{"id":9633,"date":"2015-12-07T06:00:52","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T12:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=9633"},"modified":"2015-12-07T06:18:42","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T12:18:42","slug":"chicagos-changing-skyline-tom-ogorman-to-follow-ann-gerbers-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2015\/12\/07\/chicagos-changing-skyline-tom-ogorman-to-follow-ann-gerbers-beat\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing Skyline: Tom O\u2019Gorman to follow Ann Gerber\u2019s beat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tom<\/a>

<\/a> Tom O'Gorman<\/p><\/div>\n

Chicago artist,<\/a> writer and historian Tom O\u2019Gorman is about to take over the longest-running gossip column in the city \u2014 if not the country.<\/p>\n

Inside Publications<\/a> has tapped O\u2019Gorman to succeed the legendary Ann Gerber, whose deliciously catty society column has been a guilty pleasure for readers of the weekly Skyline<\/a> and other local newspapers for more than 65 years.<\/p>\n

\"Ann<\/a>

Ann Gerber<\/p><\/div>\n

Health problems have sidelined Gerber, according to publisher Ron Roenigk, who said severe back pain is making it hard for her to do the work her column requires. \u201cAnn may decide to write more for us down the road \u2014 and she has carte blanche,\u201d Roenigk added.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Gorman, a former priest, has written numerous books on Chicago architecture, history and politics, and was a scholar-in-residence at the Newberry Library. He has close ties to Alderman Edward Burke, for whom he once served as a speechwriter. Burke and O\u2019Gorman are credited as co-writers of End of Watch: Chicago Police Killed in the Line of Duty, 1853-2006.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSkyline made its bones as a society newspaper and we're missing that today,\u201d said Roenigk, who has owned Skyline since 2012. \u201cWe look forward to having Tom in our pages next year to try and fill that need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Except for a brief stint at the Sun-Times<\/a> in the 1980s, Gerber has been synonymous with Skyline since 1960 when she began chronicling society life in Chicago\u2019s Gold Coast and Near North Side neighborhoods for the publication\u2019s original owner, Lerner Home Newspapers. Her lively mixture of caustic comments, blind items, and genuine news about movers and shakers had been running since 1950 in other editions of the Lerner chain.<\/p>\n

In 2013 Gerber received a Lifetime Achievement Award<\/a> from the Chicago Journalists Association. \u201cI realize the fact that I\u2019m a gossip columnist, which makes me suspect and certainly not as desirable as people who do hard news, but gossip is just an extension of people\u2019s talk,\u201d Gerber said at the time. \u201cGossip is news. Besides, I print true gossip.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Gorman wasn\u2019t the only writer approached about the Skyline job. Roenigk said he also offered a society column to man-about-town Bunky Cushing, who accepted the gig. Cushing\u2019s first column was to have run in mid-October \u2014 the week he died<\/a> following complications from triple-bypass surgery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago artist, writer and historian Tom O\u2019Gorman is about to take over the longest-running gossip column in the city \u2014 if not the country. Inside Publications has tapped O\u2019Gorman to succeed the legendary Ann Gerber, whose deliciously catty society column has been a guilty pleasure for readers of the weekly Skyline and other local newspapers... 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\/9633"}],"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=9633"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9651,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9633\/revisions\/9651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}