editors are not doing there job's. I bleed Tribune blue till this day but stop it. Remember why you went in to journalism. Protect and defend the people with no voice. The midwest need you there is no strong voice for the midwest and I am sorry to say that list includes the Chicago Tribune. Jerry I worked with you for years and I know you care. The people from radio who are running the Tribune don't know how to run a newspaper. What a sad day ! From the movie "Field of Dream's" If you build it they will come. Maybe not to the newspaper but to the web but it can't be U-Tube. Shame on the Tribune Bob Rowley was one of the best journalist I know.He is gone and some of the people who are still there I will never understand who decided who went and who left. Please remember why you decided to become journalist.

awww. Lou. . . .

DeBartolo: And the co-proprietor of the Jon and Abra gossip column in the old Daily News lecturing to us about proper journalism? Yeah, right.

@trib writer It's definitely going too far to say that there's nothing to read in the Tribune. But one good story every 2 or 3 days just doesn't cut it. I'm only a moderate newshound, but just browsing through the New York Times front section I usually find 10 to 20 good stories that really connect me with national and world events. Granted, that's the Times, but the Tribune once could hold its own by comparison. Not anymore. And it's not at all as if the Trib doesn't have the space, even these days. It's just that so bloody much of it is given over to lame, badly condensed wire service copy and, far worse, cutesy featurey stuff, space-wasting graphics, huge but unremarkable photos and the like. And the front page is a just a big fat daily insult. But, yes, there are still things worth reading in the Tribune. One only wishes that everything around them showed some evidence of thoughtful editing and respect for serious readers.

@ Mark Jeffries - can't say i agree w/ your assessment of anderson anymore than i agreed w/ anderson's assessment of the chicken story. i can well imagine with yet another round of trib layoffs, the apparent ongoing slide in what was once a quality paper, well-founded fears as to what might come next & what it's all going to mean in the end, passions are running high & people are tempted to shoot from the hip @ targets w/o sufficient provocation...perhaps that's where he was coming from; perhaps that's where you're coming from...i don't know; but i do know you took my comment off it's intended path & turned it into a personal slam & i didn't like that.

"the apparent ongoing slide in what was once a quality paper" one thing that seems encouraging from the outside - they seem to be putting together some good skunk-works projects from the next generation. here's hoping the good reporters there mentor them well.

The bloggers are right. I suspected a KFC ad was to be tied in, given the present atmosphere, but I didn't actually see it. I should have held my fire. Monica Eng is a good writer and I hereby apologize to her.

I was always proud to say I worked at the Trib during my 41 years there. It sometimes felt like one big family. Sure, there were problems, but, hey, what family doesn't have some problems. It seems the Tribune (and many other papers) have lost their way, lost focus of the fact that newspapers (and NPR) are the final sources for indepth news and analysis and the all-important investigative reporting. Now, too much fluff. Sometimes, too political. Plus, why can't someone figure out a way to attract folks via the internet, and still make money. I recognize many of the names on the list, some I worked with back in the day -- hard-working, talented, dedicated, caring folks. Wish there was something profound I could say to make it all better. I can only wish you all the best, and hope for better things to come.

@pelham For the sake of space and not spending a million years here at the computer, I gave a few suggestions that came immediately to mind. But on that day, or any day, there are a lot of good stories. Are there also stories that are completely ridiculous? Yes. But when I look around, I see incredible, committed journalists working their asses off to report and write great stories. Stories that take days and even weeks to report and are the product of years of experience, endless source-building and lots of talent. Every day, you can read these stories, which took so much effort to produce, for about a buck (or free, really, if you want to go online and hasten our demise). Stop being a crank and enjoy the best stories in the paper each day, ignore the stuff you hate, celebrate the fact you can get all of this for a dollar or free and maybe send some love to our advertisers, whose exodus from our business is the real reason we're hurting (because despite what you may think, it's NOT content, it's ADS). And hope and pray we all figure out a new way to make money so we can beef up the newsroom and write more of the stories you like for you someday. And stop crapping on the paper, suggesting mass cancellations and the like. It's a little like having fuzzy vision and deciding to blind yourself.

