 | |
 The front page of theChicago Tribune on March 27, 2024 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Tribune Publishing |
| Founder(s) |
|
| Editor-in-chief | Mitch Pugh |
| General manager | Par Ridder |
| Opinion editor | Chris Jones |
| Sports editor | Amanda Kaschube |
| Photo editor | Todd Panagopoulos |
| Founded | June 10, 1847; 177 years ago (1847-06-10) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | Freedom Center (Chicago) |
| Country | United States |
| Circulation | 73,000 Average print circulation[1] |
| ISSN | 1085-6706 (print) 2165-171X (web) |
| OCLC number | 7960243 |
| Website | chicagotribune |
TheChicago Tribune is an American daily newspaper based inChicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper",[2][3] a slogan from which its once integratedWGN radio andWGN television received their call letters. It is the most-read daily newspaper in theChicago metropolitan area and theGreat Lakes region, and thesixth-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States.[4]
In the 1850s, underJoseph Medill, theChicago Tribune became closely associated with the Illinois politicianAbraham Lincoln, and the then newRepublican Party's progressive wing. In the 20th century, under Medill's grandson 'Colonel'Robert R. McCormick, its reputation was that of a crusading newspaper with an outlook that promotedAmerican conservatism and opposed theNew Deal. Its reporting and commentary reached markets outside Chicago through family and corporate relationships at theNew YorkDaily News and theWashington Times-Herald. Through much of the 20th century and into the early 21st, it employed a network of overseas news bureaus and foreign correspondents. In the 1960s, its corporate parent owner,Tribune Company began expanding into new markets buying additional daily papers. In 2008, for the first time in its history, its editorial page endorsed a Democrat,Barack Obama, aU.S. senator from Illinois, for U.S. president.[5]
Originally published solely as abroadsheet, theTribune announced on January 13, 2009 that it would continue publishing as a broadsheet for home delivery, but would publish intabloid format fornewsstand, news box, and commuter station sales.[6] The change, however, proved unpopular with readers; in August 2011, theTribune discontinued the tabloid edition, returning to its established broadsheet format through all distribution channels.[7]
TheTribune was owned by parent companyTribune Publishing. In May 2021, Tribune Publishing was acquired byAlden Global Capital, which operates its media properties throughDigital First Media; since then, the newspaper's coverage has evolved away from national and international news and toward coverage of Illinois and especially Chicago-area news.
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TheTribune was founded byJames Kelly, John E. Wheeler, and Joseph K. C. Forrest, publishing the first edition on June 10, 1847. Numerous changes in ownership and editorship took place over the next eight years. Initially, theTribune was not politically affiliated, but tended to support either theWhig orFree Soil parties against theDemocrats in elections.[8] By late 1853, it was frequently runningeditorials that criticized foreigners andRoman Catholics.[9] About this time, it also became a strong proponent oftemperance.[10] Howevernativist its editorials may have been, it was not until February 10, 1855, that theTribune formally affiliated itself with the nativist American orKnow Nothing party, whose candidateLevi Boone was electedMayor of Chicago the following month.[11]
Around 1854, part-owner Capt. J. D. Webster, later General Webster and chief of staff at theBattle of Shiloh, and Charles H. Ray ofGalena, Illinois, throughHorace Greeley, convincedJoseph Medill ofCleveland'sLeader to become managing editor.[12][13][14] Ray became editor-in-chief, Medill became the managing editor, andAlfred Cowles, Sr., brother ofEdwin Cowles, initially was the bookkeeper. Each purchased one third of theTribune.[15][16] Under their leadership, theTribune distanced itself from the Know Nothings, and became the main Chicago organ of theRepublican Party.[17] However, the paper continued to print anti-Catholic and anti-Irish editorials, in the wake of the massivefamine immigration from Ireland.[18]
TheTribune absorbed three other Chicago publications under the new editors: theFree West in 1855, theDemocratic Press ofWilliam Bross in 1858, and theChicago Democrat in 1861, whose editor,John Wentworth, left his position when elected asMayor of Chicago. Between 1858 and 1860, the paper was known as theChicago Press & Tribune. On October 25, 1860, it became theChicago Daily Tribune.[19] Before and during theAmerican Civil War, the new editors strongly supportedAbraham Lincoln, whom Medill helped secure the presidency in 1860, and pushed anabolitionist agenda.[citation needed] The paper remained a force in Republican politics for years afterwards.[citation needed]
In 1861, theTribune published new lyrics byWilliam W. Patton for the song "John Brown's Body". These rivaledthe lyrics published two months later byJulia Ward Howe. Medill served as mayor of Chicago for one term after theGreat Chicago Fire of 1871.[citation needed]
In the 20th-century, ColonelRobert R. McCormick, who took control in the 1920s, the paper was stronglyisolationist and aligned with theOld Right in its coverage of political news and social trends. It used the motto "The American Paper for Americans". From the 1930s to the 1950s, it excoriated theDemocrats and theNew Deal ofFranklin D. Roosevelt, was resolutely disdainful of the British and French, and greatly enthusiastic forChiang Kai-shek and Sen.Joseph McCarthy.[citation needed]
When McCormick assumed the position of co-editor with his cousinJoseph Medill Patterson in 1910, theTribune was the third-best-selling paper among Chicago's eight dailies, with a circulation of only 188,000.[20] The young cousins added features such as advice columns and homegrown comic strips such asLittle Orphan Annie andMoon Mullins. They promoted political crusades, and their first success came with the ouster of the Republican political boss of Illinois, Sen.William Lorimer.[20] At the same time, theTribune competed with the Hearst paper, theChicago Examiner, in acirculation war. By 1914, the cousins succeeded in forcing out William Keeley, the newspaper's managing editor. By 1918, theExaminer was forced to merge with theChicago Herald.
