Press Room
Welcome media buddies!
As you can see, Esther J. Cepeda is endlessly quotable on all the subjects on this site.
She's also available to comment on matters of marketing, women in media, minority journalists, the faltering newspaper industry, the importance of arts and culture organizations in civic life, and just about anything else you can think of.
Email her if you have 24 hours. If you're on deadline for this evening and need that last quote to put a sparkle in your article, page her at 847/302-8120.
Here are her most recent postings/publications/media:
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-wed-phil-rosenthal13aug13,0,5060471.column
chicagotribune.com
Chicago gets its very own HuffPo site
Phil Rosenthal
Media
August 13, 2008
As Arianna Huffington talked on the phone about hopes and dreams for one child, she was interrupted in midsentence by another.
The Huffington Post Chicago, her national Web site's first local franchise, is set to make its debut this week. But it was Huffington's 17-year-old daughter who bounded into her home office with news she had just passed her driver's test for a full license and wanted to take the Prius out for the first time by herself to lunch with a friend in Santa Monica, Calif.
"Text me as soon as you arrive," Huffington said. "If you have any doubt about where you are going, stop and call me."
One rite of passage out of the way, she returned to talking about the birth of the The Huffington Post's first offspring. By midday Thursday, The Huffington Post Chicago—a local amalgam of news, commentary, features and personal reflections that's part media outlet, part salon in the fashion of The Huffington Post—should be linked and loaded, ready for viewing off thehuffingtonpost.com.
"I just got a great blog post from John Cusack," Huffington said. "People who are from Chicago have all these amazing warm feeling and memories of Chicago. … It is tribal. John is in Bangkok making a movie, and he was kind of emotional with this ode to Chicago."
Chicago-raised actress Jami Gertz is working on a submission, as is Fred Armisen of " Saturday Night Live." On tap are such familiar bylines as Jonathan Alter, Lynn Sweet, Cornelia Grumman, Lee Bey and Esther Cepeda. Others, such as environmentalist Howard Lerner and chef Gale Gand, bring a particular expertise to the party.
"I don't know that any other city would get that kind of response and resonance," Huffington said.
It's not clear whether this local Post fills a void or creates its own real estate in the media landscape, which is in retreat and recession on several fronts of late. So much is changing so fast, it's not even clear to some whether existing papers, broadcast outlets and Web sites are its rivals or allies.
But if it can make it here, the assumption is it make it anywhere.
Huffington and Willow Bay, the wife of Walt Disney Co. boss Bob Iger and a former "Good Morning America" weekend co-host who is the Huffington Post editor-at-large overseeing the local rollouts, expect there could be 10 to 20 more sites in a couple years.
"This [Chicago site] is a work in progress," Bay said from her own home office, down the block from Huffington. "I'm always surprised, which is part of the fun of what we do, but there will be a ton of news and politics writers. There will be food, because it's one of the great food cities in the country, and certainly sports. We have a bunch of environmental writers because Chicago [wants] to be a leader in growing its green economy."
Ben Goldberger, 25, a former Chicago Sun-Times staffer, will be the only paid employee here. Ad sales will be handled from HuffPo's office in New York. Writers work pro bono. So the chief risk for Huffington is less financial than to the HuffPo brand she has nurtured.
Like her household's newly minted driver, a crash is less likely than the new baby losing its way.
philrosenthal@tribune.com
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
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http://communitymediaworkshop.org/npcommunicator/?p=159
COMMUNITY MEDIA WORKSHOP
July 18th, 2008
Since we are in the throes of producing our annual directory of Chicago-market journalists, Getting On Air, Online & Into Print, pitchable is a pretty salient concept around the office.
BTW, Andy Huff from Gaper's Block is polishing up an awesome tipsheet on how to pitch bloggers for us right now (I’ve seen the first draft, it is going to be very useful for folks and will show up online as well as in the 2009 guide).
As I was blogging yesterday about Latina Voices, I thought about a couple of other favorite by/for/about Latinos/-as sites and wanted to highlight two very different ones:
Esther Cepeda’s
Esther is her own lady, she thinks for herself and she writes about what interests her. In addition to thinking she’s a good writer, it’s been cool to watch her lead the pack of downsized journalists re-defining themselves on line as bloggers. (she had a column at the Sun-Times before joining the budget casualty list there several months ago). She’s very pitchable, she writes:
"I get over a hundred emails a day and I look through them all. This week alone US Rep. Luis Gutierrez and the Chicago White Sox personally (and successfully) pitched me.