A couple things: ---Among the comments here, or in another of Mike Miner's pieces on what has happened in the Tower this week, that I agree with, is the one dealing with the gutting of the Prep area of the Sports Department. Prep Sports matters to so many people, and is such a natural for the Internet. So who knows why they didn't find some way to keep those reporters and make at least 90 percent or 95 percent of their stories Web only. I cannot imagine that doing this wouldn't have resulted in a ton more hits to the site Thursday through Sunday. And, it is to be hoped, an ad stream would follow. ---As for all those in the Photo Department who were let go this time around (and, remember, there have been others who were pink-slipped in the previous groups, I can't help thinking: Gerry Kern writes that the focus-group findings are that readers want visuals. Yet, the people who "do" the visuals are let go. For years, the Travel writers have been taking the pictures for their pieces. (Hi, Al S.!) So I've been wondering if this is what might be in the mind of the powers that be: Give every Metro reporter a camera, so he can shoot while he reports. Which will, of course, lead to the mother of all "chicken-or-egg" scenarios: If you take pictures, which requires you to focus on that aspect of a story, plus get the proper caption info, how do you report the story. If you are reporting/interviewing/observing for the written part of an article---where are the hands that are needed to take the pictures? And it continues once back in the office: Do you write, or do you edit the photos? Plus, each component has (or used to have, when I was there) different deadlines in the production flow. Obviously, both elements are going to suffer, and the reader will be the loser. Some multitasking works. This does not. And, just to bring this back to where I started: Travel writers are not on a daily deadline, so this practice would, and does, work for them.

Reading through all this, it seems a too terrible shame to leave unmentioned the phenomenal 40-year career of now-ex-Trib photojournalist Chuck Cherney, who started out as a 16-year-old high school stringer for Pioneer Press in Evanston in the late 1960s and wound up his newspaper career giving us some of the clearest, best, most humanly insightful photographic glimpses of a world we usually wouldn't even know to look for if his pictures weren't showing us how. His main metier in recent years was sports, especially hockey, but Cherney cast a special slant of light on everything he saw and helped us to see. The Tribune gives up a sly, quick, nearly Brueghelian visual master in sacrificing this veteran's work to youth or FOGs or bottom lines, or whatever their reason for letting him go. I know I always looked for his cool, crystalline moments in those increasingly flimsy, frenzied and scattershot pages. One less good, dependable thing to look for there, I guess. Eventually one has to wonder what is left that we're paying our good money for. And to whom, for doing what. For now, a simple appreciation of Chuck's many great years of work with the Evanston Review, Chicago Sun-Times, and Tribune. Not to mention a few surreptitious free-lance appearances in the pages of the Reader as well.

[[Dave Jones April 24th - 11:22 p.m. Reading through all this, it seems a too terrible shame to leave unmentioned the phenomenal 40-year career of now-ex-Trib photojournalist Chuck Cherney.]] God Bless you and Amen to that. We are who we are, we do what we do, and life is what it is, but I believe there is some cumulative record or effect of our labors. Pray that someone might say of any of us, "He was honest, he worked hard and he was a good man."

I simply want to say it was an honor to collaborate with Jim Miller, Carolyn Starks, Susan Kuczka, Terry Bannon, Pat Reardon, Eric Benderoff, Mary Dedinsky, Beth Botts, Suzanne Cosgrove, Brenda Butler, Eric Benderoff and many others who have already left. I cannot stop thinking about the kind people whose lives have been turned upside down by business decisions, internal politics and the economy. Many still have children to educate and all of have roots that have been put down in the Chicago area. I sincerely will pray to god you may find solace eventually in what has happened. Melissa Nagy Deegan 1995-2004 Former assistant graphics editor/Metro and Business

One thing that has not been mentioned in this post is that as these fine people were being shown the door on Thursday, they were also told that they would have NO MEDICAL benefits come Friday. So after years of service and as Sam likes to call them Partners, he kicks them to the curb and cuts off their medical. Nice, Real nice. For those of you that are still working at the paper,remember this is how Zell is treating his PARTNERS. Keep drinking the Kool-Aid. So as Zell wants to give those great managers a bonus for carrying out his orders, he dumps all over the former PARTNERS. Shows you what kind of Partners are still left at the Tribune. Don't turn your back.

