Chicago Sun-Times
Encyclopedia
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American
daily newspaper
published in Chicago
, Illinois
. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group
.
was responsible for the Chicago fire
). The Evening Journal, whose West Side building at 17-19 S. Canal was undamaged, gave the Chicago Tribune
a temporary home until it could rebuild. In 1929, the newspaper was relaunched as the Chicago Daily Illustrated Times.
The modern paper grew out of the 1948 merger of the Chicago Sun, founded in 1941 by Marshall Field III
, and the Chicago Daily Times. The newspaper was owned by Field Enterprises
, controlled by the Marshall Field family, which would acquire the afternoon Chicago Daily News
in 1959 and launch WFLD
television in 1966. When the Daily News ended its run in 1978, much of its staff, including Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko
, were moved to the Sun-Times. During the Field period, the newspaper had a populist, progressive character that leaned Democratic
but was independent of the city's Democratic establishment. Although the graphic style was urban tabloid, the paper was well regarded for journalistic quality and did not rely on sensational front-page stories. It typically ran articles from the Washington Post/Los Angeles Times
wire service.
, spiked some columns written by sportswriter Lacy J. Banks and took away a column Banks had been writing, prompting Banks to tell a friend at the Chicago Defender
that Grizzard was a racist. After the friend wrote a story about it, Grizzard fired Banks. With that, the editorial employees union intervened, a federal arbitrator ruled for Banks and 13 months later, he got his job back.
in September 1983.
In July 1981, prominent Sun-Times investigative reporter Pam Zekman
, who had been part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team with the Chicago Tribune in 1976, announced she was leaving the Sun-Times to join WBBM-TV
in Chicago in August 1981 as chief of its new investigative unit. "Salary wasn't a factor," she told the Tribune. "The station showed a commitment to investigative journalism. It was something I wanted to try."
In January 1984, noted Sun-Times business reporter James Warren
quit to join the rival Chicago Tribune. He would go on to become the Tribune's Washington bureau chief and later its managing editor for features.
In 1984, Field sold the paper to Rupert Murdoch
's News Corp, and the paper's style changed abruptly toward that of its suitemate New York Post
. Its front pages tended more to the sensational and its political stance shifted toward the conservative. This was in the era that the traditional Republican bulwark, the Chicago Tribune
, was softening its positions, ending the city's clear division between the two newspapers' politics. This shift was made all but official when Mike Royko defected to the Tribune.
Roger Ebert later reflected on the incident with much disdain, stating in his blog,
Murdoch sold the paper in 1986 (to buy its former sister television station WFLD
to launch the Fox network
) for $145 million in cash in a leveraged buyout to an investor group led by the paper's publisher, Robert E. Page, and the New York investment firm Adler & Shaykin.
In 1984, Roger Simon
, who had been a Sun-Times columnist for a decade, quit to join the Baltimore Sun, where he would work until 1995. Simon quit the paper because of Murdoch's purchase of it. Beginning in October 1984, Simon's columns from Baltimore began appearing in the rival Chicago Tribune.
In December 1986, the Sun-Times hired high-profile gossip columnist Michael Sneed away from the rival Chicago Tribune, where she had been co-authoring the Tribune's own "Inc." gossip column with Kathy O'Malley. On December 3, 1986, O'Malley led off the Tribune's "Inc." column with the heading "The Last to Know Dept." and writing, "Dontcha just hate it when you write a gossip column and people think you know all the news about what's going on and your partner gets a new job and your column still has her name on it on the very same day that her new employer announces that she's going to work for him? Yeah, INC. just hates it when that happens."
In February 1987, the popular syndicated advice column Ask Ann Landers
(commonly known as the "Ann Landers" column and written at that point by Eppie Lederer
) left the Sun-Times after 31 years to jump to the rival Chicago Tribune, effective March 15, 1987. The move sparked a nationwide hunt for a new advice columnist at the Sun-Times. After more than 12,000 responses from people aged 4 to 85, the paper ultimately hired two: Jeffrey Zaslow
, then a 28-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter, and Diane Crowley, a 47-year-old lawyer, teacher and daughter of Ruth Crowley, who had been the original Ann Landers columnist from 1943 until 1955. The Sun-Times fired Crowley in September 1993, and the paper decided not to renew Zaslow's contract in 2001.
By the summer of 1988, Page and Adler & Shaykin managing partner Leonard P. Shaykin had developed a conflict, and in August 1988, Page resigned as publisher and president and sold his interest in the paper to his fellow investors.
In September 1992, Bill Zwecker joined the Sun-Times as a gossip columnist from the troubled Lerner Newspapers suburban weekly newspaper chain, where had written the VIPeople column.
In September 1992, Sun-Times sports clerk Peter Anding was arrested in the Sun-Times' newsroom and held without bond after confessing to using his position to set up sexual encounters for male high school athletes. Anding was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault and possession of child pornography. In September 1993, Anding pleaded guilty to arranging and videotaping sexual encounters with several teenage boys and fondling others. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
In 1993, the Sun-Times fired photographer Bob Black without severance for dozens of unauthorized uses of the company's Federal Express account and outside photo lab, going back more than three years and costing the company more than $1,400. In February 1994, however, Black rejoined the paper's payroll after an arbitrator agreed with the paper's union that dismissal was too severe of a penalty. At the same time, the arbitrator declined to award Black back pay.
In 1993, longtime Sun-Times reporter Larry Weintraub retired after 35 years at the paper. Weintraub had been best known for his "Weintraub's World" column, in which he worked a job and wrote about the experience. Weintraub died in 2001 at age 69.
In February 1994, the Adler & Shaykin investor group sold the Sun-Times to Hollinger International for about $180 million. Hollinger was controlled, indirectly, by Canadian-born businessman Conrad Black
. After Black and his associate David Radler
were indicted for skimming money from Hollinger International, through retaining noncompete payments from the sale of Hollinger newspapers, they were removed from the board, and Hollinger International was renamed the Sun-Times Media Group
.
In 1994, noted reporter M.W. Newman
retired from the Sun-Times around the age of 77. Newman, who died of lung cancer in 2001, had been with the Sun-Times since the Chicago Daily News
closed in 1978 and had focused his efforts on urban reporting. Among other things, Newman had been known for coining the term "Big John" to describe the John Hancock Center
and the expression "Fortress Illini" for the concrete structures and plazas at the University of Illinois at Chicago
.
On March 23, 1995, the Sun-Times announced that beginning April 2, 1995, veteran Sports Illustrated
writer Rick Telander
would be joining the paper and writing four columns a week.