Personal email inquiries, rather than mass-emailed press releases are always welcome and I generally tell people immediately if it’s a go, if I need more time and they need to follow up in 'x' days or weeks or if I’m definitely not interested."
And yes, her email is right there on her home page (but read her before you pitch her)...
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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF FINANCIAL AID ADMINISTRATORS http://www.nasfaa.org/publications/2008/cnisac070808.html NASFAA Constituent Member News Esther J. Cepeda Joins ISAC Former Sun-Times columnist to oversee marketing, communications for state higher ed agency SPRINGFIELD, IL The state’s central provider of college aid, ISAC awarded $448 million in college scholarships and grants, guaranteed $1.2 billion in loans and registered 29 million hits on its website (collegezone.com) last year. Its prepaid tuition program - College Illinois!SM - has enabled 27,000 Illinois families to prepay more than $1 billion in tuition and fees. A highly-regarded columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times from 2006 to 2008, Cepeda, 33, writes a lively syndicated column on www.600words.com. She recently served as marketing consultant to the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO), one of Chicago’s oldest direct action community groups.
Davis said Cepeda will craft new marketing, media and outreach strategies as the 51-year old agency moves into a new phase with new purpose. "Esther J. Cepeda is an accomplished journalist, creative thinker and energetic advocate," Davis said. "She is a role model for young Latinas, a key target audience for ISAC’s message. We are delighted to have someone of Esther’s stature on our leadership team." "I’m really buzzed about the opportunity to make untold numbers of college aspirants across Illinois well aware that a post-secondary degree isn’t just some pipe-dream," Cepeda said. "Paired with the support I have from an Executive Director who’s more interested in the number of college graduates we put into Illinois’ economy rather than just the number of loans we can give out, my staff and I will be pumping new life into this hidden gem of an agency." Born and raised on Chicago’s North Side, Cepeda is a graduate of Lane Tech High School and Southern Illinois University. While working on her Master’s degree in special education at Roosevelt University, Cepeda was a bilingual teacher in low-income grammar and high schools in Lake County. Cepeda’s Sun-Times column was trailblazing: not only was she the first Hispanic metro columnist for a Chicago daily, she was the first Latina to regularly appear in the sports section. Her column covered a wide range of urban and ethnic issues, and featured a provocative "Pregunta del Dia" ("Question of the Day"). Her insightful and often irreverent musings earned her frequent spots as guest commentator for CNN, Fox network news, WVON-FM, WGN-AM and other outlets. Prior to joining the Sun-Times, Cepeda wrote for the Daily Herald, Lakeland Journal and Scripps Howard News Service. She also served as Vice-President of the Round Lake Area Library Board of Trustees. Last year, Cepeda was selected as a Columbia University "Next Generation Project" American Assembly Fellow, and recently convened with 100 nationally-selected young leaders at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to address U.S. foreign policy and the future of global institutions. "We are in an absolutely thrilling turning point in our nation’s history - poised to educate the next generation of leaders who will innovate solutions to the crises we’re so worried about today - and I’m just as thrilled to be taking the lead in getting them the knowledge and resources they’ll need to make it happen," Cepeda said. "Esther J. Cepeda is a rare individual who is equally comfortable on the sidewalks of Chicago’s La Villita neighborhood or in the corridors of international power," Davis said. "Her experience will be invaluable to ISAC in our mission to better prepare Illinois students to compete and succeed in the new global economy." Davis noted that since he became Executive Director in January, 2007, ISAC has become more "Illinois-centric" in its lending strategy, boosted its outreach staff from 4 to 16, added Spanish- and Polish-speaking outreach staff, and launched initiatives to better reach non-traditional and first- generation college students. In addition to encouraging earlier financial preparation for college, ISAC also promotes earlier educational preparation. In a partnership with the Lumina Foundation and Ad Council, ISAC has launched the KnowHow2GO college access drive, which features a PSA campaign challenging 8th, 9th and 10th graders to take tougher courses.
