Viewing this subject from a business perspective, the Chicago Tribune's strength has been its up-scale readership, which of course makes it easier for the Trib to attract advertisers.
Which makes it not surprising that it's the Sun-Times that is struggling.
From the Chicago "free registration required" Tribune:
Readers of the Chicago Sun-Times picked up a smaller paper Tuesday, the latest tangible sign of the economic struggles engaging metropolitan newspapers around the country.
The tabloid's physical shrinkage, by about 1 inch to save newsprint costs, is more easily accomplished than the pending staff cuts that will pare editorial positions by 19 percent, the largest local newsroom layoff in recent memory.
The Tribune will also shrink the size of its paper next week as well.
The Sun-Times is still shaking from the turmoil from the days when Conrad Black was publisher of the paper. Black was convicted of various fraud charges last year. The Sun-Times was part of Black's Hollinger newspaper empire that included the London Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post, and the National Post of Canada. Hollinger is defunct, ironically the rump of it is the Sun-Times News Group, which of course includes the paper as well as a bunch of suburban publications.
But the Sun-Times staff can't blame all of their problems on Black. Demographics, new media, and of course being #2 in the Second City hurts. If an advertiser can afford only one placement in Chicago, common sense says its the Tribune that will score the ad.
I hope the Sun-Times makes it out of this mess. Ask not for whom the bell tolls...
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Conrad Black gets 78 months in prison
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