On March 24, 1995, the Sun-Times published an editorial by Mark Hornung, then the Sun-Times' editorial page editor, that plagiarized a Washington Post editorial that had appeared in that paper the day before. Hornung attributed the plagiarism to writer's block, deadline pressures and the demands of other duties. He resigned as editorial page editor, but remained with the paper, shifting to its business side and working first as director of distribution and then as vice president of circulation. In 2002, Hornung became president and publisher of Midwest Suburban Publishing, which was a company owned by then-Sun Times parent company Hollinger International. In June 2004, Hollinger International placed Hornung on administrative leave just two weeks after Hollinger revealed that the paper's sales figures had been inflated for several years. Hornung resigned from the company four days later.
On May 17, 1995, the Sun-Times' food section published a bogus letter from a reader named "Olga Fokyercelf" that Chicago Tribune columnist (and former Sun-Times columnist) Mike Royko
called "an imaginative prank" in a column. In that same column, Royko criticized the paper's food writer who edited the readers column at the time, Olivia Wu, for not following better quality control. The Wall Street Journal then tore into Royko with an article of its own, titled, "Has a a Curmudgeon Turned Into a Bully? Some Now Think So...Picking on a Food Writer." Although the Sun-Times began hiring a free-lancer to edit the space and look for double entendres, another one made it into the same column on July 26, 1995, when the section published a letter from a "Phil McCraken." "This one was a little more subtle," a reporter outside the food department told the Chicago Reader.
In 1998, the Sun-Times demoted longtime TV critic Lon Grahnke, shifting him to covering education. Grahnke, who died in 2006 at age 56 of Alzheimer's disease
, remained with the paper until 2001, when he retired following an extended medical leave.
In 1999, longtime Sun-Times columnist Ray Coffey retired around the age of 70. He died in 2008.
In 2000, longtime investigative reporter Charles Nicodemus retired from the paper at age 69. He died in 2008 at age 77.
In 2001, Sun-Times investigative reporter Chuck Neubauer
quit the paper to join the Los Angeles Times
' Washington bureau. Neubauer and Brown had initiated the investigation into U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski
that uncovered a variety of misdeeds that ultimately had led to Rostenkowski's indictment, conviction and imprisonment.
In April 2001, Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey quit to join the administration of then-Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley
as Daley's deputy mayoral chief of staff, responsible for downtown planning, rewriting the city's zoning code and affordable housing issues.
In April 2001, longtime Sun-Times horse-racing writer Dave Feldman died at age 85 while still on the Sun-Times' payroll.
In 2002, with Kuczmarski & Associates
, the Chicago Sun-Times co-founded the Chicago Innovation Awards
.
In May 2002, Sun-Times editors Joycelyn Winnecke and Bill Adee, who are husband and wife, both quit on the same day to join the rival Chicago Tribune. Winnecke had been the Sun-Times' managing editor, and she left for a new post, associate managing editor for national news, while Adee, who had been the Sun-Times' sports editor for nine years, became the Tribune's sports editor/news.
In April 2003, the Sun-Times picked up the comic strip Beetle Bailey
after the rival Chicago Tribune dropped it in June 2002 and gave up the rights to it in February 2003. The Sun-Times celebrated the arrival of Beetle Bailey with a page-one announcement.
In October 2003, famed Sun-Times gossip columnist Irv Kupcinet
began including the name of his longtime assistant of nearly 34 years, Stella Foster, as the coauthor of his column. After Kupcinet died the following month at age 91, the Sun-Times kept Foster on and gave her the sole byline on the column, which now is known as "Stella's Column."
In 2004, the Sun-Times was censured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations for misrepresenting its circulation figures.
In February 2004, longtime Sun-Times political columnist Steve Neal died at his home in Hinsdale, Illinois
at age 54 of an apparent suicide.
In August 2004, longtime Chicago broadcast journalist Carol Marin
began writing regular columns in the Sun-Times, mostly on political issues.
On September 28, 2005, Sun-Times columnist and editorial board member Neil Steinberg
was arrested in his home in Northbrook, Illinois
and charged with domestic battery and with interfering with the reporting of domestic battery. With that, Steinberg, who had been at the Sun-Times since 1987, entered a treatment facility for alcohol abuse. On November 23, 2005, Cook County prosecutors dropped the charges against Steinberg after his wife said she no longer feared for her safety. On November 28, 2005, Steinberg returned to the Sun-Times' pages after going through a 28-day rehabilitation program at a nearby hospital, and he gave readers his version of the events that led to his arrest: "I got drunk and slapped my wife during an argument." Steinberg also reported that he and his wife were "on the mend," and that he was working toward sobriety.
In the spring of 2006, a variety of longtime Sun-Times writers and columnists took buyouts, including sports columnist Ron Rapoport, sports reporter Joe Goddard, society and gardening columnist Mary Cameron Frey, book editor Henry Kisor, page designer Roy Moody and photographer Bob Black. Classical music critic Wynne Delacoma also took a buyout, and left the paper later.
In August 2006, the Sun-Times fired longtime Chicago Cubs beat writer Mike Kiley. Then-Sun-Times sports editor Stu Courtney told the Tribune that the dismissal of Kiley, who had joined the Sun-Times from the Tribune in 1996, was a "personnel matter I can't comment on." The Tribune's Teddy Greenstein called Kiley "a fierce competitor."
In September 2006, longtime Sun-Times environment reporter Gary Wisby retired as part of the same group of writers who were offered and accepted buyouts in the spring of 2006.
In February 2007, noted Sun-Times columnist Debra Pickett quit upon returning from maternity leave. The reasons for her departure were differences with her editors over where her column appeared and the sorts of assignments being handed to her.
On July 10, 2007, the paper announced: "We [the Chicago Sun-Times editorial page] are returning to our liberal, working-class roots, a position that pits us squarely opposite the Chicago Tribune—that Republican
, George Bush
-touting paper over on moneyed Michigan Avenue
."
In January 2008, the Sun-Times underwent two rounds of layoffs. In its first round, the Sun-Times fired editorial board members Michael Gillis, Michelle Stevens and Lloyd Sachs, along with Sunday editor Marcia Frellick and assistant managing editor Avis Weathersbee.
