Chicago Sun-Times
Jennifer Schulze, a former Chicago television news director and producer, has been hired to develop new video content for the Sun-Times, the company announced today.
Schulze is married to Edwin Eisendrath, CEO of Sun-Times Media and leader of the investor group that bought the financially ailing newspaper in July. Her hiring, effective immediately, was approved by the company’s board. Continue reading
WGN News (Photo: WGN)
Robservations on the media beat:
Joe Donlon
A longtime news anchor from Portland, Oregon, is close to signing on for the top job at “Chicago’s Very Own” WGN-Channel 9, sources said Sunday. The post has been vacant since Mark Suppelsa retired from the Tribune Broadcasting station in December. Expected to replace him alongside Micah Materre at 5, 6, 9 and 10 p.m. weekdays is Joe Donlon, a 21-year veteran of KGW, the NBC affiliate in Portland. If all goes as planned, he’ll start sometime this spring. WGN officials declined to comment. Donlon, a St. Louis native and graduate of Marquette University, previously worked for stations in Tucson, Arizona, and Corpus Christi, Texas. Ratings have held steady since Suppelsa's departure, with a variety of insiders filling his role in the interim. Continue reading
Chicago Reader
Jake Malooley has been forced out as editor of the Chicago Reader as new executive editor Mark Konkol moves to put his imprint on the alternative weekly.
Malooley learned his fate by phone at O'Hare Airport when he returned from his honeymoon on a delayed flight Friday morning. Continue reading
Bill Zwecker (Photo: Fox 32)
Bill Zwecker, one of Chicago’s premier celebrity columnists and entertainment reporters for decades, is the latest marquee personality to be forced out at the Sun-Times, sources confirmed Thursday.
The elimination of Zwecker’s position after 26 years at the Sun-Times follows the ouster last week of longtime theater critic Hedy Weiss, as the paper’s new owners struggle to cut costs and redefine their coverage of arts and entertainment. Continue reading
WGN Radio
Robservations on the media beat:
Joe Brand
While WGN AM 720 continues to negotiate for Chicago White Sox radio rights, the Tribune Broadcasting news/talk station is adjusting its weekend sports lineup. Joe Brand will anchor sports on Saturday mornings as part of Lou Manfredini’s “Mr. Fixit Show” and “The John Williams Show.” Brand, who graduated from Marist High School and Illinois State University, has been the play-by-play voice of the Kane County Cougars since 2014. Also at WGN, Andy Masur will join “The Dean Richards Show” as Sunday morning sports anchor. As for the White Sox, they’re losing their current radio home on news/talk WLS AM 890 as owner Cumulus Media reorganizes from bankruptcy. Announcement of a new station is expected any day. Continue reading
Michael Ferro (Photo: Christopher Michel)
When Michael Ferro took control of Tribune Publishing in 2016, he saw the Los Angeles Times as the crown jewel of the company and the key to his grand ambitions to create a “global entertainment brand.”
Ferro envisioned opening new bureaus in such media capitals as Hong Kong, Seoul, Rio de Janiero, Lagos and Moscow, and leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to revolutionize journalism. As part of his digital transformation strategy, he changed the name of the company to tronc — short for Tribune Online Content. Continue reading
Los Angeles Times
Robservations on the media beat:
Jim Kirk
If the reported $500 million deal goes through to sell the Los Angeles Times to biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, it would mark the end of the paper’s rocky relationship with Chicago-based tronc and predecessor Tribune Co. after 18 years. It also would dash the ambitions of tronc chairman Michael Ferro to become a mover and shaker in Hollywood. (Could the sale of tronc’s other papers — including the Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News — be far off?) It’s unclear what an ownership change would mean for Jim Kirk, who was named editor-in-chief of the L.A. Times just last week. The latest assignment was Kirk’s fourth role since he resigned as publisher and editor of the Sun-Times to join tronc in August. Also included in the sale to Soon-Shiong would be the San Diego Union-Tribune. Continue reading
Jen Sabella, Shamus Toomey and Stephanie Lulay (Photo: Mina Bloom/Block Club Chicago)
Three editors from the former DNAinfo Chicago are reuniting to start up a new neighborhood news website to be funded by reader subscriptions.
Block Club Chicago is expected to be launched in April as a nonprofit venture that picks up where DNAinfo left off when it was abruptly shut down in November by billionaire backer Joe Ricketts. Continue reading
Chicago News Guild demonstration Friday (Photo: Rick Kambic)
Robservations on the media beat:
Editorial employees at the Pioneer Press suburban newspapers, the Lake County News-Sun and the Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune have been without a contract since December 2016. To protest the lack of progress with owner tronc, about a dozen members of the Chicago News Guild demonstrated outside the Chicago Tribune’s annual Beck Awards ceremony Friday at River Roast. They passed out fliers and erected a large inflatable rat in front of the LaSalle Street restaurant. “The company gala came just two days after company negotiators refused to change their offer that amounts to taking money from the pockets of the few hard-working employees who remain,” said Rick Kambic, Pioneer Press unit chair of the Guild. “Tronc's divisive actions continue to far outweigh any illusion of harmony, and we're willing to call them out on it."
Monday noon update: A spokeswoman for tronc released the following statement: “We are engaged in active negotiations and do so at the negotiating table.” Continue reading
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper is back on the beat following a Chicago Sun-Times investigation into whether the movie critic padded his Twitter account by buying fake followers.
"Roeper is genuinely contrite — aware, now, that these purchases were improper," the Sun-Times said in a statement released Friday night. "The Sun-Times will implement a policy to clarify what we thought was obvious — that journalists should not pay to acquire followers on social media." Continue reading