Time Out Chicago’s print edition runs out of time
Robservations on the media beat:
- What began last fall as an effort by Sun-Times Media to buy Time Out Chicago ended this week with a deal to sell the magazine and website back to the Time Out mother ship. Joe Mansueto, who owns 95 percent of Time Out Chicago Partners, was approached with an unsolicited offer by Sun-Times Media parent company Wrapports LLC, a few months after it acquired the Chicago Reader. (Mansueto, founder and CEO of Morningstar, Inc., also is an investor in Wrapports.) That bid, in turn, triggered talks between Mansueto and Oakley Capital Investments Limited, the London-based private equity fund that controls Time Out North America. Oakley had a right to match offers for Time Out Chicago, according to the agreement that transferred majority ownership of the Chicago operation to Mansueto in 2009. Although no one has officially confirmed the reported $4 million deal, staffers were told Tuesday that the new owners will cease publication of the 55,000-circulation weekly print edition next month and continue only the digital version of Time Out Chicago. Most of the 60 people who work here will lose their jobs, I’m told.
Stop the presses: Sun-Times overdue on payments to Tribune
Robservations on the media beat:
- No one’s supposed to know it, but the parent companies of the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times are on a collision course over unpaid bills. At issue are the $70 million-a-year contracts for Tribune Co. to print and distribute the Sun-Times and its suburban daily newspapers. (The distribution deal began in 2007, and the printing deal began in 2011.) Just as Tribune Co. was emerging from bankruptcy at the end of December, Sun-Times owner Wrapports LLC paid only a fraction of what it owed, according to sources at both companies. Since then, nothing. Some see it as a sign of financial trouble at Wrapports, where advertising revenues have fallen far short of projections. Others see it as a strategic move to force a renegotiation of the agreement or as a precursor to a bid for the Tribune. Fearing that Tribune Co. could simply pull the plug, Wrapports has begun searching for alternate printing facilities. (Just a bluff? Who knows?) On the other hand, Wrapports chairman Michael Ferro appears to be gambling that the Tribune won’t put its No. 1 client out of business while it’s trying to attract a potential buyer. In the end, it all may wind up in court — if not on the front pages of both papers.
Chicago was prime training ground for MSNBC's Hayes
Robservations on the media beat:
- For Chris Hayes, the road to prime-time stardom began at a free weekly in Chicago. Before he became a political commentator, editor at large of The Nation and weekend host of Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, he was a free-lance writer for the Chicago Reader and was a labor reporter for the Chicago-based In These Times. Last week, Hayes, 34, was named the youngest host ever of a prime-time show on a major cable network. Starting April 1, he’ll anchor the 7pm hour Monday through Friday on MSNBC, bumping Ed Schultz to weekends. "Chicago is the place I learned to be a journalist, and I'm incredibly lucky to have learned the trade in what might be the best reporter's town in all of America,” Hayes told me. “I'm excited to bring the skills I learned there to prime time." His other local media connection is father-in-law Andy Shaw, the veteran Chicago newsman who now heads the Better Government Association. "He used to be Andy Shaw's son-in-law. Now I'm Chris Hayes's father-in-law,” Shaw quipped. "He's a great 'kid' broadcaster but more importantly, a great partner for my daughter and a wonderful father to an adorable granddaughter."
Shift change: Kogan taking his leave from WBEZ
From the moment Rick Kogan stepped into the WBEZ-FM (91.5) studio last September and introduced himself as interim host of The Afternoon Shift, it seemed hard to imagine a more perfect fit for the show.
“Call off the nationwide search now and give him the job for keeps,” I wrote a week later, echoing the sentiments of many others. At 61, the celebrated Chicago newspaperman, radio personality and author needed no on-the-job training to pick up where the estimable Steve Edwards left off from 2 to 4pm weekdays on the public radio station.
It’s official: Joe Walsh inaugurates WIND talk show
The only votes Joe Walsh needs to worry about now will be the ones counted by Arbitron.
Salem Communications announced Thursday that the former congressman has signed to host a Monday-through-Friday talk show on WIND-AM (560), the conservative news/talk station marketed as “AM 560 The Answer.” Confirming a report here last week, his show will air from 7 to 9pm, starting March 25.
Rosenberg redux: Ex-WGN host launching nightly podcast
Robservations on the media beat:
- When the programming geniuses at news/talk WGN-AM (720) pulled the plug on Extension 720 host Milt Rosenberg after 39 years last December, he made it clear he wasn’t happy about it. "I'm on the older side, obviously, but I'm still full of piss and vinegar," the 87-year-old Rosenberg told me at the time. Now the former University of Chicago professor is making a comeback. Starting early next month, he is expected to host an independent podcast featuring brand-new interviews with noted authors, scholars, artists and political figures, among others. Taped at a downtown studio, shows will be posted by 7pm five nights a week. Listeners will be able to download them for free and play them back anytime. Executive producer of Rosenberg’s new venture is Zack Christenson, who served as his Extension 720 producer from 2007 to 2010. Fans can sign up for email updates at: miltrosenberg.com.
Book of Records: Landecker looks back on legendary career
No radio star in America burned more brightly in the 1970s than John Records Landecker.
But after reading his stunningly candid new memoir, Records Truly Is My Middle Name, it’s a wonder the guy didn’t just burn out. If the alcohol, cocaine and other drugs didn’t kill him, then his four wives, all the other women in his life, or the maniacal managers he worked for probably could have.
WGN may give morning news crew another hour to play
Another hour of Larry and Robin? Just think of all the fun.
Fans of WGN Morning News anchors Larry Potash and Robin Baumgarten and the rest of the madcap morning gang may get to enjoy them for an hour longer — from 9 to 10am Monday through Friday.
Steinberg’s next book recovering wisdom of the ages
Fresh from his critically acclaimed memoir You Were Never in Chicago, Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg is writing another book for The University of Chicago Press.
For this one — his eighth — he’ll not only be working with a co-author for the first time, but he’ll be drawing insights and inspiration from some of the greatest writers in history.
Internet radio pioneer channels classic country artists
Believe it or not, there’s more to country music in Chicago than US 99.5.
CBS Radio’s WUSN-FM (99.5), which has defined the format here since 1982, enjoys a near monopoly in the market with a 4.2 percent share of all adult listeners. Last year it was Chicago’s fifth highest-billing station with revenues exceeding $23 million.
But it’s what US 99.5 wasn’t doing that inspired Allan Winters to launch Chicago’s Real Country. “Many of the legends of country music, including Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and Charley Pride, are no longer heard on country music radio in the Windy City,” he said. So he created a 24/7 webcast to fill just that niche.