About two weeks later, the Sun-Times underwent more staff reductions, laying off columnist Esther Cepeda, religion reporter Susan Hogan/Albach, TV critic Doug Elfman and onetime editor Garry Steckles, while giving buyouts to assistant city editors Robert C. Herguth and Nancy Moffett, environmental reporter Jim Ritter, copy editors Chris Whitehead and Bob Mutter, editorial columnist Steve Huntley (who remains with the paper now as a free-lance columnist), and special Barack Obama correspondent Jennifer Hunter. Also taking a buyout was longtime health and technology reporter Howard Wolinsky. Two other staffers, business editor Dan Miller and deputy metro editor Phyllis Gilchrist, resigned. Reporter Kara Spak initially was reported to have been laid off, but she wound up staying with the paper.
In August 2008, high-profile sports columnist Jay Mariotti
resigned from the Sun-Times after concluding that the future of sports journalism was online. Mariotti later joined ESPN
.
In October 2008, the Sun-Times gave buyouts to noted TV/radio writer Robert Feder
(now a blogger with Time Out Chicago) and longtime auto writer Dan Jedlicka. The paper also laid off two members of its editorial board: Teresa Puente and Deborah Douglas.
In November 2008, the Sun-Times dropped its "Quick Takes" column, which Sun-Times columnist Zay N. Smith
had written since 1995. Smith wrote the column from home, and the Sun-Times discontinued the column and informed Smith that it needed him back in the newsroom as a general assignment reporter. The paper's union complained, noting that Smith had permanent physical disabilities that made it difficult for him to be mobile. Smith later left the paper.
In March 2009, sports columnist Greg Couch left the Sun-Times after 12 years to join AOL Sports.
On March 31, 2009, the newspaper filed for bankruptcy protection.
On October 9, 2009 the Sun Times unions agreed to concessions paving the way for Jim Tyree
to buy the newspaper and its 50 suburban newspapers. Of the $25 million purchase price, $5 million was in cash, with the other $20 million to help pay off past debts.
In November 2009, Sun-Times sports editor Stu Courtney quit to join the rival Chicago Tribune's Chicago Breaking Sports website.
In December 2009, the Sun-Times hired sports columnist Rick Morrissey away from the rival Chicago Tribune.
resigned from the paper to join the faculty of Columbia College Chicago
and to begin blogging at Vocalo.org.
In June 2010, the Sun-Times laid off a group of editorial employees, including longtime sports media columnist Jim O'Donnell and features writer Delia O'Hara.
At the end of June 2010, longtime Sun-Times sportswriter Len Ziehm, who covered many sports but largely focused on golf, retired after 41 years at the paper.
In October 2010, the Sun-Times laid off longtime sports columnist Carol Slezak, who by that point had shifted to feature reporting.
Sun-Times Media group chairman James C. Tyree
died under sudden circumstances in March 2011. Jeremy Halbreich, chief executive, said that Tyree’s will be greatly missed and that his death will make no changes in the media company’s strategy.
Also in March 2011, the Sun-Times laid off six editorial reporters and writers: high school sports reporter Steve Tucker, reporter Misha Davenport, general assignment reporter Cheryl Jackson, media and marketing columnist Lewis Lazare, feature writer Celeste Busk and sportswriter John Jackson.
In May 2011, the Sun-Times laid off real estate writer Bill Cunniff, features reporter Jeff Johnson and gaming writer John Grochowski
, along with graphic designer Char Searl.
In June 2011, the Sun-Times fired longtime TV critic Paige Wiser after she admitted to fabricating portions of a review of a Glee Live! In Concert!
performance. She admitted to attending much of the concert but leaving early to tend to her children. The paper eventually tapped longtime travel writer Lori Rackl to replace Wiser as TV critic.
The Sun-Times announced in July 2011 that it would close its printing plant on Ashland Avenue in Chicago—eliminating 400 printing jobs—and would outsource the printing of the newspaper to the rival Chicago Tribune
. The move was estimated to save $10 million a year. The Sun-Times already had been distributed by the Tribune since 2007.
In August 2011, the Sun-Times laid off three more reporters and writers: sportswriter Mike Mulligan, "Quick Hits" sports columnist Elliott Harris and photographer Keith Hale.
In September 2011, the Sun-Times fired longtime restaurant reviewer (and free-lancer) Pat Bruno.
In October 2011, the Sun-Times discontinued the longtime comic strip Drabble, which the paper had run since the strip's inception in 1979. The comic strip was the victim of the paper's reduced page size.
1970: Tom Fitzpatrick, General Reporting
1971: Jack Dykinga, Feature Photography
1973: Ron Powers, Criticism
1974: Art Petacque, Hugh Hough, General Reporting
1975: Roger Ebert
, Criticism
1982: John H. White, Feature Photography
1989: Jack Higgins
, Editorial Cartooning
2011: Frank Main, Mark Konkol and John J. Kim, Local Reporting
Doug Moench
was nominated for a Chicago Newspaper Guild Award in 1972 for his stream-of-consciousness story on violence in the Chicago subway system
. In 1978, the newspaper conducted the Mirage Tavern
investigation, in which undercover reporters operated a bar and caught city officials taking bribes on camera.
In January 2004, after a six-month investigation led by Tim Novak, the paper broke the story of the Hired Truck Program
scandal. After a Sun-Times article by Michael Sneed erroneously identified the perpetrator of the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech massacre
as an unnamed Chinese national, the People's Republic of China
criticized the Chicago Sun-Times for publishing what it called "irresponsible reports." The newspaper later silently withdrew the story without making any apologies or excuses.
critic
Roger Ebert
. Chicago columnist
Mike Royko
, previously of the defunct Chicago Daily News
, came to the paper in 1978 but left for the Chicago Tribune
in 1984 when the Sun-Times was purchased by Rupert Murdoch
's News Corp. Irv Kupcinet
's daily column was a fixture from 1943 until his death in 2003. It was also the home base for many years of advice columnist Ann Landers and the late Washington veteran Robert Novak
for many years.
The newspaper gave a start in journalism to columnist Bob Greene
. Other Sun-Times writers of note include Mary Mitchell, Richard Roeper
, Michael Sneed, Mark Brown, Neil Steinberg
, sportswriter Rick Telander
, theater critic Hedy Weiss, Carol Marin
, Pulitzer Prize
-winning reporters Frank Main
and Mark Konkol
, and technology expert Andy Ihnatko
. Lynn Sweet
is the Washington Bureau Chief.
John Cruickshank became the publisher in 2003 after David Radler
, and on September 19, 2007 announced he was resigning to head the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
's news division.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
daily newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
published in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group
Sun-Times Media Group
Sun-Times Media Group is a Chicago-based newspaper publisher. It is known for its prior association with controversial Canadian businessman Conrad Black.-History:...
.
