The Chicago Sun-Times, which has spent the past five years gutting the newsrooms at a dozen or more once great suburban community newspapers, is spending lavishly to build a new cafeteria for its offices on the South Side. The robber barons need a place to roll in their dough that they are bleeding from a dozen or more once great community newspapers.
The Sun-Times has gutted and fired writers and reporters at several newspapers including the Southtown/Star and the Joliet Herald News so that their owners can increase their profits.News staff at many of these suburban newspapers have been cut 75 percent compared to when they were leading news coverage in their communities.
The Sun-Times has acted like the old Soviet Union, occupying suburban newspapers, acquiring their advertising accounts and profits, cutting back on spending and support, and firing and laying off employees.
Despite these efforts, the Sun-Times' daily circulation continues to drop and is reportedly below 200,000 newspapers. To mislead advertisers, and in an ironic twist, the Sun-Times is merging the circulation of their occupied satellite newspapers to artificially boost their total circulation figures, claiming they publish more than 400,000 newspapers each day.
In the old days, before the Sun-Times acquired and then cannibalized the smaller community newspapers, the Sun-Times had a circulation on its own that was in excess of 750,000.
That's why the fat pigs who run the Sun-Times need an expensive cafeteria that some estimate could cost as much as $400,000 to design and build (the salaries of six reporters), so they can sit around and wallow in their financial obesity and laugh and enjoy their cash flow.
BT
A satire site to expose the real face of the "The Bright One," the Chicago Sun-Times & its biased news coverage
Monday, March 19, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Scandal from Sun-Times Reporters who made things up
From the Chicago Tribune
Fired Sun-Times critic Paige Wiser 'ashamed' for made-up details in review
By Phil Rosenthal Media
Paige Wiser is out at the Chicago Sun-Times after 17 years, the last three as its television critic, because her "Glee Live!" concert review in Sunday's newspaper mentioned one song that wasn't performed and described another she did not see.
"I'm at fault," Wiser said. "I do understand what a big deal this was. I am ashamed, and it's just a matter of making bad decisions when you're exhausted."
Wiser, 40, said she brought her two young children to the show Friday at Rosemont's Allstate Arena with the approval of an editor who told her "cute kids' reaction would be more than welcome" in the story. Her son fell off a chair during the show. Her daughter vomited into a cotton candy bag.
They left three songs later, only 13 numbers into the concert, but her report included commentary on the encore based on information from previous "Glee Live!" shows.
The Sun-Times on Thursday posted an editor's note about the lapse and Wiser's dismissal, and it withdrew the review from its website.
"Accuracy and honesty in reporting are essential parts of the promise we make to our readers," Don Hayner, the Sun-Times editor, said in the note. "We regret the incident and apologize."
Last month, at the last minute, Wiser had to ask out of a deadline writing assignment covering taping of the "Oprah Winfrey Show" farewell extravaganza at the United Center. Upon arriving in the hockey press box, high above the arena floor, she was afflicted with vertigo. Colleague Kara Spak, who had been assigned to watch from a seat in the stands below, changed places with Wiser and wound up writing the story.
[NOTE: Kara Spak is the wife of Sun-Times reporter Steve Warmbir]
Wiser's published "Glee" review noted that cast member Lea Michele "made Barbra Streisand proud — and probably a little jealous — with 'Don't Rain on My Parade,'" a song Wiser said Thursday that she liked on one of the show's cast albums. The review was capped with a reference to an encore cover of Rebecca Black's "Friday" that Wiser wrote was "irresistible" and "infused ... with joy."
"I'd like to think it wouldn't have been part of my thought process if it hadn't been 1 a.m. and I was just trying to get the story done," Wiser said. "I just wanted it to be a complete review after the Oprah travesty."
The incident recalls an infamous 1986 Sun-Times review of an Elton John concert by Patricia Smith, who reported John wore an outfit he didn't wear and sang two songs he didn't sing. John's representative also said Smith never picked up her press ticket.
Smith told her editors at the time she was distracted during the show by a boyfriend she brought with her and that they had bought their own lawn tickets. She was let off with a lecture and respite from writing for several months, according to a 1998 American Journalism Review report written after Smith lost her job at the Boston Globe for fabrications in her work.