In 1919, Patterson left theTribune and moved toNew York City to launch his own newspaper, theNew York Daily News.[20] In a renewed circulation war with Hearst'sHerald-Examiner, McCormick and Hearst ran rivallotteries in 1922. TheTribune won the battle, adding 250,000 readers to its ranks. The same year, theChicago Tribune hosted an internationaldesign competition for its new headquarters, theTribune Tower. The competition worked brilliantly as a publicity stunt, and more than 260 entries were received. The winner was aneo-Gothic design by New York architectsJohn Mead Howells andRaymond Hood.[citation needed]
The newspaper sponsored a pioneering attempt atArctic aviation in 1929, an attempted round-trip to Europe acrossGreenland andIceland in aSikorsky amphibious aircraft.[21] But, the aircraft was destroyed by ice on July 15, 1929, nearUngava Bay at the tip ofLabrador, Canada. The crew were rescued by the Canadian science shipCSSAcadia.[22]
TheTribune's reputation for innovation extended to radio; it bought an early station, WDAP, in 1924 and renamed itWGN, the stationcall letters standing for the paper's self-description as the "World's Greatest Newspaper".WGN Television was launched on April 5, 1948. These broadcast stations remainedTribune properties for nine decades and were among the oldest newspaper/broadcasting cross-ownerships in the country. (TheTribune's East Coast sibling, the New YorkDaily News, later establishedWPIX television andFM radio.)
TheTribune's legendary sports editorArch Ward created theMajor League Baseball All-Star Game in 1933 as part of the city'sCentury of Progress exposition.[citation needed]
From 1940 to 1943, the paper supplemented its comic strip offerings withThe Chicago Tribune Comic Book, responding to the new success ofcomic books. At the same time, it launched the more successful and longer-lastingThe Spirit Section, which was also an attempt by newspapers to compete with the new medium.[23]
Under McCormick's stewardship, theTribune was a champion ofmodified spelling for simplicity (such as spelling "although" as "altho").[24][25] McCormick, a vigorous campaigner for the Republican Party, died in 1955, just four days before Democratic bossRichard J. Daley was elected mayor for the first time.
One of the great scoops inTribune history came when it obtained the text of theTreaty of Versailles in June 1919. Another was its revelation of United States war plans on the eve of thePearl Harbor attack. TheTribune's June 7, 1942, front page announcement that the United States had broken Japan's naval code was the revelation by the paper of a closely guarded military secret.[26] The story revealing that Americans broke the enemy naval codes was not cleared by censors, and had U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt so enraged that he considered shutting down theTribune.[27][28][29][30]
The paper is well known for a mistake it made during the1948 presidential election. At that time, much of its composing room staff was on strike. The early returns led editors to believe (along with many in the country) that the Republican candidateThomas Dewey would win. An early edition of the next day's paper carried the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman", turning the paper into a collector's item. DemocratHarry S. Truman won and proudly brandished the newspaper in a famous picture taken atSt. Louis Union Station. Beneath the headline was afalse article, written by Arthur Sears Henning, which purported to describe West Coast results although written before East Coast election returns were available.
In 1969, under the leadership of publisherHarold Grumhaus and editorClayton Kirkpatrick, theTribune began reporting from a wider viewpoint. The paper retained its Republican and conservative perspective in its editorials, but it began to publish perspectives in wider commentary that represented a spectrum of diverse opinions, while its news reporting no longer had the conservative slant it had in the McCormick years.[citation needed]
On May 1, 1974, in a major feat of journalism, theTribune published the complete 246,000-word text of theWatergate tapes, in a 44-page supplement that hit the streets 24 hours after the transcripts' release by theNixonWhite House. Not only was theTribune the first newspaper to publish the transcripts, but it beat the U.S.Government Printing Office's published version, and made headlines doing so.[clarification needed]
A week later, after studying the transcripts, the paper's editorial board observed that "the high dedication to grand principles that Americans have a right to expect from a President is missing from the transcript record." TheTribune's editors concluded that "nobody of sound mind can read [the transcripts] and continue to think that Mr. Nixon has upheld the standards and dignity of the Presidency," and called for Nixon's resignation. TheTribune call for Nixon to resign made news, reflecting not only the change in the type of conservatism practiced by the paper, but as a watershed event in terms of Nixon's hopes for survival in office. The White House reportedly perceived theTribune's editorial as a loss of a longtime supporter and as a blow to Nixon's hopes to weather the scandal.