History
The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city. It began in 1844 as the Chicago Evening Journal (which was the first newspaper to publish the rumor, now believed false, that a cow owned by Catherine O'LearyCatherine O'Leary
Catherine O'Leary was an Irish immigrant living in Chicago, Illinois in the 1870s. She was married to Patrick O'Leary...
was responsible for the Chicago fire
Great Chicago Fire
The Great Chicago Fire was a conflagration that burned from Sunday, October 8, to early Tuesday, October 10, 1871, killing hundreds and destroying about in Chicago, Illinois. Though the fire was one of the largest U.S...
). The Evening Journal, whose West Side building at 17-19 S. Canal was undamaged, gave the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
a temporary home until it could rebuild. In 1929, the newspaper was relaunched as the Chicago Daily Illustrated Times.
The modern paper grew out of the 1948 merger of the Chicago Sun, founded in 1941 by Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III
Marshall Field III was an American investment banker, publisher, racehorse owner/breeder, philanthropist, heir to the Marshall Field department store fortune and a leading financial supporter and founding board member of Saul Alinsky's community organizing network Industrial Areas Foundation.Born...
, and the Chicago Daily Times. The newspaper was owned by Field Enterprises
Field Enterprises
Field Enterprises was a private holding company founded on August 31, 1944, by Marshall Field III and others whose main asset was the Chicago Sun. That same year the company acquired the book publishers Simon & Schuster and Pocket Books....
, controlled by the Marshall Field family, which would acquire the afternoon Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
in 1959 and launch WFLD
WFLD
WFLD, virtual channel 32 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station, based in Chicago, Illinois; through its parent company News Corporation, the station is owned in a duopoly with area MyNetworkTV affiliate WPWR-TV...
television in 1966. When the Daily News ended its run in 1978, much of its staff, including Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko
Mike Royko
Michael "Mike" Royko was a newspaper columnist in Chicago, who won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for commentary...
, were moved to the Sun-Times. During the Field period, the newspaper had a populist, progressive character that leaned Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
but was independent of the city's Democratic establishment. Although the graphic style was urban tabloid, the paper was well regarded for journalistic quality and did not rely on sensational front-page stories. It typically ran articles from the Washington Post/Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
wire service.
The 1970s
In 1975, a new sports editor at the Sun-Times, Lewis GrizzardLewis Grizzard
Lewis McDonald Grizzard, Jr. was an American writer and humorist, known for his Southern demeanor and commentary on the American South...
, spiked some columns written by sportswriter Lacy J. Banks and took away a column Banks had been writing, prompting Banks to tell a friend at the Chicago Defender
Chicago Defender
The Chicago Defender is a Chicago based newspaper founded in 1905 by an African American for primarily African American readers.In just three years from 1919–1922 the Defender also attracted the writing talents of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks....
that Grizzard was a racist. After the friend wrote a story about it, Grizzard fired Banks. With that, the editorial employees union intervened, a federal arbitrator ruled for Banks and 13 months later, he got his job back.
The 1980s
In 1980, the Sun-Times hired syndicated TV columnist Gary Deeb away from the rival Chicago Tribune. Deeb then left the Sun-Times in the spring of 1983 to try his hand at TV. He joined Chicago's WLS-TVWLS-TV
WLS-TV, virtual channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. The station operates their full power digital operations on UHF channel 44, with their digital fill-in translator on VHF channel...
in September 1983.
In July 1981, prominent Sun-Times investigative reporter Pam Zekman
Pam Zekman
Pam Zekman has been an investigative reporter at WBBM-TV in Chicago since 1981. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Zekman spent over a decade as a newspaper reporter before working in television. Zekman is known for her aggressive investigative work, including the purchase of...
, who had been part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team with the Chicago Tribune in 1976, announced she was leaving the Sun-Times to join WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV, virtual channel 2 , is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WBBM-TV's main studios and offices are located in The Loop section of Chicago, as part of the development at Block 37, and its transmitter is atop the Willis Tower.-History:WBBM-TV traces its history...
in Chicago in August 1981 as chief of its new investigative unit. "Salary wasn't a factor," she told the Tribune. "The station showed a commitment to investigative journalism. It was something I wanted to try."
In January 1984, noted Sun-Times business reporter James Warren
James Warren (journalist)
James C. Warren is an American journalist who served as the managing editor for features at the Chicago Tribune until he left the paper in 2008. He previously was the Tribune's Washington bureau chief from 1993 to 2001, and he appeared on CNN's "The Capitol Gang" as part of that job...
quit to join the rival Chicago Tribune. He would go on to become the Tribune's Washington bureau chief and later its managing editor for features.
In 1984, Field sold the paper to Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
's News Corp, and the paper's style changed abruptly toward that of its suitemate New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
. Its front pages tended more to the sensational and its political stance shifted toward the conservative. This was in the era that the traditional Republican bulwark, the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, was softening its positions, ending the city's clear division between the two newspapers' politics. This shift was made all but official when Mike Royko defected to the Tribune.
Roger Ebert later reflected on the incident with much disdain, stating in his blog,
Murdoch sold the paper in 1986 (to buy its former sister television station WFLD
WFLD
WFLD, virtual channel 32 , is the Fox owned-and-operated television station, based in Chicago, Illinois; through its parent company News Corporation, the station is owned in a duopoly with area MyNetworkTV affiliate WPWR-TV...
to launch the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
) for $145 million in cash in a leveraged buyout to an investor group led by the paper's publisher, Robert E. Page, and the New York investment firm Adler & Shaykin.
In 1984, Roger Simon
Roger Simon (journalist)
This article is about the columnist and journalist; not to be confused with the conservative writer Roger L. Simon.Roger Simon is the chief political columnist of Politico, who has won more than three dozen first-place awards for journalism, and is the only person to win twice the American Society...
, who had been a Sun-Times columnist for a decade, quit to join the Baltimore Sun, where he would work until 1995. Simon quit the paper because of Murdoch's purchase of it. Beginning in October 1984, Simon's columns from Baltimore began appearing in the rival Chicago Tribune.
In December 1986, the Sun-Times hired high-profile gossip columnist Michael Sneed away from the rival Chicago Tribune, where she had been co-authoring the Tribune's own "Inc." gossip column with Kathy O'Malley. On December 3, 1986, O'Malley led off the Tribune's "Inc." column with the heading "The Last to Know Dept." and writing, "Dontcha just hate it when you write a gossip column and people think you know all the news about what's going on and your partner gets a new job and your column still has her name on it on the very same day that her new employer announces that she's going to work for him? Yeah, INC. just hates it when that happens."