@trib writer You see a glass half full; I see a glass 80 percent empty. The key thing is that current Tribune management comes nowhere near to evidencing any good-faith effort to put out the best newspaper with the revenue at hand. The paper is profitable but, in successive waves, management fires people who are far more distinguished than those who remain. They pump out Orwellian memo after Orwellian memo, throwing around terms like "partner" and "right-sizing" that are gross insults to their journalists and their readers. What are we supposed to think? Good journalism still happens at the Tribune, but it seems almost incidental. By heft, feel, appearance and, mostly, substance, it's a very lightweight, low-grade product. As a package, it's insulting. And it doesn't need to be. Even with the reduced news-to-ad ratio, the Tribune could make far better and more responsible use of the space it has and it could have retained many of the most illustrious names we've seen on the long sad list posted here to publish a paper worthy of one of the world's great cities. Readers have very little leverage. One is cancelling their subscriptions, with the understanding that they will resubscribe once there is evidence of a return to a product that engages serious readers. But if you have a better idea how to go about applying a 2-by-4 at high velocity to the clueless Zell management's cranium, let's hear it.

There is so much to be sad about. It's clear I was way too naive, but I had hoped that when new leaders took over they would turn the Tribune into more of a meritocracy, moving away from the fiefdoms and friendships that ruled the day. That didn't happen. Instead, people working on certain sections are clearly protected and high profile editors with almost no staff and no content continue to draw their big paychecks. Some people are working like dogs and others are trying desperately to make it look like they're busy.

Tribnomore: This is indeed true. The Zellites aren't sitting right there in the newsroom. Instead, they select and promote surrogates (every one of them pretty marginal journalists, by the way), and these folks in turn promote and preserve their buddies, often not really the top-drawer editors you might want or wish for. So who you go shopping or drinking with is a much better index of your ability to keep your name off the lists of the dearly departed than any kind of measurable merit. Of course, the general practice is nothing new. In the past, though, really talented people could keep on doing good work, even if their careers weren't being stroked and stoked by Ann Marie or her predecessors. What's new is that the buddy system is now glaringly obvious, as so many of the Tribune's really talented and valuable--but unconnected--people get the boot.

Thank you, Tribnomore and at.tribune, for the previous two comments---what so many of us (have) observed and lived with over the years as we went about our jobs. (And wanted to note here but didn't [or couldn't.])

can only hope one or more of the old-timers have gotten together & discussed or started a book - call it "The Demise of a Great American Newspaper - from the Civil War to the Cheeseburger War" ... if that's too much ground, perhaps coverage from clayton kirkpatrick on down ... or maybe a group memoir, "Life in the Gothic Tower," or some such thing. in any event, i'd be especially interested in reading the "jim bob" chapter.

Bob Vanderberg is one of the good guys. It's a sad day, not only for Bob but all of us who will miss, his knowledge, wit, writing, and his genuine caring for everyone.

"One thing that has not been mentioned in this post is that as these fine people were being shown the door on Thursday, they were also told that they would have NO MEDICAL benefits come Friday..." I don't think this is accurate. They say that, however in fact it takes about a week or two for the insurance to actually be canceled. My advice, if you need something big and expensive done, call your attorney. The Trib may still have to foot the bill. But do it quickly. Good luck.

I'm very, vy sorry to read that Lucy Hoy was let go.

A lot of papers not run by Sam Zell are going through the same thing. Face it, Trib management were never particularly sweethearts. Some of those guys let go in sports were real gems, others nice guys but not the most talented. One of the bigger talents ousted is Chuck Cherney. Great photographer.

@ been there: Talk about hitting the nail on the head, re other TribCo. papers! The stories out of Baltimore the last couple days re the Sun journalists being let go---and how brutally that evidently was handled for many of them---are pretty appalling. Rather like salt in our collective wound, coming so soon after the Trib "event" last week.

@Karen Callaway And is it just coincidence that the newsroom cuts at the Sun will amount to 20 percent of the staff, which was the original plan at the Tribune, too? Supports the notion that some Zellite just pulled the number out of thin air and management implemented. No regard for what any individual paper might need. Nice detail about the guards suddenly escorting management out of the newsroom. Were they 'cuffed and gagged? The Sun, by the way, used to be one of the great or near-great U.S. newspapers. Noted as well in the latest developments from the Sun is the Tribune's effort to assemble all the national and foreign news here in Chicago, distributing dumbed-down prefabricated pages that all the Tribune newspapers are forced to use. Can't imagine readers in those markets are very happy with this arrangement--if they're even aware of it.

