{"id":1155,"date":"2013-11-11T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=1155"},"modified":"2013-11-11T08:04:37","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T14:04:37","slug":"sun-times-plans-to-jettison-joliet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2013\/11\/11\/sun-times-plans-to-jettison-joliet\/","title":{"rendered":"Sun-Times plans to jettison Joliet"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/a>Under pressure to raise cash quickly, the parent company of the Sun-Times is about to begin selling off some of its suburban publishing assets, according to insiders.<\/p>\n Sources said the first to go likely will be the Joliet Herald-News,<\/a> one of seven suburban daily newspapers owned by Sun-Times Media. A deal to sell the paper to an unidentified local owner is expected to be announced before the end of the year.<\/p>\n Timothy Knight, CEO of Sun-Times Media owner Wrapports LLC, declined to comment.<\/p>\n <\/a>A fixture in the southwest suburbs for 100 years, the Herald-News was acquired in 2000 when former owner Copley Press sold its Fox Valley Press division to Hollinger International, then parent company of the Sun-Times.<\/p>\n Under president and chief operating officer David Radler, the deal was a key part of Hollinger\u2019s strategy to compete against the Chicago Tribune by creating a ring of suburban dailies surrounding Chicago in addition to dozens of weekly newspapers in the northern and southern suburbs.<\/p>\n Word of the Joliet sale follows a report here <\/a>that another round of staff reductions will target departments throughout Sun-Times Media early next year. Both moves are necessary to offset revenue shortfalls, sources said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear how many employees will be affected by the sale of the 25,000-circulation daily since Sun-Times Media recently consolidated suburban editorial and business operations.<\/p>\n Besides the Sun-Times and the Herald-News, Sun-Times Media also owns the Aurora Beacon-News, the Elgin Courier-News, the Lake County News-Sun, the Naperville Sun, the Northwest Indiana Post-Tribune and the SouthtownStar, as well as the Chicago Reader and 32 weekly newspapers published by the Pioneer Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Under pressure to raise cash quickly, the parent company of the Sun-Times is about to begin selling off some of its suburban publishing assets, according to insiders. Sources said the first to go likely will be the Joliet Herald-News, one of seven suburban daily newspapers owned by Sun-Times Media. A deal to sell the paper... Continue reading