Hot Type, for the week of January 20, 2006 -- continued Books Bind The Tribune's books section carried an announcement last Sunday that as of January 22 it will become a tabloid. The unstated reason is to save money by cutting the amount of newsprint required to produce the section. It's one of only five freestanding book sections in American newspapers, and the Tribune, with a well-deserved reputation to protect as a friend of literature, wants to keep it. But it doesn't attract enough advertising to pay for itself. The Tribune had intended to announce in December that in January the section would move from the Sunday to the Saturday paper. This was an interesting idea: while the Sunday paper is too enormous for its own good, the Saturday paper is too thin. But the big reason the change appealed to the Tribune is that Saturday's press run is some 400,000 copies smaller than Sunday's. The annual savings in newsprint alone would reach half a million dollars. At the last moment the Tribune remembered that its contracts with its distributors would require it to pay them extra to stuff another section into the Saturday paper. The switch wouldn't be worth it. Books editor Elizabeth Taylor wasn't excited about moving to Saturday, but she says she's happy to go tabloid, even though she'll wind up with less space. Readers also prefer a tabloid, she tells me: "It feels more bookish." She hopes to find new advertisers. The traditional advertisers, the publishing houses, won't pay the freight, but she'd like to think colleges and cultural institutions would enjoy the company of literature. Even the occasional movie ad for a literary adaptation wouldn't be out of place. News Bites "Plenty of critics fault Alito for his judicial philosophy," allowed the Tribune, in an editorial endorsing him for the Supreme Court even before he testified. "Democrats who reject his judicial philosophy will have no trouble voting against Alito." That said, "when it comes to his qualifications, though, Alito is about as good as nominees get." The Tribune applauded his intelligence, diligence, civility, and intellectual honesty. In the Tribune's view Alito's qualifications had nothing to do with his judicial philosophy, so it didn't waste a word trying to tell us what it was. Other publications considered Alito in terms of originalism and the unitary executive theory. Whatever, said the Trib. Tribune readers who spotted a prissy January 14 item about a Metra conductor suspended for uttering a "vulgar sexual epithet" over the train's PA system must have wondered what it was. Fortunately, the Reader's Don Humbertson was on the scene. "The cocksuckers say you can't smoke on the train platforms anymore" is how he heard it. Humbertson says that the following Monday the conductor, who's popular with passengers, walked through the train in civvies apologizing. Which story would you read? Sun-Times, front page, January 4: "Ryan to O'Malley: Expletive Deleted." Tribune, page one Metro, same day: "Ryan reply was curt, jury told." Jim Romenesko recently posted a letter on his media Web site asking for the names of "solid, unheralded metro columnists." James O'Shea, the Tribune's managing editor, promptly responded. "John Kass of the Chicago Tribune," he wrote, presumably honking off all his other columnists. "The way I read the request, they were asking for one local columnist," he told me, a conclusion I have no idea how he came to, "and since John focuses almost exclusively on local politics, I sent in his name. That doesn't mean I don't think Mary, Eric, Rick and others are equally talented and worthy of recognition." Send tips, tirades, and comments to hottype@chicagoreader.com Copyright © 2006 Chicago Reader, Inc. All rights reserved.