In February 1987, the popular syndicated advice column Ask Ann Landers
Ask Ann Landers
Ann Landers was a pen name created by Chicago Sun-Times advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Eppie Lederer in 1955. For 56 years, the Ask Ann Landers syndicated advice column was a regular feature in many newspapers across North America...
(commonly known as the "Ann Landers" column and written at that point by Eppie Lederer
Eppie Lederer
Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer , better known by the pseudonym Ann Landers, was an American advice columnist and eventually a nationwide media celebrity who began her career writing the 'Ask Ann Landers' column in 1955, soon after the death of its creator, Ruth Crowley...
) left the Sun-Times after 31 years to jump to the rival Chicago Tribune, effective March 15, 1987. The move sparked a nationwide hunt for a new advice columnist at the Sun-Times. After more than 12,000 responses from people aged 4 to 85, the paper ultimately hired two: Jeffrey Zaslow
Jeffrey Zaslow
Jeffrey Zaslow is an American journalist and a columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He is also the author or coauthor of several bestselling books: The Last Lecture with Randy Pausch, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters with Capt...
, then a 28-year-old Wall Street Journal reporter, and Diane Crowley, a 47-year-old lawyer, teacher and daughter of Ruth Crowley, who had been the original Ann Landers columnist from 1943 until 1955. The Sun-Times fired Crowley in September 1993, and the paper decided not to renew Zaslow's contract in 2001.
By the summer of 1988, Page and Adler & Shaykin managing partner Leonard P. Shaykin had developed a conflict, and in August 1988, Page resigned as publisher and president and sold his interest in the paper to his fellow investors.
The 1990s
In mid-1991, veteran crime reporter Art Petacque, who had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1974, left the paper. Almost 10 years later, Dennis Britton, who had been the paper's editor at the time of Petacque's retirement, told the Chicago Reader that Petacque's departure, which was described at the time as a retirement, was involuntary. "I had problems with some of the ways Art pursued his job," Britton told the Reader.In September 1992, Bill Zwecker joined the Sun-Times as a gossip columnist from the troubled Lerner Newspapers suburban weekly newspaper chain, where had written the VIPeople column.
In September 1992, Sun-Times sports clerk Peter Anding was arrested in the Sun-Times' newsroom and held without bond after confessing to using his position to set up sexual encounters for male high school athletes. Anding was charged with aggravated criminal sexual assault and possession of child pornography. In September 1993, Anding pleaded guilty to arranging and videotaping sexual encounters with several teenage boys and fondling others. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
In 1993, the Sun-Times fired photographer Bob Black without severance for dozens of unauthorized uses of the company's Federal Express account and outside photo lab, going back more than three years and costing the company more than $1,400. In February 1994, however, Black rejoined the paper's payroll after an arbitrator agreed with the paper's union that dismissal was too severe of a penalty. At the same time, the arbitrator declined to award Black back pay.
In 1993, longtime Sun-Times reporter Larry Weintraub retired after 35 years at the paper. Weintraub had been best known for his "Weintraub's World" column, in which he worked a job and wrote about the experience. Weintraub died in 2001 at age 69.
In February 1994, the Adler & Shaykin investor group sold the Sun-Times to Hollinger International for about $180 million. Hollinger was controlled, indirectly, by Canadian-born businessman Conrad Black
Conrad Black
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, OC, KCSG, PC is a Canadian-born member of the British House of Lords, and a historian, columnist and publisher, who was for a time the third largest newspaper magnate in the world. Lord Black controlled Hollinger International, Inc...
. After Black and his associate David Radler
David Radler
F. David Radler is a Canadian executive and close associate of Conrad Black for 36 years. Radler was once president of Ravelston Corporation, a privately owned corporation owned by Black and Radler to control their former newspaper empire. Ravelston owned Argus Corporation which in turn...
were indicted for skimming money from Hollinger International, through retaining noncompete payments from the sale of Hollinger newspapers, they were removed from the board, and Hollinger International was renamed the Sun-Times Media Group
Sun-Times Media Group
Sun-Times Media Group is a Chicago-based newspaper publisher. It is known for its prior association with controversial Canadian businessman Conrad Black.-History:...
.
In 1994, noted reporter M.W. Newman
M.W. Newman
Morton William Newman was a prominent urban affairs reporter for the Chicago Daily News from 1945 until the paper’s end in 1978. Born in 1917 in New York, Newman studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, before working at papers in both the Midwest and East Coast...
retired from the Sun-Times around the age of 77. Newman, who died of lung cancer in 2001, had been with the Sun-Times since the Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
closed in 1978 and had focused his efforts on urban reporting. Among other things, Newman had been known for coining the term "Big John" to describe the John Hancock Center
John Hancock Center
John Hancock Center at 875 North Michigan Avenue in the Streeterville area of Chicago, Illinois, is a 100-story, 1,127-foot tall skyscraper, constructed under the supervision of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with chief designer Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Khan...
and the expression "Fortress Illini" for the concrete structures and plazas at the University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...
.
On March 23, 1995, the Sun-Times announced that beginning April 2, 1995, veteran Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
writer Rick Telander
Rick Telander
Rick Telander is the senior sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Hired in 1995 from Sports Illustrated where he was a Senior Writer, Telander's presence at the newspaper was expected to counter the stable of sports columnists the rival Chicago Tribune had.Telander is a native of Peoria,...
would be joining the paper and writing four columns a week.
On March 24, 1995, the Sun-Times published an editorial by Mark Hornung, then the Sun-Times' editorial page editor, that plagiarized a Washington Post editorial that had appeared in that paper the day before. Hornung attributed the plagiarism to writer's block, deadline pressures and the demands of other duties. He resigned as editorial page editor, but remained with the paper, shifting to its business side and working first as director of distribution and then as vice president of circulation. In 2002, Hornung became president and publisher of Midwest Suburban Publishing, which was a company owned by then-Sun Times parent company Hollinger International. In June 2004, Hollinger International placed Hornung on administrative leave just two weeks after Hollinger revealed that the paper's sales figures had been inflated for several years. Hornung resigned from the company four days later.
On May 17, 1995, the Sun-Times' food section published a bogus letter from a reader named "Olga Fokyercelf" that Chicago Tribune columnist (and former Sun-Times columnist) Mike Royko
Mike Royko
Michael "Mike" Royko was a newspaper columnist in Chicago, who won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for commentary...
called "an imaginative prank" in a column. In that same column, Royko criticized the paper's food writer who edited the readers column at the time, Olivia Wu, for not following better quality control. The Wall Street Journal then tore into Royko with an article of its own, titled, "Has a a Curmudgeon Turned Into a Bully? Some Now Think So...Picking on a Food Writer." Although the Sun-Times began hiring a free-lancer to edit the space and look for double entendres, another one made it into the same column on July 26, 1995, when the section published a letter from a "Phil McCraken." "This one was a little more subtle," a reporter outside the food department told the Chicago Reader.