On December 7, 1975, Kirkpatrick announced in a column on the editorial page thatRick Soll, a "young and talented columnist" for the paper, whose work had "won a following among manyTribune readers over the last two years", had resigned from the paper. He had acknowledged that one column he wrote, dating to November 23, 1975, contained verbatim passages written by another columnist in 1967 and later published in a collection. Kirkpatrick did not identify the columnist. The passages in question, Kirkpatrick wrote, were from a notebook where Soll regularly entered words, phrases and bits of conversation which he had wished to remember. The paper initially suspended Soll for a month without pay. Kirkpatrick wrote that further evidence was revealed came out that another of Soll's columns contained information which he knew was false. At that point,Tribune editors decided to accept the resignation offered by Soll when the internal investigation began.[31]
After leaving, Soll marriedPam Zekman, a Chicago newspaper (and future TV) reporter.He worked for the short-lived[32][33]Chicago Times magazine,[34] by Small Newspaper Group Inc. ofKankakee, Illinois,[35] in the late 1980s.Soll was born in 1946, in Chicago, to Marjorie and Jules Soll. Soll graduated fromNew Trier High School, received a Bachelor of Arts in 1968 fromColgate University, and a master's degree fromMedill School of Journalism,Northwestern University in 1970.[36][37]
In January 1977,Tribune columnist Will Leonard died at age 64.[38] In March 1978, theTribune announced that it hired columnistBob Greene from theChicago Sun-Times.[39]
Kirkpatrick stepped down as editor in 1979 and was succeeded byMaxwell McCrohon, who served as editor until 1981. He was transitioned to a corporate position. McCrohon held the corporate position until 1983, when he left to become editor-in-chief of theUnited Press International.James Squires served as the paper's editor from July 1981 until December 1989.
Jack Fuller served as theTribune's editor from 1989 until 1993, when he became the president and chief executive officer of theChicago Tribune.Howard Tyner served as theTribune's editor from 1993 until 2001, when he was promoted to vice president/editorial for Tribune Publishing.
TheTribune won 11 Pulitzer prizes during the 1980s and 1990s.[40] Editorial cartoonistDick Locher won the award in 1983, and editorial cartoonistJeff MacNelly won one in 1985. Then, future editorJack Fuller won a Pulitzer for editorial writing in 1986. In 1987, reporters Jeff Lyon and Peter Gorner won a Pulitzer for explanatory reporting, and in 1988,Dean Baquet, William Gaines andAnn Marie Lipinski won a Pulitzer for investigative reporting. In 1989,Lois Wille won a Pulitzer for editorial writing andClarence Page snagged the award for commentary. In 1994,Ron Kotulak won a Pulitzer for explanatory journalism, whileR. Bruce Dold won it for editorial writing. In 1998, reporterPaul Salopek won a Pulitzer for explanatory writing, and in 1999, architecture criticBlair Kamin won it for criticism.[40]
In September 1981, baseball writerJerome Holtzman was hired by theTribune after a 38-year career at theSun-Times.
In September 1982, theChicago Tribune opened a new $180 million printing facility,Freedom Center.[41]
In November 1982,Tribune managing editor William H. "Bill" Jones, who had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1971, died at age 43 of cardiac arrest as a result of complications from a long battle withleukemia.[42]
In May 1983,Tribune columnist Aaron Gold died at age 45 of complications fromleukemia.[43] Gold had coauthored the Tribune's "Inc." column withMichael Sneed and prior to that had written the paper's "Tower Ticker" column.
