{"id":18306,"date":"2018-06-11T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=18306"},"modified":"2018-06-11T07:44:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T12:44:01","slug":"robservations-towering-pity-chicago-tribunes-eviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/06\/11\/robservations-towering-pity-chicago-tribunes-eviction\/","title":{"rendered":"Robservations: The towering pity of Chicago Tribune\u2019s eviction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/a> Tribune Tower<\/p><\/div>\n

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

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Gregory Pratt<\/p><\/div>\n

Thousands of words were written and spoken last week about the departure of the Chicago Tribune <\/a>from Tribune Tower. But none resonated as much as this tweet<\/a> by City Hall reporter Gregory Pratt:<\/strong> \u201cI know the @chicagotribune is not Tribune Tower. It's the staff and its readers. But the fact that a corporate divorce brought on by years of high-level corporate hijinx led to our building being sold out from underneath us will always sting. Corporate capitalism at its worst,\u201d Pratt wrote. The eviction of the newspaper from its namesake home at 435 North Michigan Avenue didn\u2019t have to happen. It only came about because the bosses of Tribune Media \u2014 a separate entity from the newspaper\u2019s owner tronc \u2014 were determined to squeeze every penny out of the company before selling what was left to Sinclair Broadcast Group. For the short-term profit of a relatively small number of investors, the long-term legacy of a Chicago institution was lost. After 93 years in a landmark neo-Gothic cathedral of journalism, now the Tribune occupies leased space in One Prudential Plaza. What a shame.<\/p>\n

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Chicago Sun-Times<\/p><\/div>\n

In the latest nod to its organized labor ownership, the Chicago Sun-Times<\/a> no longer outsources its customer service to a call center in Honduras. As of June 1, all calls are being handled by \u201cthe voices of other hardworking Chicagoans,\u201d according to Nykia Wright,<\/strong> chief operating officer of Sun-Times Media. It\u2019s about being a \u201clocal paper with local people on staff to serve our customers,\u201d Wright said in a statement. Using local workers \u201cdebunks the myth that migrating jobs overseas always is more economical,\u201d she added. (Update:<\/strong> The call center workers for the Sun-Times are not affiliated with a union.)<\/p>\n

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Jennifer Keiper<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cDriveChicago,\u201d<\/a> the weekly talk show sponsored by the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, has returned after three years to Cumulus Media news\/talk WLS 890-AM. <\/a>Airing at 8 a.m. Saturdays, the one-hour show is hosted by WLS news anchor Jennifer Keiper,<\/strong> who covered the auto industry for years as Midwest correspondent for Fox News Radio. The show also features Mark Bilek,<\/strong> director of communications and technology for the CATA, and Jim OBrill,<\/strong> director of marketing for the CATA and the Chicago Auto Show. \u201c\u2018DriveChicago\u2019 won\u2019t only be about fast cars, but also trucks, SUVs, unique vehicles, industry news, trends, local events, and so much more,\" Keiper said in a statement.<\/p>\n

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Pat Kelley<\/p><\/div>\n

Pat Kelley,<\/strong> longtime Chicago area radio exec who served as senior vice president and general manager of the former smooth jazz station WLFM 87.7-FM, is returning to oversee Townsquare Media\u2019s<\/a> four-station cluster in Rockford. Since 2013 Kelley has been Northern Colorado market president for Townsquare in Ft. Collins, Colorado. In Rockford he\u2019ll succeed\u00a0Rod Zimmerman,<\/strong> who's retiring July 1. Zimmerman previously was senior vice president and market manager of the former CBS Radio stations in Chicago.<\/p>\n

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Patrick Elwood<\/p><\/div>\n

Chicago TV newsman Patrick Elwood<\/strong> picked up a 2018 Illinois Father of the Year Award Thursday from the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative.<\/a>\u00a0The general assignment reporter for Tribune Broadcasting WGN-Channel 9 and father of four was recognized for raising $14 million for pediatric cancer research through the St. Baldrick\u2019s Foundation, among other charitable efforts. \u201cSo honored but still wondering if my kids had a vote:)?!\u201d Elwood wrote on Facebook.<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s comment of the day: <\/a>Jake Hewitt:<\/strong> I consider myself pretty progressive, but I was really disappointed in the Sun-Times' blind endorsements of union-backed challengers against incumbents with solid voting records but dared to oppose certain union-backed laws (e.g. the soda tax), and thought their primary coverage was biased in favor of J.B. Pritzker. When John Kass recently accused the news division of protecting a key members of ownership, they didn't even respond. Worst, they cut or minimized the role of some of their best people (Mark Brown for example). I used to bemoan the thought of the Tribune being the only real watchdog in town - now I'm just kind of melancholy about it. I still subscribe to Sundays and the digital version, but I don't read as much as I did even just a few years ago.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robservations on the media beat: Thousands of words were written and spoken last week about the departure of the Chicago Tribune from Tribune Tower. But none resonated as much as this tweet by City Hall reporter Gregory Pratt: \u201cI know the @chicagotribune is not Tribune Tower. It's the staff and its readers. But the fact... 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\/18306"}],"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=18306"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18327,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18306\/revisions\/18327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}