In 1998, the Sun-Times demoted longtime TV critic Lon Grahnke, shifting him to covering education. Grahnke, who died in 2006 at age 56 of Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
, remained with the paper until 2001, when he retired following an extended medical leave.
In 1999, longtime Sun-Times columnist Ray Coffey retired around the age of 70. He died in 2008.
The 2000s
In 2000, the Sun-Times' new editors, Michael Cooke and John Cruickshank, tapped longtime staff reporter Mark Brown, who had considered himself an investigative reporter, to write a column that would anchor page two of the paper.In 2000, longtime investigative reporter Charles Nicodemus retired from the paper at age 69. He died in 2008 at age 77.
In 2001, Sun-Times investigative reporter Chuck Neubauer
Chuck Neubauer
Chuck Neubauer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He worked at the Los Angeles Times from 2001 to 2008 and joined the Washington Times in 2009...
quit the paper to join the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
' Washington bureau. Neubauer and Brown had initiated the investigation into U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski
Dan Rostenkowski
Daniel David "Dan" Rostenkowski was a United States Representative from Illinois, serving from 1959 to 1995. Raised in a blue-collar neighborhood on the Northwest Side of Chicago, Rostenkowski rose to become one of the most powerful legislators in Washington. He was a member of the Democratic Party...
that uncovered a variety of misdeeds that ultimately had led to Rostenkowski's indictment, conviction and imprisonment.
In April 2001, Sun-Times architecture critic Lee Bey quit to join the administration of then-Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...
as Daley's deputy mayoral chief of staff, responsible for downtown planning, rewriting the city's zoning code and affordable housing issues.
In April 2001, longtime Sun-Times horse-racing writer Dave Feldman died at age 85 while still on the Sun-Times' payroll.
In 2002, with Kuczmarski & Associates
Kuczmarski & Associates
Kuczmarski & Associates is a Chicago based management consulting firm founded in 1983, specializing in innovation. The company focuses on creating innovation strategies, implementing innovation processes, and developing portfolios of new products and services for its clients.In 2002, along with...
, the Chicago Sun-Times co-founded the Chicago Innovation Awards
Chicago Innovation Awards
The Chicago Innovation Awards was created by the Chicago Sun-Times and Kuczmarski & Associates in 2002. Each year the Awards recognize 10 Chicago area businesses, nonprofits, and government organizations that develop the year’s most innovative new products and services.-2010:The 2010 Chicago...
.
In May 2002, Sun-Times editors Joycelyn Winnecke and Bill Adee, who are husband and wife, both quit on the same day to join the rival Chicago Tribune. Winnecke had been the Sun-Times' managing editor, and she left for a new post, associate managing editor for national news, while Adee, who had been the Sun-Times' sports editor for nine years, became the Tribune's sports editor/news.
In April 2003, the Sun-Times picked up the comic strip Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey
Beetle Bailey is an American comic strip set in a fictional United States Army military post, created by cartoonist Mort Walker. It is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator...
after the rival Chicago Tribune dropped it in June 2002 and gave up the rights to it in February 2003. The Sun-Times celebrated the arrival of Beetle Bailey with a page-one announcement.
In October 2003, famed Sun-Times gossip columnist Irv Kupcinet
Irv Kupcinet
Irv Kupcinet was an American newspaper columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and a broadcast personality based in Chicago, Illinois...
began including the name of his longtime assistant of nearly 34 years, Stella Foster, as the coauthor of his column. After Kupcinet died the following month at age 91, the Sun-Times kept Foster on and gave her the sole byline on the column, which now is known as "Stella's Column."
In 2004, the Sun-Times was censured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations for misrepresenting its circulation figures.
In February 2004, longtime Sun-Times political columnist Steve Neal died at his home in Hinsdale, Illinois
Hinsdale, Illinois
Hinsdale is a suburb of Chicago, Illinois; it is located partly in Cook County and mainly in DuPage County in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 17,349 at the 2000 census. The town's ZIP code is 60521. The town has a rolling, wooded topography, with a quaint downtown and is a 30-minute...
at age 54 of an apparent suicide.
In August 2004, longtime Chicago broadcast journalist Carol Marin
Carol Marin
Carol Marin is a television and print journalist based in Chicago, Illinois.She began her career in 1972 at WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee working as a reporter, anchor, and assistant news director....
began writing regular columns in the Sun-Times, mostly on political issues.
On September 28, 2005, Sun-Times columnist and editorial board member Neil Steinberg
Neil Steinberg
Neil Steinberg is an American news columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. He joined the staff in 1987, and his column appears four times a week....
was arrested in his home in Northbrook, Illinois
Northbrook, Illinois
Northbrook is a village located at the northern edge of Cook County, Illinois, which is also a North Shore suburb of Chicago. The population was 33,170 at the 2010 census....
and charged with domestic battery and with interfering with the reporting of domestic battery. With that, Steinberg, who had been at the Sun-Times since 1987, entered a treatment facility for alcohol abuse. On November 23, 2005, Cook County prosecutors dropped the charges against Steinberg after his wife said she no longer feared for her safety. On November 28, 2005, Steinberg returned to the Sun-Times' pages after going through a 28-day rehabilitation program at a nearby hospital, and he gave readers his version of the events that led to his arrest: "I got drunk and slapped my wife during an argument." Steinberg also reported that he and his wife were "on the mend," and that he was working toward sobriety.
In the spring of 2006, a variety of longtime Sun-Times writers and columnists took buyouts, including sports columnist Ron Rapoport, sports reporter Joe Goddard, society and gardening columnist Mary Cameron Frey, book editor Henry Kisor, page designer Roy Moody and photographer Bob Black. Classical music critic Wynne Delacoma also took a buyout, and left the paper later.
In August 2006, the Sun-Times fired longtime Chicago Cubs beat writer Mike Kiley. Then-Sun-Times sports editor Stu Courtney told the Tribune that the dismissal of Kiley, who had joined the Sun-Times from the Tribune in 1996, was a "personnel matter I can't comment on." The Tribune's Teddy Greenstein called Kiley "a fierce competitor."
In September 2006, longtime Sun-Times environment reporter Gary Wisby retired as part of the same group of writers who were offered and accepted buyouts in the spring of 2006.