TheTribune scored a coup in 1984 when it hired popular columnistMike Royko away from the rivalSun-Times.[44]
In 1986, theTribune announced that film criticGene Siskel, theTribune's best-known writer, was no longer the paper's film critic, and that his position with the paper had shifted from being that of a full-time film critic to that of a freelance contract writer who was to write about the film industry for the Sunday paper and also provide capsule film reviews for the paper's entertainment sections.[45]
The demotion occurred after Siskel and longtime Chicago film critic colleagueRoger Ebert decided to shift the production of their weekly movie review show, then known asAt the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert and later known asSiskel & Ebert & The Movies fromTribune Entertainment toThe Walt Disney Company'sBuena Vista Television unit. "He has done a great job for us," editor James Squires said at the time. "It's a question of how much a person can do physically. We think you need to be a newspaper person first, and Gene Siskel has always tried to do that. But there comes a point when a career is so big that you can't do that." Siskel declined to comment on the new arrangement, but Ebert publicly criticized Siskel'sTribune bosses for punishing Siskel for taking their television program to a company other than Tribune Entertainment.[46] Siskel remained in that freelance position until he died in 1999. He was replaced as film critic byDave Kehr.[47]
In February 1988, Tribune foreign correspondent Jonathan Broder resigned after publishing his article from February 22 that contained a number of sentences and phrases taken, without attribution, from a column written by another writer, Joel Greenberg, that had been published 10 days earlier inThe Jerusalem Post.[48][49]
In August 1988,Chicago Tribune reporter Michael Coakley died at age 41 of complications fromAIDS.[50]
In November 1992,Tribune associate subject editor Searle "Ed" Hawley was arrested by Chicago police and charged with seven counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse for allegedly having sex with three juveniles in his home inEvanston, Illinois.[51] Hawley formally resigned from the paper in early 1993, and pleaded guilty in April 1993. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison.[52]
In October 1993, theTribune fired its longtime military affairs writer, retired Marine David Evans, saying publicly that the position was being replaced by a national security writer.[53]
In December 1993, theTribune's longtimeWashington, D.C. bureau chief,Nicholas Horrock, was fired after he chose not to attend a meeting that editorHoward Tyner requested of him in Chicago.[54] Horrock, who shortly thereafter left the paper, was replaced byJames Warren, who attracted new attention to theTribune's D.C. bureau through his continued attacks on celebrity broadcast journalists in Washington.
In December 1993, theTribune hiredMargaret Holt from theSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel as its assistant managing editor for sports, making her the first female to head a sports department at any of the nation's 10 largest newspapers.[55] In mid-1995, Holt was replaced as sports editor by Tim Franklin and shifted to a newly created job, customer service editor.[56]
In 1994, reporterBrenda You was fired by theTribune after free-lancing for supermarket tabloid newspapers and lending them photographs from theTribune's photo library.[39] She later worked for theNational Enquirer and as a producer forThe Jerry Springer Show before committing suicide in November 2005.[57]
In April 1994, theTribune's new television critic,Ken Parish Perkins, wrote an article about then-WFLD morning news anchorBob Sirott in which Perkins quoted Sirott as making a statement that Sirott later denied making. Sirott criticized Perkins on the air, and theTribune later printed a correction acknowledging that Sirott had never made that statement.[58] Eight months later, Perkins stepped down as TV critic, and he left the paper shortly thereafter.[59]
In December 1995, the alternative newsweeklyNewcity published a first-person article by the pseudonymous Clara Hamon (a name mentioned in the playThe Front Page) but quickly identified byTribune reporters as that of formerTribune reporter Mary Hill that heavily criticized the paper's one-year residency program. The program brought young journalists in and out of the paper for one-year stints, seldom resulting in a full-time job. Hill, who wrote for the paper from 1992 until 1993, acknowledged to theChicago Reader that she had written the diatribe originally for the Internet, and that the piece eventually was edited forNewcity.[60]
In 1997, theTribune celebrated its 150th anniversary in part by tapping longtime reporterStevenson Swanson to edit the bookChicago Days: 150 Defining Moments in the Life of a Great City.
On April 29, 1997, popular columnistMike Royko died of abrain aneurysm. On September 2, 1997, theTribune promoted longtime City Hall reporterJohn Kass to take Royko's place as the paper's principal Page Two news columnist.[61]
On June 1, 1997, theTribune published what ended up becoming a very popular column byMary Schmich called "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young", otherwise known as "Wear Sunscreen" or the "Sunscreen Speech". The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, accredited toBaz Luhrmann.
In 1998, reporter Jerry Thomas was fired by theTribune after he wrote a cover article on boxing promoterDon King forEmerge magazine at the same time that he was writing a cover article on King for theChicago Tribune Sunday magazine. The paper decided to fire Thomas—and suspend his photographer on theEmerge story, Pulitzer Prize-winningTribune photographerOvie Carter for a month—because Thomas did not tell theTribune about his outside work and also because theEmerge story wound up appearing in print first.[62]
On June 6, 1999, theTribune published a first-person travel article from freelance writer Gaby Plattner that described a supposed incident in which a pilot forAir Zimbabwe who was flying without a copilot inadvertently locked himself out of his cockpit while the plane was flying onautopilot and as a result needed to use a large ax to chop a hole in the cockpit door.[63] An airline representative wrote a lengthy letter to the paper calling the account "totally untrue, unprofessional and damaging to our airline" and explaining that Air Zimbabwe does not keep axes on its aircraft and never flies without a full crew,[64] and the paper was forced to print a correction stating that Plattner "now says that she passed along a story she had heard as something she had experienced."[63]
TheTribune has been a leader on the Internet, acquiring 10 percent ofAmerica Online in the early 1990s, then launching such web sites as Chicagotribune.com (1995),Metromix.com (1996),ChicagoSports.com (1999),ChicagoBreakingNews.com (2008), andChicagoNow (2009). In 2002, the paper launched a tabloid edition targeted at 18- to 34-year-olds known asRedEye.
