CHICAGO – The Chicago Tribune is facing an ownership crisis, according to industry news sources during the past week. It's so bad that the papers reporters are reportedly trying to find a new owner for their newspaper.
Gary Marx, a 31-year veteran of the Chicago Tribune, told CNN Business the reporters are trying to do whatever they can to stop the buyout. He and another one of the Tribune's top reporters, David Jackson, wrote an op-ed warning about the pernicious influence of Alden.
"Unless Alden reverses course — perhaps in repentance for the avaricious destruction it has wrought in Denver and elsewhere — we need a civic-minded local owner or group of owners. So do our Tribune Publishing colleagues," they wrote in the New York Times op-ed piece.
The op-ed says while the general impression is that other online news sources are filling the growing news void, it's not true.
The popular narrative is that these web-based news labs are stepping unto the breach to fulfill the basic mission of struggling legacy newsrooms. But many have relatively tiny readerships and specialized missions. To have impact, they often partner with major news organizations like ours. And The Tribune does not just safeguard the city; by devoting coverage to every aspect of daily life, it creates a sense of community.
Facebook and other social media sites give the impression that they offer everything you need to know. But, in reality, most of Facebook’s news is generated in traditional newsrooms. If we disappear, its news feed will consist of little more than news releases and opinion-based screeds.
I canceled my Tribune subscription a few years back. I got tired of them printing so much leftist propaganda. I started reading it in the early 1970’s when I was in high school. What a difference from then to now.
I’ve always liked John Kass from the Trib, but everyone else as Bob said swung toward how the Sun-Times went. Along with irregular deliveries and increasing non-center reporting, I was pretty much done. I do listen to Kass’ podcasts, though.
Good for you.
They want subscribers, but many leftists don’t (or CAN’T) read, so they lose subscribers. Then, with their circulation figures reduced, their advertisers cancel.
It”s a downward spiral. But you don’t see it happening to the WALL STREET JOURNAL, though. The WSJ takes a more fair, although somewhat right-of-center stance, and it PAYS.
I am in my 50s and even as a child I knew it was a liberal rag. I remember as a kid watching “All in the Family” and thinking The Meathead should get a job writing at the Chicago Tribune.
I hope this paper goes night-night and their leftist reporters with them can join the service workers union cleaning rooms in Chicago hotels.
Having the Tribune go away can only make the world better. It has failed in the implicit duty as the 4th estate and clearly fears the rise, and stands in defiance, of the 5th estate. Bye bye Trib, I shall enjoy your dismemberment.