Wiser said that, with the workload employees at the Sun-Times must carry in the wake of recent cutbacks, "for me to have even taken up their time because they had to deal with this, I feel bad."
[NOTE: Another fired reporter was Ray Hanania when he was accused of dating City Treasurer Miriam Santos in 1991 while covering Cook County.]
END
Fired Sun-Times critic Paige Wiser 'ashamed' for made-up details in review
'Glee Live' review mentioned song not performed
described another she didn't see
June 10, 2011By Phil Rosenthal Media
Paige Wiser is out at the Chicago Sun-Times after 17 years, the last three as its television critic, because her "Glee Live!" concert review in Sunday's newspaper mentioned one song that wasn't performed and described another she did not see.
"I'm at fault," Wiser said. "I do understand what a big deal this was. I am ashamed, and it's just a matter of making bad decisions when you're exhausted."
Wiser, 40, said she brought her two young children to the show Friday at Rosemont's Allstate Arena with the approval of an editor who told her "cute kids' reaction would be more than welcome" in the story. Her son fell off a chair during the show. Her daughter vomited into a cotton candy bag.
They left three songs later, only 13 numbers into the concert, but her report included commentary on the encore based on information from previous "Glee Live!" shows.
The Sun-Times on Thursday posted an editor's note about the lapse and Wiser's dismissal, and it withdrew the review from its website.
"Accuracy and honesty in reporting are essential parts of the promise we make to our readers," Don Hayner, the Sun-Times editor, said in the note. "We regret the incident and apologize."
Last month, at the last minute, Wiser had to ask out of a deadline writing assignment covering taping of the "Oprah Winfrey Show" farewell extravaganza at the United Center. Upon arriving in the hockey press box, high above the arena floor, she was afflicted with vertigo. Colleague Kara Spak, who had been assigned to watch from a seat in the stands below, changed places with Wiser and wound up writing the story.
[NOTE: Kara Spak is the wife of Sun-Times reporter Steve Warmbir]
Wiser's published "Glee" review noted that cast member Lea Michele "made Barbra Streisand proud — and probably a little jealous — with 'Don't Rain on My Parade,'" a song Wiser said Thursday that she liked on one of the show's cast albums. The review was capped with a reference to an encore cover of Rebecca Black's "Friday" that Wiser wrote was "irresistible" and "infused ... with joy."
"I'd like to think it wouldn't have been part of my thought process if it hadn't been 1 a.m. and I was just trying to get the story done," Wiser said. "I just wanted it to be a complete review after the Oprah travesty."
The incident recalls an infamous 1986 Sun-Times review of an Elton John concert by Patricia Smith, who reported John wore an outfit he didn't wear and sang two songs he didn't sing. John's representative also said Smith never picked up her press ticket.
Smith told her editors at the time she was distracted during the show by a boyfriend she brought with her and that they had bought their own lawn tickets. She was let off with a lecture and respite from writing for several months, according to a 1998 American Journalism Review report written after Smith lost her job at the Boston Globe for fabrications in her work.
Wiser said that, with the workload employees at the Sun-Times must carry in the wake of recent cutbacks, "for me to have even taken up their time because they had to deal with this, I feel bad."
[NOTE: Another fired reporter was Ray Hanania when he was accused of dating City Treasurer Miriam Santos in 1991 while covering Cook County.]
END
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Chicago Sun-Times sold: Union busters bought it, circulation continues to drop
Put whatever fake spin on it you want but the news that the Chicago Sun-Times has been bought, YET AGAIN, is not good news.
The new owners are former administrators at the union busting Chicago Tribune and you wait. When they take over, it will be a massacre. That's the word in the desolate newsroom at the Sun-Times "offices."
Where will they move them next? And circulation at the Chicago Sun-Times continues to fall. The newspaper continues to falsely claim that their circulation is double what it really is using a slate of hand manipulation of data that includes the circulations of all the little community newspapers that the former publishers cannibalized.
Here's the truth, again, spun in typical newsroom mumbo jumbo (Reporters love to exaggerate the problems of others and pretend their own do not exist):
And to get the truth about the Chicago Sun-Times, you of course have to go to the Chicago Tribune to get what little truth the media industry is willing to provide, which is not much.