Ann Marie Lipinski was the paper's editor from February 2001 until stepping down on July 17, 2008.Gerould W. Kern was named the paper's editor in July 2008.[65] In early August 2008, managing editor for newsHanke Gratteau resigned, and several weeks later, managing editor for featuresJames Warren resigned as well.[66] Both were replaced byJane Hirt, who previously had been the editor of theTribune'sRedEye tabloid.[66]
In June 2000, Times Mirror merged with Tribune Company makingThe Baltimore Sun and its community papers Baltimore Sun Media Group / Patuxent Publishing a subsidiary of Tribune.[67][68]
In July 2000, Tribune outdoors columnist John Husar, who had written about his need for a new liver transplant, died at age 63, just over a week after receiving part of a new liver from a live donor.[69]
Tribune's Baltimore Community papers includeArbutus Times,Baltimore Messenger,Catonsville Times,Columbia Flier,Howard County Times,The Jeffersonian,Laurel Leader,Lifetimes,North County News,Northeast Booster,Northeast Reporter,Owings Mills Times, andTowson Times.
TheHoward County Times was named 2010 Newspaper of the Year by the Suburban Newspaper Association.[70]
TheTowson Times expands coverage beyond the Towson area and includes Baltimore County government and politics.[71][72]
TheTribune won five Pulitzer prizes in the first decade of the 21st century.[40] Salopek won his second Pulitzer for theTribune in 2001 for international reporting, and that same year an explanatory reporting team—lead writers of which wereLouise Kiernan,Jon Hilkevitch,Laurie Cohen,Robert Manor, Andrew Martin,John Schmeltzer, Alex Rodriguez andAndrew Zajac—won the honor for a profile of the chaotic U.S. air traffic system.[40][73] In 2003, editorial writerCornelia Grumman snagged the award for editorial writing.[40] In 2005,Julia Keller won a Pulitzer for feature reporting on a tornado that struckUtica, Illinois.[40] And, in 2008, an investigative reporting team includingPatricia Callahan,Maurice Possley,Sam Roe, Ted Gregory,Michael Oneal,Evan Osnos and photojournalistScott Strazzante won the Pulitzer for its series about faulty government regulation of defective toys, cribs and car seats.[40][74]
In late 2001, sports columnistMichael Holley announced he was leaving theTribune after just two months because he was homesick.[75] He ultimately returned toThe Boston Globe, where he had been working immediately before theTribune had hired him.[75]
On September 15, 2002, Lipinski wrote a terse, page-one note informing readers that the paper's longtime columnist,Bob Greene, resigned effective immediately after acknowledging "engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct some years ago with a girl in her late teens whom he met in connection with his newspaper column." The conduct later was revealed to have occurred in 1988 with a woman who was of the age of consent in Illinois. "Greene's behavior was a serious violation ofTribune ethics and standards for its journalists," Lipinski wrote. "We deeply regret the conduct, its effect on the young woman and the impact this disclosure has on the trust our readers placed in Greene and this newspaper."[76][77]
In January 2003,Mike Downey, formerly of theLos Angeles Times, was hired as newTribune sports columnist. He and colleague Rick Morrissey would write theIn the Wake of the News Column originated byRing Lardner.
In March 2004, theTribune announced that freelance reporterUli Schmetzer, who retired from theTribune in 2002 after 16 years as a foreign correspondent, had fabricated the name and occupation of a person he had quoted in a story. The paper terminated Schmetzer as a contract reporter and began a review of the 300 stories that Schmetzer had written over the prior three years.[78]
In May 2004, theTribune revealed that freelance reporterMark Falanga was unable to verify some facts that he inserted in a lifestyle-related column that ran on April 18, 2004, about an expensive lunch at a Chicago restaurant—namely, that the restaurant charged $15 for a bottle of water and $35 for a pasta entree. "Upon questioning, the freelance writer indicated the column was based on an amalgam of three restaurants and could not verify the prices," the paper noted.[79][80] After the correction, theTribune stopped using Falanga.
In October 2004,Tribune editorAnn Marie Lipinski at the last minute spiked a story written for the paper's WomanNews section by freelance reporterLisa Bertagnoli titled "You c_nt say that (or can you?)," about a notedvulgarism.[81] The paper ordered every spare body to go to theTribune's printing plant to pull already-printed WomanNews sections containing the story from the October 27 package of preprinted sections in theTribune.[81]
In September 2008, theTribune considered hiring controversial sports columnistJay Mariotti, shortly after his abrupt resignation fromTribune archrivalChicago Sun-Times.[82] Discussions ultimately ended, however, after theSun-Times threatened to sue for violating Mariotti's noncompete agreement, which was to run until August 2009.[82] Sports columnist Rick Morrissey defected to theSun-Times in December 2009.
