http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/ ... /170519909

It was only a matter of time, but Chicago is likely to become a 1 paper town (or maybe 2 if Tronc thinks a tabloid is useful for the commuter, but I doubt they do with tables and smart phones)

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

I guess a ton of sportswriters will be gone from this as you don't need 2 beat writers for each team. Adios Laz, no Hawks fan will miss you or your stupid Pearl Jam counter. I guess you're leaving Chicago before Pat Kane is.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

There's gonna be a lot of people out of a job in town. I would be shocked if they keep this a two newspaper city as well. I really thought Shaw was going to end up getting the Sun-Times.

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."

Even if they print 2 papers (as the Sun Times taboid is best suited for commuters) you think they'd just condense the Tribune for that 2nd published paper and not keep 2 staffs of writers

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

They will only keep the best of the best from both papers. They'll use this as a reason to weed out the garden at the Trib filling those slots with the Sun-Times people they want to retain.

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."

Crossing my fingers that instead of 1 mediocre product (Tribune) and 1 awful product (Sun Times) we will end up with 1 passable paper.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Rozner: "Why do you hate newspapers so much?!?"

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."

Maybe Ricketts was pissed off at the Sun-Times' Ronnie Woo Woo story and pulled some strings?

This is just a joke.

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."

https://youtu.be/fqKLpBV6VhY

The Tribune pulled the Red Eye already. Print is beyond dead, and there is no model that supports newspapers like display advertising. It will be interesting to see what tech has done to our brains in a generation.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

I've been out of the newspaper business since 1997. Even back then systematic cutbacks were on the increase and personnel leaving were rarely or never replaced. Thus adding to the workload of surviving employees and increasing stress to the already stressful occupation. I can't imagine how much it has sucked in the last few years. Good luck to these guys who might be displaced.

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."

DoJ is launching an anti-trust review, but I'll bet this one passes through as the argument will be made that Sun Times will die without the purchase (and still may die after it). It's the same reason XM-Sirius was approved, neither operation was profitable until they merged into 1.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

97 was still the boom years. 2000 was the most profitable year ever for newspapers. Needed a 20 percent margin was the beginning of trouble, but the Internet took them out. Think a non-profit model might work best for news anyway.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Pro Publica proves this is a working model.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Ruff, it may have been good times for the larger markets back then but not for the small to medium papers which I was part of. That was the beginning of some bigger things to come.

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"This is Chicago, my friend. Anything can happen."