In February 2007, noted Sun-Times columnist Debra Pickett quit upon returning from maternity leave. The reasons for her departure were differences with her editors over where her column appeared and the sorts of assignments being handed to her.
On July 10, 2007, the paper announced: "We [the Chicago Sun-Times editorial page] are returning to our liberal, working-class roots, a position that pits us squarely opposite the Chicago Tribune—that Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, George Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
-touting paper over on moneyed Michigan Avenue
Michigan Avenue (Chicago)
Michigan Avenue is a major north-south street in Chicago which runs at 100 east south of the Chicago River and at 132 East north of the river from 12628 south to 950 north in the Chicago street address system...
."
In January 2008, the Sun-Times underwent two rounds of layoffs. In its first round, the Sun-Times fired editorial board members Michael Gillis, Michelle Stevens and Lloyd Sachs, along with Sunday editor Marcia Frellick and assistant managing editor Avis Weathersbee.
About two weeks later, the Sun-Times underwent more staff reductions, laying off columnist Esther Cepeda, religion reporter Susan Hogan/Albach, TV critic Doug Elfman and onetime editor Garry Steckles, while giving buyouts to assistant city editors Robert C. Herguth and Nancy Moffett, environmental reporter Jim Ritter, copy editors Chris Whitehead and Bob Mutter, editorial columnist Steve Huntley (who remains with the paper now as a free-lance columnist), and special Barack Obama correspondent Jennifer Hunter. Also taking a buyout was longtime health and technology reporter Howard Wolinsky. Two other staffers, business editor Dan Miller and deputy metro editor Phyllis Gilchrist, resigned. Reporter Kara Spak initially was reported to have been laid off, but she wound up staying with the paper.
In August 2008, high-profile sports columnist Jay Mariotti
Jay Mariotti
Jay Mariotti is a former national columnist for Fanhouse.com and has done work as a panelist on the ESPN show Around the Horn.-Life and career:...
resigned from the Sun-Times after concluding that the future of sports journalism was online. Mariotti later joined ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
.
In October 2008, the Sun-Times gave buyouts to noted TV/radio writer Robert Feder
Robert Feder
Robert Feder is a noted Chicago media blogger who was the TV and radio columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1980 until 2008 and a blogger for Vocalo.org from 2009 until 2010...
(now a blogger with Time Out Chicago) and longtime auto writer Dan Jedlicka. The paper also laid off two members of its editorial board: Teresa Puente and Deborah Douglas.
In November 2008, the Sun-Times dropped its "Quick Takes" column, which Sun-Times columnist Zay N. Smith
Zay N. Smith
Zay N. Smith is a journalist known for his work for the Chicago Sun-Times. From 1995 to 2008, he wrote a popular daily column called QT, which was a mixture of humor and political commentary...
had written since 1995. Smith wrote the column from home, and the Sun-Times discontinued the column and informed Smith that it needed him back in the newsroom as a general assignment reporter. The paper's union complained, noting that Smith had permanent physical disabilities that made it difficult for him to be mobile. Smith later left the paper.
In March 2009, sports columnist Greg Couch left the Sun-Times after 12 years to join AOL Sports.
On March 31, 2009, the newspaper filed for bankruptcy protection.
On October 9, 2009 the Sun Times unions agreed to concessions paving the way for Jim Tyree
James C. Tyree
James C. Tyree was a Chicago financier who was chairman and chief executive officer of Mesirow Financial since 1994. In 2009, he led a team of investors that took control of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, which he owned until his death.- Early life and education :Tyree grew up in the Beverly...
to buy the newspaper and its 50 suburban newspapers. Of the $25 million purchase price, $5 million was in cash, with the other $20 million to help pay off past debts.
In November 2009, Sun-Times sports editor Stu Courtney quit to join the rival Chicago Tribune's Chicago Breaking Sports website.
In December 2009, the Sun-Times hired sports columnist Rick Morrissey away from the rival Chicago Tribune.
The 2010s
In April 2010, longtime Sun-Times pop music critic Jim DeRogatisJim DeRogatis
James "Jim" DeRogatis is an American music critic and co-host of Sound Opinions. DeRogatis has written articles for magazines such as Spin, Guitar World and Modern Drummer, and for fifteen years was the pop music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.He joined Columbia College Chicago as a full-time...
resigned from the paper to join the faculty of Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago
Columbia College Chicago is one of the largest art colleges in the United States with nearly 12,000 students pursuing degrees within 120 undergraduate and graduate programs...
and to begin blogging at Vocalo.org.
In June 2010, the Sun-Times laid off a group of editorial employees, including longtime sports media columnist Jim O'Donnell and features writer Delia O'Hara.
At the end of June 2010, longtime Sun-Times sportswriter Len Ziehm, who covered many sports but largely focused on golf, retired after 41 years at the paper.
In October 2010, the Sun-Times laid off longtime sports columnist Carol Slezak, who by that point had shifted to feature reporting.
Sun-Times Media group chairman James C. Tyree
James C. Tyree
James C. Tyree was a Chicago financier who was chairman and chief executive officer of Mesirow Financial since 1994. In 2009, he led a team of investors that took control of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, which he owned until his death.- Early life and education :Tyree grew up in the Beverly...
died under sudden circumstances in March 2011. Jeremy Halbreich, chief executive, said that Tyree’s will be greatly missed and that his death will make no changes in the media company’s strategy.
Also in March 2011, the Sun-Times laid off six editorial reporters and writers: high school sports reporter Steve Tucker, reporter Misha Davenport, general assignment reporter Cheryl Jackson, media and marketing columnist Lewis Lazare, feature writer Celeste Busk and sportswriter John Jackson.
In May 2011, the Sun-Times laid off real estate writer Bill Cunniff, features reporter Jeff Johnson and gaming writer John Grochowski
John Grochowski
John Grochowski is a gambling columnist and author. His weekly newspaper column began at the Chicago Sun-Times and is now syndicated nationally. He published his first gambling book in 1996 entitled Gaming: Cruising the Casino with a Syndicated Gambling Columnist. He then began a series of...
, along with graphic designer Char Searl.
In June 2011, the Sun-Times fired longtime TV critic Paige Wiser after she admitted to fabricating portions of a review of a Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert!
Glee Live! In Concert! is a concert tour performed in character by members of the cast of the popular television series, Glee. The tour, created by series creator Ryan Murphy was designed due to the overwhelming response to the series. The show reached North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland...
performance. She admitted to attending much of the concert but leaving early to tend to her children. The paper eventually tapped longtime travel writer Lori Rackl to replace Wiser as TV critic.