In April 2009, 55 Tribune reporters and editors signed their names to an e-mail sent to Kern and managing editor Jane Hirt, questioning why the newspaper's marketing department had solicited subscribers' opinions on stories before they were published, and suggesting that the practice raised ethical questions as well as legal and competitive issues. Reporters declined to speak on the record to the Associated Press about their issues. "We'll let the e-mail speak for itself," reporter John Chase told the AP. In the wake of the controversy, Kern abruptly discontinued the effort, which he described as "a brief market research project".[83]
In the first decade of the 21st century, theTribune had multiple rounds of reductions of staff through layoffs and buyouts as it has coped with the industrywide declines in advertising revenues:
TheTribune broke the story on May 29, 2009, that several students had been admitted to the University of Illinois based upon connections or recommendations by the school's Board of Trustees, Chicago politicians, and members of theRod Blagojevich administration. Initially denying the existence of a so-called "Category I" admissions program, university President B. Joseph "Joe" White and Chancellor Richard Herman later admitted that there were instances of preferential treatment. Although they claimed the list was short and their role was minor, theTribune, in particular, revealed emails through a FOIA finding that White had received a recommendation for a relative of convicted fundraiserTony Rezko to be admitted. The Tribune also later posted emails from Herman pushing for underqualified students to be accepted.[98][99] TheTribune has since filed suit against the university administration under theFreedom of Information Act to acquire the names of students benefited by administrative clout and impropriety.
On February 8, 2010, theChicago Tribune shrank its newspaper's width by an inch. They said that the new format was becoming the industry standard and that there would be minimal content changes.
In July 2011, theChicago Tribune underwent its first round of layoffs of editorial employees in more than two years, letting go about 20 editors and reporters.[100] Among those let go were DuPage County reporterArt Barnum, Editorial Board memberPat Widder and photographerDave Pierini.[100][101]
On March 15, 2012, theTribune laid off 15 editorial staffers, including security guardWendell Smothers (Smothers then died on November 12, 2012).[102][103] At the same time, the paper gave buyouts to six editorial staffers, including Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter William Mullen, Barbara Mahany and Nancy Reese.[104]
In June 2012, theTribune's Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural criticJulia Keller left the paper to join the faculty ofOhio University and to pursue a career as a novelist.[105]
In September 2012,Tribune education reporter Joel Hood resigned from the paper to become a real estate broker, City Hall reporter Kristen Mack left the paper to become press secretary for Cook County Board PresidentToni Preckwinkle,[106] and theTribune hired Pulitzer Prize-winning photographerJohn J. Kim from theChicago Sun-Times.[107]
In October 2012, theTribune's science and medicine reporter, Trine Tsouderos, quit to join a public relations firm.[108]
Also in October 2012, theTribune announced plans to create a paywall for its website, offering digital-only subscriptions at $14.99 per month, starting on November 1, 2012. Seven-day print subscribers would continue to have unlimited online access at no additional charge.[109]
In February 2013, theTribune agreed to pay a total of $660,000 to settle a class-action lawsuit that had been filed against the paper by 46 current and former reporters of its TribLocal local-news reporting group over unpaid overtime wages.[110] The suit had been filed in federal court on behalf of Carolyn Rusin, who had been a TribLocal staff reporter from July 2010 until October 2011.[110] The paper's TribLocal unit had been formed in 2007 and uses staff reporters, freelance writers and user-generated content to produce hyperlocal Chicago-area community news.[110]
On June 12, 2013, theBoston Marathon bombing tribute was posted again, which showed the words "We are Chicago" above the names of Boston sports teams.[111] On the graphic on June 12, the word "Bruins" was ripped off and the comment was added, "Yeah, not right now we're not", in a reference to the2013 Stanley Cup Finals, which play theChicago Blackhawks against theBoston Bruins.[111] Gerould Kern tweeted later that theTribune "still supports [Boston] after all you've been through. We regret any offense. Now let's play hockey."[111]
On November 20, 2013, theTribune laid off another 12 or so editorial staffers.[112]
On April 6, 2014, theTribune increased thenewsstand price of its Sunday/Thanksgiving Day paper by 50 percent to $2.99 for a single copy. The newsrack price increased $0.75, or 42.9%, to $2.50.[113] By January 2017 the price increased again, up $1 or 40% at newsracks, to $3.50. At newsstands it went up also $1, or 33.3%, to $3.99.
