News Bites
Friday, November 6, 2009
Media, Lit & Lectures, News Bites Lynda Barry, Matt Groening, Chris Ware, and Jules Feiffer in a discussion Saturday at Parker
Posted by Jerome Ludwig on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 5:29 PM
- Chris Ware Self-Portrait
I don't know if the auditorium at Parker can hold that kind of turnout, but tomorrow the two will return for a CHF panel discussion moderated by the Reader's Michael Miner.
Media, News Bites Is This the Future of Chicago Journalism?
Posted by Michael Miner on Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 12:22 PM
The Chicago Community Trust is scattering half a million dollars in seed money to support 12 innovative local journalism projects. It's a new program, Community News Matters, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation ($250,000) and the John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation ($100,000) as well as CCT; spokesperson Vivian Vahlberg says satisfying all 86 grant applications would have required $5.7 million. "The amazing thing is there were so few dogs among the proposals," she tells me. "So many good ones, so many interesting ones."
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Media, Lit & Lectures, News Bites Death Speaks — And There's No Agent Getting 10 Percent
Posted by Michael Miner on Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 8:21 AM
When artists imagine the dead, the undead, and the deadly, they are usually trying to terrify us. Zombies, ghouls, chainsaw murderers — our first reaction to any of these fiends is to run the other way.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Media, News Bites Tribune Company Ending Pretense Its Employees Own It
Posted by Michael Miner on Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 12:57 PM
The bankrupt Tribune Company is dropping the fiction that since Sam Zell took over it's been owned by the employees being laid off by the carload. The Wednesday Tribune carries a short, poignant story that says bluntly the "ill-fated employee stock ownership plan is dead."
Here is the same article as it appeared in the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune Company paper where the Tower is despised. This version of the story drips with contempt.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Media, News Bites How Much Do Those Freeloading Seniors Really Cost Us?
Posted by Michael Miner on Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 12:20 PM
"The region's bus and rail systems are providing an average of 3.1 million free rides a month at a cost of at least $49 million a year." — Chicago Tribune, October 30.
"The least the three transit agencies [the CTA, Metra, and Pace] wanted last week was a lifting of the free rides for senior citizens, a move that would have saved them up to $37 million." — Chicago Tribune, November 1.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Media, News Bites David Greising Goes Future Hunting
Posted by Michael Miner on Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 2:22 PM
Ask me if Jim O'Shea's Chicago News Cooperative has a chance to succeed and I'll say yes — not because the concept is mesmerizing but because David Greising did his due diligence and then decided to sign on.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Media, News Bites Steve Timble Leaves Reader
Posted by Michael Miner on Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 11:42 PM
The appointment of Jim Warren as publisher of the Reader has made the position of associate publisher redundant, in the view of the Reader's owners, and Steve Timble, who held that position and has been acting as publisher, has left the paper. Given the economy, what we all know about the state of print journalism, and the Reader's recent history as part of a chain of weeklies that just came out of bankruptcy, this paper's in fairly decent shape: ad sales goals are in reach, with classifieds showing surprising strength, and the return rate of distributed copies is minuscule. This is progress, it happened on Timble's watch, and I thank him and wish him well.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Media, News Bites The Reader’s New Publisher Is an Edit Guy
Posted by Michael Miner on Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 11:01 PM
- Jim Warren
Jim Warren, a former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, was named publisher of the Reader today, in an announcement by Richard Gilbert, interim CEO of the board now running the chain of six Creative Loafing weeklies.
“He’s all the things you look for,” says Gilbert. “He has integrity, courage, enterprise, intelligence.” He says the appointment sends a message, both within the Reader and to the city, that “this newspaper continues to be very serious about its journalism and its content.”
Media, News Bites, News James Warren Is the Chicago Reader's New Publisher
Posted by Alison True on Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 3:51 PM
Richard Gilbert, interim CEO of Creative Loafing, the company that owns the Reader, has announced that the open position of publisher has been filled by James Warren.
UPDATE: Michael Miner's first post on the subject.
Here's Gilbert's statement:
Monday, October 26, 2009
Media, News Bites Jim Tyree Takes Control of the Sun-Times Chain
Posted by Michael Miner on Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 4:00 AM
The five dozen newspaper titles and Web sites that constituted the Sun-Times Media Group left bankruptcy under new ownership Monday afternoon. For about $26.5 million, most of it necessary to cover old debts, financier Jim Tyree and his fellow investors took control of what's now Sun-Times Media Holdings, LLC.