You can CLICK HERE to read the Tribune story. And what about the MOBSTERS and the robber barons and exploiters who have weaseled their way into the Chicago Sun-Times management? Of course, the Tribune won't say much. But you can bet they are still there.
Watch for MORE layoffs once the new management takes hold. The word is they will begin at their primary community newspaper holdings like the Southtown/Star and do their best to preserve the few union jobs at the Sun-Times to avoid an immediate union fight -- although the union is a weak ghost of what it used to be.
-- BT
The new owners are former administrators at the union busting Chicago Tribune and you wait. When they take over, it will be a massacre. That's the word in the desolate newsroom at the Sun-Times "offices."
Where will they move them next? And circulation at the Chicago Sun-Times continues to fall. The newspaper continues to falsely claim that their circulation is double what it really is using a slate of hand manipulation of data that includes the circulations of all the little community newspapers that the former publishers cannibalized.
Here's the truth, again, spun in typical newsroom mumbo jumbo (Reporters love to exaggerate the problems of others and pretend their own do not exist):
Circulation has been dropping this year at the Sun-Times and its seven suburban daily papers, according to the latest six-month report by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Through September, average weekday circulation fell more than 30,000, to 389,353, a 7.2 percent decline, while average Sunday circulation was down nearly 21,000, to 400,506, a 5 percent decline.Excluding its branded suburban papers, the Sun-Times' average daily circulation was 236,371, a 5.9 percent decline from its March totals. The combined Sun-Times group ranks 12th overall in average weekday circulation among U.S. newspapers. The Chicago Tribune, which has seen circulation declines slow this year, ranks ninth.
And to get the truth about the Chicago Sun-Times, you of course have to go to the Chicago Tribune to get what little truth the media industry is willing to provide, which is not much.
You can CLICK HERE to read the Tribune story. And what about the MOBSTERS and the robber barons and exploiters who have weaseled their way into the Chicago Sun-Times management? Of course, the Tribune won't say much. But you can bet they are still there.
Watch for MORE layoffs once the new management takes hold. The word is they will begin at their primary community newspaper holdings like the Southtown/Star and do their best to preserve the few union jobs at the Sun-Times to avoid an immediate union fight -- although the union is a weak ghost of what it used to be.
-- BT
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
We reported it first: Sun-Times planning more layoffs, to break the union
As we reported in November, the Chicago Sun-Times announced it is planning more lay-offs to dismiss union employees in an effort to break the back of the union.
Crains Chicago Business has the story, again.
Click here to read out November 28th story.
Click here to read the full Crain's Story.
Crains Chicago Business has the story, again.
Click here to read out November 28th story.
Click here to read the full Crain's Story.
(Crain's) — Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC, which owns the Chicago Sun-Times and other suburban newspapers, is cutting workers in another round of reductions aimed at slashing costs as the company finishes its move to a centralized editorial and billing system.
Sun-Times CEO Jeremy Halbreich confirmed that some editorial workers and possibly other employees are losing their jobs, but he declined to say how many. This is the "final piece" of the 18 months of reductions, he said. He declined to say whether all employees had been notified at this point.
...
"It has been very stressful," said Jean Lachat, who lost her job as a full-time photographer after 22 years at the company. "Part of me is really relieved to not have to worry about it anymore."
Ms. Lachat said she's not sure if she feels more sorry for those who lost their jobs or those who remain at the company and have to pick up the slack.
The Chicago-based company has cut hundreds of employees in the past two years at its flagship Chicago paper and at its suburban daily and weekly newspapers in centralizing the editorial and customer billing systems, shuttering some suburban weekly papers and outsourcing its printing and delivery to rival Tribune Co.
The company is still in the process of shifting the printing of the Sun-Times to rival Tribune, and those workers involved will be dismissed through January.
- BT
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Chicago Sun-Times Bankruptcy Filing document
Take a look at who is owed money and has a claim against the Chicago Sun-Times, which put its owners first above the everyday hardworking employees:
You can click here to view the filing.
-- BT
You can click here to view the filing.
