The Chicago Reader just got a new editor to go along with a new look in print.
Jake Malooley was promoted Thursday to editor of the alternative weekly, owned by Sun-Times Media parent company Wrapports LLC. Malooley, who joined the Reader as managing editor in March 2014, had been serving as interim editor since last February, when Mara Shalhoup resigned after four years in the top job.
Effective with the July 30 issue spotlighting Lollapalooza, the Reader will unveil a redesign of its weekly print edition.
“Working at the Reader is truly a dream job for me,” Malooley said. “The staff here has been extremely supportive throughout the interim period and stepped up in countless ways over the last six months since Mara's departure. Those circumstances put us in something of a holding pattern, though, so I'm glad we'll be moving forward now with some exciting plans, which include a striking print redesign and a renewed online focus.”
A graduate of DePaul University and former intern at NewCity Chicago, Malooley spent eight years at Time Out Chicago, where he rose from editorial assistant to senior editor before joining the Reader.
Jim Kirk, publisher and editor in chief of Sun-Times Media, praised Malooley for his work and his vision for the venerable weekly, which is now in its 44th year.
“Since Mara’s departure, Jake has done a phenomenal job not only leading the Reader day to day, but also thinking through what its future looks like,” Kirk said. “We are ecstatic about what he brings to the Reader and excited about what he is going to do for its future.”
While the top advertising sales job remains unfilled at the Reader, Kirk also announced Thursday that he and Julian Posada, executive vice president for marketing and strategy at Sun-Times Media Group, would share duties for now as “the office of the publisher.”
The publisher’s post has been been vacant since Wrapports acquired the Reader from Creative Loafing in 2012. Alison Draper, the Reader’s last publisher, left just after the $3 million sale of the weekly newspaper and its website.