The Sun-Times announced in July 2011 that it would close its printing plant on Ashland Avenue in Chicago—eliminating 400 printing jobs—and would outsource the printing of the newspaper to the rival Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
. The move was estimated to save $10 million a year. The Sun-Times already had been distributed by the Tribune since 2007.
In August 2011, the Sun-Times laid off three more reporters and writers: sportswriter Mike Mulligan, "Quick Hits" sports columnist Elliott Harris and photographer Keith Hale.
In September 2011, the Sun-Times fired longtime restaurant reviewer (and free-lancer) Pat Bruno.
In October 2011, the Sun-Times discontinued the longtime comic strip Drabble, which the paper had run since the strip's inception in 1979. The comic strip was the victim of the paper's reduced page size.
Awards and notable stories
The paper has won eight Pulitzer Prizes.1970: Tom Fitzpatrick, General Reporting
1971: Jack Dykinga, Feature Photography
1973: Ron Powers, Criticism
1974: Art Petacque, Hugh Hough, General Reporting
1975: Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, Criticism
1982: John H. White, Feature Photography
1989: Jack Higgins
Jack Higgins
Jack Higgins is the principal pseudonym of UK novelist Harry Patterson. Patterson is the author of more than 60 novels. As Higgins, most have been thrillers of various types and, since his breakthrough novel The Eagle Has Landed in 1975, nearly all have been bestsellers...
, Editorial Cartooning
2011: Frank Main, Mark Konkol and John J. Kim, Local Reporting
Doug Moench
Doug Moench
Douglas Moench , better known as Doug Moench, is an American comic book writer notable for his Batman work and as the creator of Black Mask, Moon Knight and Deathlok.-Biography:...
was nominated for a Chicago Newspaper Guild Award in 1972 for his stream-of-consciousness story on violence in the Chicago subway system
Chicago 'L'
The L is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority...
. In 1978, the newspaper conducted the Mirage Tavern
Mirage Tavern
The Mirage Tavern was a drinking establishment at 731 N. Wells St. in Chicago purchased by the Chicago Sun-Times in 1977 to investigate widespread allegations of official corruption and shakedowns visited on small businesses by city officials...
investigation, in which undercover reporters operated a bar and caught city officials taking bribes on camera.
In January 2004, after a six-month investigation led by Tim Novak, the paper broke the story of the Hired Truck Program
Hired Truck Program
The Hired Truck Program was a scandal-plagued program in the city of Chicago that involved hiring private trucks to do city work. It was overhauled in 2004 after an investigation by the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that some participating companies were being paid for doing little or no work, had...
scandal. After a Sun-Times article by Michael Sneed erroneously identified the perpetrator of the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech massacre
Virginia Tech massacre
The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. In two separate attacks, approximately two hours apart, the perpetrator, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people...
as an unnamed Chinese national, the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
criticized the Chicago Sun-Times for publishing what it called "irresponsible reports." The newspaper later silently withdrew the story without making any apologies or excuses.
Staff
The Sun-Times best-known writer is filmFilm
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
. Chicago columnist
Columnist
A columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
Mike Royko
Mike Royko
Michael "Mike" Royko was a newspaper columnist in Chicago, who won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for commentary...
, previously of the defunct Chicago Daily News
Chicago Daily News
The Chicago Daily News was an afternoon daily newspaper published between 1876 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois.-History:The Daily News was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Dougherty in 1875 and began publishing early the next year...
, came to the paper in 1978 but left for the Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
in 1984 when the Sun-Times was purchased by Rupert Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....
's News Corp. Irv Kupcinet
Irv Kupcinet
Irv Kupcinet was an American newspaper columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and a broadcast personality based in Chicago, Illinois...
's daily column was a fixture from 1943 until his death in 2003. It was also the home base for many years of advice columnist Ann Landers and the late Washington veteran Robert Novak
Robert Novak
Robert David Sanders "Bob" Novak was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving for the U.S. Army in the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for...
for many years.
The newspaper gave a start in journalism to columnist Bob Greene
Bob Greene
Robert Bernard Greene, Jr. is an American journalist. He worked for 24 years for the Chicago Tribune newspaper, where he was an award-winning columnist. Greene has written books on subjects varying from Michael Jordan, to small towns, to U.S. presidents. His Hang Time: Days and Dreams with Michael...
. Other Sun-Times writers of note include Mary Mitchell, Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper is an American columnist and film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times and now a co-host on The Roe Conn Show on WLS-AM...
, Michael Sneed, Mark Brown, Neil Steinberg
Neil Steinberg
Neil Steinberg is an American news columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. He joined the staff in 1987, and his column appears four times a week....
, sportswriter Rick Telander
Rick Telander
Rick Telander is the senior sports columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Hired in 1995 from Sports Illustrated where he was a Senior Writer, Telander's presence at the newspaper was expected to counter the stable of sports columnists the rival Chicago Tribune had.Telander is a native of Peoria,...
, theater critic Hedy Weiss, Carol Marin
Carol Marin
Carol Marin is a television and print journalist based in Chicago, Illinois.She began her career in 1972 at WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee working as a reporter, anchor, and assistant news director....
, Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning reporters Frank Main
Frank Main
- Early life :Main was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey on September 8, 1964. He grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, graduating from Bishop Kelley High School in 1982. He then matriculated at Emory University in Georgia...
and Mark Konkol
Mark Konkol
- Early life and education :Konkol was born and raised in Chicago's south suburbs. He graduated in 1991 from Thornwood High School in South Holland, Illinois. He then attended Culver–Stockton College for two years, where he was a starting lineman for the Wildcats football team...
, and technology expert Andy Ihnatko
Andy Ihnatko
Andy Ihnatko is a technology journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and tech author. He currently resides in Massachusetts. He frequently appears on Leo Laporte's podcasts, specifically MacBreak Weekly and TWiT...
. Lynn Sweet
Lynn Sweet
Lynn Sweet is the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times and a columnist for The Hill, a weekly newspaper that covers the U.S...
is the Washington Bureau Chief.
John Cruickshank became the publisher in 2003 after David Radler
David Radler
F. David Radler is a Canadian executive and close associate of Conrad Black for 36 years. Radler was once president of Ravelston Corporation, a privately owned corporation owned by Black and Radler to control their former newspaper empire. Ravelston owned Argus Corporation which in turn...
, and on September 19, 2007 announced he was resigning to head the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
's news division.
External links
- Chicago Sun-Times and Field Enterprises records at the Newberry Library