The tribune will go the way of the Daily News and the American, and good riddens. The don't report any news and don't deserve to be a newspaper

Hi, at.tribune: Well, I can't imagine they won't immediately become aware of it; I understand from reading other blogs and postings (Charles Apple's, particularly) that the production work is pretty sloppy. Plus, if you're used to getting national news that impacts you/your area---I suspect that will be glaringly missing. Also, I read today (TH 04/30) that the percentage at the Sun evidently is closer to 33%. As for that 20 percent figure at the Trib---the year is not over, alas. Call me suspicious (cynical?), but I wonder if Gerry Kern, et al, changed the numbers at the last minute because there had been so much reporting of the 80- to 90-person figure. That gave him a reason to do a scolding memo on "mis-information." Or, at the very least, knowing this page-sharing was going to occur, more copy editors, etc., were kept than originally had been planned, so that new bit of "journalism" could get that up and running. You know, since Kern was named editor, I have thought and said that he would never want to be known as "Gerould Kern, the last editor of the Chicago Tribune," because that would be the clause that always would accompany his name. And so, I had some hope. Now, with all that has happened, to the people and the product, I believe that distinction now belongs to Ann Marie Lipinski.

P.S. I'm listening to Charles Gibson on ABC National News and one of the items, after the commercial is going to be on the Baltimore Sun people who were told their jobs were gone while they were covering a Orioles' baseball game. (And that X number of other Sun employees also were "laid off.) (Of course, "laid off" is inaccurate---that term means your employer could call you back.) Can't imagine the TribCo people will be happy at this national attention---although I suspect they don't care.

Thanks for the thoughts, Karen. I had exactly the same thought about the 53 layoffs--that they were less than the expected 90 for the same 2 possible reasons you mention. I have no direct experience with it, but from all accounts, the prefab-page project is a fairly rocky enterprise. And this is one of Kern's stellar ideas (the other being counting bylines). So maybe they realized they should keep a few designers and editors on for a while till they get the kinks ironed out. Then, pfffft, out they go.

"good luck seeing how Daley and Stroger are screwing us when the last of the watchdogs is gone. Good luck forcing the federal government to treat our money like real money" For so many years we the people have needed help on both of those fronts and many more. It's a shame we haven't had large civic enterprises in each city and region each providing salaries to hundreds of salaried professional journalists so they could comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, speak truth to power, get answers to the tough ques -- oh, wait. All those who still think that the newspaper journalism sector has come close to justifying the level of resources that our society has been devoting to it, raise your hand. Right. The new ways of performing and delivering real journalism are mostly at this point theoretical, and the ultimate good answer sure as shit ain't blogging or twittering. But as a voter, as an engaged citizen, as an arts lover, as a sports fan, as frankly just a sentient American who thirsts to understand the world around him, I'm done waiting for the newspaper sector to get good enough to justify its cost in _time_. (MY time, not theirs.) Here's the real bottom line: if newspaper journalism as practiced in my lifetime was in daily reality anywhere close to it's own self-image, then all the brainless strategy flailing and arrogant ignorant real estate tycoons and hyperactive bloggers and promoting of good reporters into incompetent managers and all the rest that Michael Miner has been writing up for years, all put together, wouldn't have resulted in what's happening now to newspapers. Newspaper would be radically _changing_, sure, but not dying. Technological change doesn't kill off worthwhile content; it can expose underwhelming content. And it's the content, stupid. Always has been.

Nice to see that someone mentioned photographers but CC??? One big whore and lazy bastard!

Candy Cusic took my picture for a Trib article on my 'hood. Lou Carlozo's wife preaches at a church where I've sung gigs. NOW IT'S PERSONAL. This sux but I am praying that their off-laying will lead to better things. And not just for them, but for all of them.

I'm not convinced that Alan Artner is gone. His name still appears in the Trib staff directory as of May 9.

The Trib is trying many (some silly and most just plain foolish) things to keep afloat. Moving bits of the regular Sunday fare over to Saturday in an attempt to get folks to buy 2 days' worth of their mediocre writing and thinking. Dismissing the only art critic working for a major paper (really- the Reader is sinking fast as well)is yet another odd and -in the long run- suicidal attempt to keep going. The irony here is that the small art galleries in town will most likely outlast the Tribune.

Holy smokes...they really took a hatchet to Sports, didn't they? n I see the names of a lot of good people whom I used to work with a decade ago. So sad for all of them that they were let go.

@ BobM. The Tribune’s e-mail-the-staff list is not a true indicator of who’s left at the Tower. I'm still on it as of May 27. I got my severance package last August. But I hope Alan is still there if that’s what he wants. My years at the Trib were the best. It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happening.