-- BT
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Chicago Sun-Times continues its slide, begs for investors
The latest in a train of suitors to take the Chicago Sun-Times out on a date is Michael W. Ferro Jr. Ferro, who is a pal with every major corporate bigwig in Chicagoland, owns Merrick Ventures LLC. In terms of money, that's great news for the failing Chicago Sun-Times which has seen a steady decline in their newspaper circulation, under 400,000 in the past month and continuing to fall. Of course, that figure represents about 189,000 newspapers for the Chicago Sun-Times and 200,000 newspapers for the nine suburban papers it absorbed and pillaged for advertising over the years.
You can say with certainty, the Sun-Times drive to cannibalize its stable of community newspapers has kept it afloat at the cost of good journalism.
Now, journalism is to be replaced by corporate greed. Ferro leads a team of well known corporate robber barons who have squeezed industries and jobs over the years. If you read the "Philosophy" page for Merrick Ventures, LLC. (Click here to read it.) No where is there any mention of the public good or the public trust or the public interest. There is nothing in their "philosophy" to even suggest that the Chicago SunTimes, which was once a great newspaper, will be strengthened in the journalism philosophy or that the mission will be to restore the newspaper's long lost credibility.
Merrick will simply make that drive to trim human beings and reduce the news hole and, worse, skewer objectivity to reflect the special corporate interests that are tied to the Merrick Ventures, LLC president, Michael W. Ferro Jr.
No newspaper has work harder to destroy itself than the Chicago Sun-Times. At that, they have been successful. It is but a thin pulp of itself.
- BT
You can say with certainty, the Sun-Times drive to cannibalize its stable of community newspapers has kept it afloat at the cost of good journalism.
Now, journalism is to be replaced by corporate greed. Ferro leads a team of well known corporate robber barons who have squeezed industries and jobs over the years. If you read the "Philosophy" page for Merrick Ventures, LLC. (Click here to read it.) No where is there any mention of the public good or the public trust or the public interest. There is nothing in their "philosophy" to even suggest that the Chicago SunTimes, which was once a great newspaper, will be strengthened in the journalism philosophy or that the mission will be to restore the newspaper's long lost credibility.
Benjamin Franklin discerned the keys to making America great and posted many words of wisdom in his Poor Richards Almanac. Franklin's sentiment that, "So much for Industry, my Friends, and Attention to one's own Business; but to these we must add Frugality, if we would make our Industry more certainly successful," applies equally to entrepreneurs and business leaders today as it did to the people of 1757.To quote Ben Franklin sounds so patriotic, but the truth is that Franklin focused on cutting costs and no media has done more to cut costs by firing employees and destroying families than the Chicago Sun-Times, Laying off 400 workers and then to out-source its printing to the union busting Chicago Tribune is only one example of how little the newspaper cares about its employees.
Merrick will simply make that drive to trim human beings and reduce the news hole and, worse, skewer objectivity to reflect the special corporate interests that are tied to the Merrick Ventures, LLC president, Michael W. Ferro Jr.
No newspaper has work harder to destroy itself than the Chicago Sun-Times. At that, they have been successful. It is but a thin pulp of itself.
- BT
Monday, November 28, 2011
Chicago Sun-Times planning more lay-offs
As profits tumble and news content disappears, the Chicago Sun-Times bosses are planning to cut more editorial positions from the newspaper.
As many as six positions are being eyed for dismissal including two buyouts.
The Chicago Sun-Times has been misleading advertisers telling them they are on the "rebound" (not true) and that circulation is over 450,000. That is an outright lie. Imagine, a newspaper that has to lie to stay in business. And they point fingers at others? Pathetic!
The newspaper's circulation is about 215,000 daily, not including the suburban community newspapers the parent company owns. But the newspaper owners are pushing to increase repayment of their investments hoping that by the time the newspaper closes its doors, they will have recouped not only their investments but also an equal amount in profits.
And the editors do not care.
-- BT
As many as six positions are being eyed for dismissal including two buyouts.
The Chicago Sun-Times has been misleading advertisers telling them they are on the "rebound" (not true) and that circulation is over 450,000. That is an outright lie. Imagine, a newspaper that has to lie to stay in business. And they point fingers at others? Pathetic!
The newspaper's circulation is about 215,000 daily, not including the suburban community newspapers the parent company owns. But the newspaper owners are pushing to increase repayment of their investments hoping that by the time the newspaper closes its doors, they will have recouped not only their investments but also an equal amount in profits.
And the editors do not care.
-- BT
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