{"id":10391,"date":"2016-02-10T07:30:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T13:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=10391"},"modified":"2016-02-10T07:33:01","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T13:33:01","slug":"how-newcitys-publisher-would-save-sun-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2016\/02\/10\/how-newcitys-publisher-would-save-sun-times\/","title":{"rendered":"How Newcity\u2019s publisher would save Sun-Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Newcity<\/a>

<\/a> Newcity Chicago<\/p><\/div>\n

The editor and publisher of Newcity,<\/a> the venerable alternative weekly, is offering an imaginative plan to keep the Sun-Times<\/a> alive and independent. It starts with getting rid of Michael Ferro.<\/p>\n

In this week\u2019s cover story titled Save The Sun-Times: How I\u2019d Keep Chicago A Two-Newspaper Town,<\/a> Brian Hieggelke forcefully argues that the city needs a better, smarter, stronger competitor to the Chicago Tribune.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Brian<\/a>

Brian Hieggelke<\/p><\/div>\n

Hieggelke, who\u2019s been a civic treasure since he founded Newcity with his wife Jan in 1986, is no amateur when it comes to critiquing Chicago media. For years he wrote an insightful and influential column on the press under the pseudonym of Hildy Johnson, <\/a>borrowed from the classic Chicago newspaper film \u201cThe Front Page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over lunch more than a year ago, Hieggelke told me he\u2019d been thinking a lot about how to rejuvenate the Sun-Times, which was struggling to survive under principal owner Ferro. What finally prompted Hieggelke to write the 2,800-word piece was the stunning news <\/a>last week that Ferro had become the largest shareholder of Tribune Publishing and assumed the role of non-executive chairman. While keeping his financial interest in the Sun-Times, Ferro was stepping down as chairman of parent company Wrapports. \u201cA seismic shift roiled the quicksand of local media,\u201d Hieggelke says.<\/p>\n

First and foremost among Hieggelke\u2019s recommendations is to eliminate the inherent conflict of an owner whose loyalty is now with the Tribune. Unless Ferro is pushed out of the Sun-Times entirely, which Hieggelke acknowledges is easier said than done, \u201cthe paper is likely doomed in its current ownership structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/a>

Michael Ferro<\/p><\/div>\n

Once that happens, his plan calls for killing the Sun-Times Network (which he correctly labels a \"monstrous embarrassment\"), fixing the website, dropping the Sunday paper in favor of a bigger Saturday \u201cweekend edition,\u201d jettisoning Splash <\/a>(or selling it to the Tribune) and merging the Chicago Reader<\/a> with the Sun-Times. The new and improved Sun-Times, as he sees it, would be more liberal, more urban and more enterprising.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t give away any more of Hieggelke\u2019s bold proposals (some of which I doubt even he thinks are realistic), but I recommend you read the piece<\/a> for yourself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019ve ruffled some feathers with many of these ideas,\u201d he concludes, \u201cbut I\u2019ve done so in the spirit that I think many of us share: that a one-newspaper town is not a future we should enter without a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The editor and publisher of Newcity, the venerable alternative weekly, is offering an imaginative plan to keep the Sun-Times alive and independent. It starts with getting rid of Michael Ferro. In this week\u2019s cover story titled Save The Sun-Times: How I\u2019d Keep Chicago A Two-Newspaper Town, Brian Hieggelke forcefully argues that the city needs a... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10391"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10400,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10391\/revisions\/10400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}