{"id":17954,"date":"2018-05-08T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=17954"},"modified":"2018-05-08T06:00:10","modified_gmt":"2018-05-08T11:00:10","slug":"robservations-chicago-jewish-star-closes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/05\/08\/robservations-chicago-jewish-star-closes\/","title":{"rendered":"Robservations: Chicago Jewish Star closes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a> Chicago Jewish Star<\/p><\/div>\n

Robservations on the media beat:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s over and out for the Chicago Jewish Star<\/a> after 27 years of publication. Billed as Chicago\u2019s oldest independent Jewish newspaper, the Skokie-based biweekly cited \u201can industry-wide decline in advertising revenues\u201d for shutting down the family-run operation Friday. Winner of six Peter Lisagor Awards for excellence in journalism, the paper is a finalist for two more in this year\u2019s competition. \u201cWe wanted to make what we did matter,\u201d founding editor Douglas Wertheimer<\/strong> wrote in a farewell editorial. \u201cWe never ceased trying to do our best.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chicago Tribune<\/p><\/div>\n

In a major restructuring of its Chicago area operations, tronc <\/a>is splitting off the Chicago Tribune<\/a> from its other local publications. On Monday the company announced creation of Chicagoland Targeted Media, which will oversee all 39 suburban daily and weekly newspapers, as well as Hoy, Chicago magazine, Naperville magazine and Splash. \u201cWe evaluated a variety of different structures that would allow us to serve our readers and customers, achieve our growth goals for the targeted media properties and, at the same time, free up key resources as the Chicago Tribune implements its newly launched newsroom and sales organizations,\u201d the company told employees. Par Ridder,<\/strong> corporate vice president of sales and circulation, will become vice president\/general manager of the new group. While the realignment may appear to signal an impending spin-off, a tronc representative disputed that idea. But the company offered no further clarification.<\/p>\n

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Bill Kurtis<\/p><\/div>\n

Legendary anchorman Bill Kurtis<\/strong> will kick off a four-part series on \u201cThe Media and the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention \u2014 Then and Now,\u201d <\/a>presented by Northwestern University\u2019s Medill School of Journalism. The discussion series will examine issues faced by media at the tumultuous convention 50 years ago and their impact today. Kurtis will deliver the keynote address on \u201cMedia in the Crucible\u201d<\/a> at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Medill\u2019s Chicago campus at 303 East Wacker Drive. Featuring an impressive lineup of panelists, future topics are \u201cConflict and the Media\u201d (June 6), \"The Artistic Convention\" (July 11), and \u201cThe Media Legacy of Chicago \u201968\u201d (August 8). All four events are free and open to the public. (Here is the link to reserve tickets.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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Studs Terkel<\/p><\/div>\n

More than 5,600 of Studs Terkel\u2019s<\/strong> Chicago radio shows will be released to the public online next week. May 16 \u2014 the 106th birthday of the late broadcaster, author and oral historian \u2014 will mark the launch of The Studs Terkel Radio Archive<\/a> at studsterkel.org. <\/a>It will feature interviews he hosted from 1952 to 1997 on Window to the World Communications classical WFMT 98.7-FM. Administered by the Chicago History Museum, the site will include conversations with such figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Simone de Beauvoir, Bob Dylan, Cesar Chavez<\/strong> and Toni Morrison.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

Michael Kutza,<\/strong> founder of the Chicago International Film Festival,<\/a> announced plans Monday to step down after 54 years as head of the nonprofit Cinema\/Chicago, which oversees the annual event. \u201cHaving spent most of my life dedicated to celebrating film and running a non-profit organization, I am excited to help curate the programming for the 2018 festival before taking some time to recharge my batteries and complete my book on a 50-plus-year look at the behind the scenes of the festival,\u201d said Kutza, 78, who started it all in 1964. \u201cIt has been an honor and a privilege to serve in this role for more than five decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

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WONC<\/p><\/div>\n

Entercom Newsradio WBBM 780-AM isn\u2019t the only Chicago area radio station celebrating its 50th anniversary on the air this week. WONC 89.1-FM, <\/a>the student-operated rock station of North Central College will mark its 50th with an open house and live broadcast on the studio lawn Friday at 232 East Chicago Avenue in Naperville. (The actual launch date was July 1, 1968.) As Marie Wilson<\/strong> reported<\/a> in Monday\u2019s Daily Herald, the event also will salute the retirement of John Madormo<\/strong> after 38 years as general manager of the award-winning station.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s comments of the day:<\/a> Dan Miller:<\/strong> No one can claim to be current on Chicago news without listening to WBBM Newsradio 780 at least twice a day. The station's editors, writers and anchors pack more new information into 10 minutes (even with commercials) than 10 minutes with any other electronic or print news product in town.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eric Zorn:<\/strong> I call bullshit on this claim. Spend 10 minutes with the Tribune website or the Sun-Times website or Crain's or the Daily Herald's . . . and you'll know far more about what's going on locally nationally and internationally than you will in a random 10-minute \u2014 or even 30 minute \u2014 listen to WBBM-AM. Not to throw shade on WBBM \u2014 it does a fine job within the confines of the format, which not only includes commercials but traffic reports at least 90 percent of which are ALWAYS irrelevant to an individual listener. But come on.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robservations on the media beat: It\u2019s over and out for the Chicago Jewish Star after 27 years of publication. Billed as Chicago\u2019s oldest independent Jewish newspaper, the Skokie-based biweekly cited \u201can industry-wide decline in advertising revenues\u201d for shutting down the family-run operation Friday. Winner of six Peter Lisagor Awards for excellence in journalism, the paper... 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\/17954"}],"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=17954"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17966,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17954\/revisions\/17966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}