On January 28, 2015, metropolitan editor Peter Kendall was named managing editor, replacing Jane Hirt, who had resigned several months earlier. Colin McMahon was named associate editor.[114]
On February 18, 2016, the Tribune announced the retirement of editor Gerould Kern and the immediate promotion of the paper's editorial page editor, R. Bruce Dold, to be the Tribune's editor.[48]
On June 9, 2018, the Tribune ended their 93-year stint at Tribune Tower and moved toOne Prudential Plaza. The tower was later converted to condos.[115]
On February 27, 2020, theTribune announced that publisher and editor Bruce Dold will leave theTribune on April 30, 2020, and would step down immediately as editor in chief. His replacement as editor was Colin McMahon. Also, the paper announced that one of the two managing editors of the paper, Peter Kendall, would leave theTribune on February 28, 2020.[116]
In January 2021, theChicago Tribune moved out ofOne Prudential Plaza, and relocated their offices and newsroom to Freedom Center.[117]
In May 2021, the paper was purchased by Alden Global Capital.[118] Alden immediately launched a round of employee buyouts, reducing the newsroom staff by 25 percent, and the cuts continued. A former reporter said the paper is being "snuffed out, quarter after quarter after quarter".[119] A report inThe Atlantic said that Alden's business model is simple: "Gut the staff, sell the real estate, jack up subscription prices, and wring as much cash as possible out of the enterprise until eventually enough readers cancel their subscriptions that the paper folds, or is reduced to a desiccated husk of its former self."[119]
Mitch Pugh was named theTribune's executive editor on August 20, 2021, after eight years in the same role atThe Post and Courier inCharleston, South Carolina.[120]
In a 2007 statement of principles published in theTribune's print and online editions, the paper's editorial board described the newspaper's philosophy, from which is excerpted the following:
TheChicago Tribune believes in the traditional principles of limited government; maximum individual responsibility; minimum restriction of personal liberty, opportunity and enterprise. It believes in free markets, free will and freedom of expression. These principles, while traditionally conservative, are guidelines and not reflexive dogmas.
TheTribune brings a Midwestern sensibility to public debate. It is suspicious of untested ideas.
TheTribune places great emphasis on the integrity of government and the private institutions that play a significant role in society. The newspaper does this in the belief that the people cannot consent to be governed unless they have knowledge of, and faith in, the leaders and operations of government. TheTribune embraces the diversity of people and perspectives in its community. It is dedicated to the future of the Chicago region.
TheTribune has remained economically conservative, being widely skeptical of increasing the minimum wage andentitlement spending. It criticized the George W. Bush administration's record on civil liberties, the environment, and many aspects of its foreign policy, it continued to support his presidency while taking Democrats, such as Illinois GovernorRod Blagojevich andCook County Board PresidentTodd Stroger, to task and calling for their removal from office.
In 2018, theChicago Tribune andLos Angeles Times withdrew their websites fromEuropean Union nations to avoid the purview of theGeneral Data Protection Regulation.[121]
In 2004, theTribune endorsed PresidentGeorge W. Bush for reelection, a decision consistent with its longstanding support for theRepublican Party. In 2008, it endorsed Democratic candidate and Illinois junior U.S. SenatorBarack Obama—the first time that it had ever endorsed a Democrat for president.[122] TheTribune endorsed Obama once again for reelection in 2012,[123] and in 2020 would endorse another Democrat,Joe Biden, who had served as vice president under Obama.[124]
TheTribune has occasionally backed candidates of other parties for president. In 1872, it supportedHorace Greeley, a former Republican Party newspaper editor,[125] and in 1912 the paper endorsedTheodore Roosevelt, who ran on theProgressive Party slate against Republican PresidentWilliam Howard Taft. In 2016, the Tribune endorsed theLibertarian Party candidate, former New Mexico GovernorGary Johnson, for president, over RepublicanDonald Trump and DemocratHillary Clinton.[126]
Even when it uniformly backed Republicans for president, theTribune endorsed some Democrats for lesser offices, including endorsements ofBill Foster, Barack Obama for theSenate and DemocratMelissa Bean, who defeatedPhilip Crane, theHouse of Representatives' longest-serving Republican. Although theTribune endorsedGeorge Ryan in the 1998 Illinois gubernatorial race, the paper subsequently investigated and reported on the scandals surrounding Ryan during his preceding years as Secretary of State. Ryan declined to run for re-election in 2002 and was subsequently indicted, convicted and imprisoned as a result of the scandal.
TheChicago Tribune was the founding business unit ofTribune Company (since renamedTribune Media), which included many newspapers and television stations around the country. In Chicago, Tribune Media owned theWGN radio station (720 AM) andWGN-TV (Channel 9). Tribune Company also owned theLos Angeles Times—which displaced the Tribune as the company's largest property—and theChicago Cubsbaseball team. The Cubs were sold in 2009;the newspapers spun off in 2014 as Tribune Publishing.
Tribune Company owned the New YorkDaily News from its 1919 founding until its 1991 sale to British newspaper magnateRobert Maxwell. The founder of theNews — Capt.Joseph Medill Patterson — was a grandson of Joseph Medill and a cousin ofTribune editor Robert McCormick. Both Patterson and McCormick were enthusiasts ofsimplified spelling, another hallmark of their papers for many years. In 2008, the Tribune Company sold the Long Island newspaperNewsday—founded in 1940 by Patterson's daughter (and Medill's great-granddaughter),Alicia Patterson—to Long Island cable TV companyCablevision.
