Sun-Times finally gets down to business with weekly insert

When Michael Ferro, chairman of Sun-Times Media parent company Wrapports LLC, appeared before the City Club of Chicago last May, he outlined his vision for the newspaper, including this promise: "We're going to be increasing the business section exponentially."

The centerpiece of Ferro’s plan, called Money Mondays, was described as “a full-color, irreverent and unique business section” that would include CEO makeovers, industry hot lists, up-and-comer profiles, gadget gear, power lists and other stories not found in traditional business sections.

Money Mondays never debuted that fall, as Ferro predicted, or any time since. Nor has the Sun-Times’ weekday business section increased one iota.

But now, at last, they may be giving us the business.

Starting this Sunday, Sun-Times readers will find a new addition to the paper — a weekly business magazine called Grid. Advertisers who’ve seen prototypes say it's focused on stories about and for people in business in Chicago. The cover features Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz, an investor in Wrapports.

Those who’ve seen it also say it appears to be aimed at a younger audience than Crain’s Chicago Business, which buried news of the competing project at the end of a report Monday about possible layoffs looming at Sun-Times Media.

Insiders at Crain’s have been bracing for a challenge to their franchise ever since Ferro hired Jim Kirk, former chief of editorial operations at Crain’s and former business editor of the Chicago Tribune, as editor-in-chief of Sun-Times Media. Overseeing development of the new section is Brandon Copple, a former managing editor of Crain’s, who joined Wrapports as general manager last October.

Grid will be the second new Sunday supplement launched by the Sun-Times in recent months. In September, the paper unveiled Splash, a weekly magazine section focusing on “style, society and celebrities” and featuring Jenny McCarthy as an advice columnist.