From 1925 to 2018, the Chicago Tribune was housed in theTribune Tower on NorthMichigan Avenue on theMagnificent Mile. The building isneo-Gothic in style, and the design was the winner of an international competition hosted by the Tribune. The Chicago Tribune moved in June 2018 to the Prudential Plaza office complex overlooking Millennium Park after Tribune Media sold Tribune Tower to developers.
Colonel McCormick prevented theTribune for years from participating in thePulitzer Prize competition. But it has won 28[127] of the awards over the years, including many foreditorial writing.[40][128][129]
TheTribune won its first post-McCormick Pulitzer in 1961, whenCarey Orr won the award for editorial cartooning. ReporterGeorge Bliss won a Pulitzer the following year for reporting, and reporterBill Jones another in 1971 for reporting.[40] A reporting team won the award in 1973, followed by reporterWilliam Mullen and photographerOvie Carter, who won a Pulitzer for international reporting in 1975. A local reporting team won the award in 1976, and architecture criticPaul Gapp won a Pulitzer in 1979.[40] In 2022, Cecilia Reyes,Chicago Tribune, and Madison Hopkins, Better Government Association, won a Pulitzer Prize in local reporting for a piercing examination of the city's long history of failed building- and fire-safety code enforcement, which let scofflaw landlords commit serious violations that resulted in dozens of unnecessary deaths.[130]
The September 2008 redesign (discussed on theTribune's web site[132]) was controversial and is largely regarded as an effort in cost-cutting.[133] Since then the newspaper has returned to a more toned down style. The style is more a mix of the old style and a new modern style.
In December 2007, the Tribune Company was bought out by Chicago real estate magnateSam Zell in an $8.2 billion deal. Zell was the company's new chairman.[134] A year after going private, following a $124 million third-quarter loss, the Tribune Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on December 8, 2008. The company made its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, citing a debt of $13 billion and assets of $7.6 billion.[135]
Sam Zell originally planned to turn the company into a private company through the creation of anESOP (employee stock ownership plan) within the company, but due to poor management that existed prior to his ownership, this did not work out as well as he intended.[136]
As part of its bankruptcy plan, owner Sam Zell intended to sell the Cubs to reduce debt. This sale has become linked to the corruption charges leading to the arrest of former Illinois GovernorRod Blagojevich on December 9, 2008. Specifically, Blagojevich was accused of exploiting the paper's financial trouble in an effort to have several editors fired.[137]
In the bankruptcy, unsecured bondholders of Tribune Co. essentially claimed that ordinary Tribune shareholders participated in a "fraudulent transfer" of wealth.[138]
The law firm Brown Rudnick, representing the Aurelius group of junior creditors, filed fraudulent transfer claims and fraud claims against 33,000 to 35,000 stockholders who bought Tribune stock.[139] Prolonged due to these claims against former officers, directors, and every former stockholder of the Chicago Tribune Company,[139][140] the Tribune's bankruptcy-related legal and professional fees of $500 million were more than twice the usual amount for that size of company.[141]
The Tribune Co. emerged from bankruptcy in January 2013, partially owned by private equity firms which had speculated on its distressed debt. The reorganized company's plan included selling off many of its assets.[141]
Tribune Publishing, owning theChicago Tribune,Los Angeles Times, and eight other newspapers, was spun off as a separate publicly traded company in August 2014. The parent Tribune Company was renamedTribune Media.[142] Tribune Publishing started life with a $350 million loan, $275 million of which was paid as a dividend to Tribune Media. The publishing company was also due to lease its office space from Tribune Media for $30 million per year through 2017.[142][143]
Spinning off Tribune Publishing avoided the capital gains taxes that would accrue from selling those assets. The shares in Tribune Publishing were given tax-free to stakeholders in Tribune Media, the largest shareholder was Oaktree Capital Management with 18.5%.[143] Tribune Media, retaining the non-newspaper broadcasting, entertainment, real estate, and other investments, also sold off some of the non-newspaper properties.[142]
On February 7, 2018, Tribune Publishing Company agreed to sell theLos Angeles Times to billionaire biotech investor Patrick Soon-Shiong. The purchase, made through Soon-Shiong's Nant Capital investment fund, was valued at $500 million, along with the assumption of $90 million in pension liabilities. The deal, which also included theSan Diego Union-Tribune and other assets, was finalized on June 16, 2018.[144]
The Lyondell suit alleges that the shareholders participated in a "fraudulent transfer" of wealth from the company and its creditors by knowingly burdening it with debt it couldn't handle, pushing it into bankruptcy less than a year after the close of the buyout... Unsecured bondholders of Tribune Co., the media conglomerate still in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, are making essentially the same claim in their high-profile case.