Chip Mitchell on Wednesday, April 30, 2008
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Program_848.aspx?episode=19025
May Day Leaders Predict Strong March Tomorrow is International Workers Day. Chicago immigrants and their supporters are holding their third annual May Day march through the Loop. No one is expecting a turnout as big as in 2006 or 2007. But organizers say the march will show that the immigrant-rights movement remains strong. If it does, it’ll owe in no small part to a new level of union support. GARZA: This is a big election year. Over the years, we’ve told people, ‘Today we march, tomorrow we vote.’ Now we have to walk the walk. Labor unions helped promote the march in previous years. But this year they’re also covering nearly all of its roughly $10,000 budget. The costs include stages and sound systems, T-shirts and toilets. MADIA: Using union funds to foster illegal immigration is wrong. Before they do anything about legalizing these people, the borders have to be completely sealed. Madia says undocumented residents are overwhelming public schools, infrastructure and services. And even some immigrant advocates concede that workers without legal status can drag wages down. THINDWA: That’s because employers are going to prefer a worker who’s more vulnerable, who’s without rights. James Thindwa directs the Chicago chapter of Jobs With Justice, a group that builds community support for organized labor. THINDWA: That worker can’t complain about working conditions. So the way to solve that is to create a path to legalization so that those workers have rights that protect them against abusive employers. Thindwa will gather with other immigrant-rights supporters tomorrow at Chicago’s Union Park, where the march begins. But the organizers aren’t certain this year’s turnout will match the hundreds of thousands who showed up in previous years. Last year, a week before the event, immigration agents stormed a shopping mall in Little Village, a mostly Mexican neighborhood of Chicago. CEPEDA: Guys with what looked like assault rifles -- pointing them at women and children. Former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Esther J. Cepeda says the raid galvanized many immigrants. But Cepeda doubts the May Day protests a few days later achieved anything. CEPEDA: We had these marches across the country in all the big cities. But nothing came of them. And, in fact, four months later, in July, the immigration reform bill just failed. The bill’s death extinguished hopes of providing a path to citizenship for the nation’s estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants. Extinguished, that is, until after this November’s election. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, meanwhile, has steadily picked up the pace of deportations. The agency says it removed a record 280,000 immigrants last year. Carlos Arango of Casa Aztlán, a community center in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, says that’s why he’s heading to Union Park tomorrow. ARANGO: Undocumented workers should have the opportunity to regularize their immigration situation because immigration is no crime. People go from place to place, looking for better conditions of life. Arango says marching is a right that immigrants must exercise. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:fJyrV-JOoE8J:www.extranews.net/news.php%3Fclan%3D1%26nid%3D3667+esther+cepeda+jessica+del+curto&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us Former Sun-Times Columnist Ventures Syndicated Column Extra Bilingual Newspaper 05-09-2008 by Jessica Del Curto When Esther J. Cepeda put down her pad and pencil at the Chicago Sun-Times a couple of months ago, she knew it would not be the last column she would ever write. Cepeda was a popular columnist at the Sun-Times, but was laid off in January during a recent round of cuts in the print media industry. On April 29, the former Sun-Times columnist started her own Web site, www.600words.com, along with its sister site, pregunta-del-dia.com. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Cepeda will post a new "600 Words" column, where much like her Sun-Times column, she will write about various issues from the perspective of an opinionated Latina. Then Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she will write on shorter topics and answer readers questions in "Pregunta Del Dia." "I knew I wanted to keep writing," she said. "The [Chicago] Tribune told me, ‘We have already got a Latina,’ because you know, just one is enough." So she turned to various syndicates across the country, like the New York Times Syndicate and the Washington Post Syndicate, where she was told over and over, "We love you, but the economy is so bad right now, we can’t even sell our own columnists – we have newspapers canceling left and right, because everyone is tightening their belt." It was then Cepeda decided to do it the modern way, by purchasing a domain name and opening up shop for herself. While she doesn’t know the official number of hits her site received that first week, Cepeda said hundreds of e-mails came flooding in from people supporting her return. "I had an outpouring of people who said, ‘Oh my God, we missed you.’ All kinds of readers, white readers, tons of really nice men and women readers," she said. In Cepeda’s columns she poses interesting questions that others in the media or in the spotlight aren’t always asking. In an upcoming article, she plans to tackle the violence in the city. She plans to ask various experts about their perspective on gang violence. For instance, she’ll ask an economist ‘With your background, what would you do," and see what kind of answers he or she comes up with. "Because obviously, the Chicago Police Department doesn’t know what to do," she said. For a full-time gig, Cepeda was hired as a director for United Neighborhood Organization, a non-profit that focuses on empowering the Latino community. But since she was a child, writing has been her passion. "My parents moved here from México, and they always had the Sunwith them, they were using it to learn English, so the newspaper was always at my house," she said. "My whole life I wanted to grow up and be a newspaper columnist." -Times She went to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She studied Integrated Marketing Communication at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, then went on to be a teacher. "Finally, I went, ‘Ok, I am 30 years old, if I don’t live my dream now, I am not going to do it,’" she said. By day she was teaching, by night she was freelancing for the Daily Herald. "I was filing five, sometimes six or seven news stories a week," she said. "I had these great clips, and after about seven months of that, I mailed them off to Don Hayner, [the managing editor of the Sun] and said, ‘Dude, give me a chance.’" -Times And up until January, Cepeda was making friends and enemies writing about everything from the immigration marches to nuclear weapons in Iran for the Sun. -Times "You know what’s beautiful? I get criticism from all sides," she said. "When I feel most successful is when the pro-illegal immigration and the anti-illegal immigration people both e-mail me about the same topic and say ‘You are so blah blah blah.’ You could hate what I am saying, but just be kind of happy that I am there." The whole reason Cepeda continues to write is to keep the Latino voice in the media. "There are no mainstream Latino opinion leaders," she said. "Who is out there talking about stuff? When Hillary and Barack were fighting over the Latino vote, you saw it on ‘Meet The Press,’ but there was no Latino person talking about these issues, it was all white people – and that’s good – but there has to be some kind of representation." To read Cepeda’s columns, go to www.600words.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ May Day march creates dilemma for Hispanics Pro-immigrant groups across the country are preparing to stage a series of marches May 1, pressing the White House and the Homeland Security Department to halt immigration raids and move forward on comprehensive immigration reform. "Change is in the air," Juan Jose Gutierrez, director of the Los Angeles-based Latino Movement USA, promises. This year marks the third grass-roots-organized May Day event with two unique factors: — The marches are being guided by a national coordinating committee — The First Parliament of Mexican Migrant Leaders Living in the U.S.A. — This is the first time that the marches will be held during a presidential election year. Pro-immigrant groups from throughout the United States met in Mexico City in November to form the First Parliament of Mexican Migrant Leaders Living in the U.S.A. Attracting minimal press attention, they formed the first national coordinating committee for the May Day marches. The initiating body consists of 46 members representing 23 states. "The idea is that every single state and territory in the Union where we have Latinos living and working should have representation," says Gutierrez. National political analysts have been in open agreement for months that the outcome of the 2008 presidential election will depend heavily on the Latino and immigrant vote. Where the experts part ways is in assessing the impact national demonstrations will have on other voters. Even among Latinos, opinions range widely. National Council of La Raza President Janet Murguia handles the subject with cautious concern. "Marches visually demonstrate to each of us that we are not alone, but this year there is only one march that will truly empower our community and demonstrate our clout. Our next march must be to the voting booth this November." Elena Rios, president of the National Hispanic Medical Association, counters, "If the marches are anything like they have been in the last few years, where more of our community are showing their pride and commitment to their fellow Latinos, whether they’re documented or not, I think it’s fantastic. I hope it gets media attention — and more than just Univision and Telemundo. I hope we get on CNN and mainstream English media talking about the importance of the Latino vote in this election year. It will have an impact." Chicago Sun-Times columnist Esther Cepeda has doubts: "The marches have become unproductive. They cause a yawn among news editors and reporters and create a backlash from anti-Hispanic forces. I don’t think the mass demonstrations get people who otherwise aren’t energized about the upcoming presidential elections to go out and get registered to vote. Is there even enough time left? There certainly isn’t to get citizenship." Gutierrez bristles at those who insist that immigration reform can’t happen in an election year. "They say everyone should wait until sometime after the November elections. I disagree. Nothing can hurt the pro-immigration-rights movement more than doing nothing." He offers as evidence: "Never before have the candidates had to deal with the issue of immigration in a very direct way." Jose Garza of Dallas, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens’ National Housing Commission, notes, "We need to take whatever action is necessary to get this Congress, the future Congress and the future president to really deal with the issues of the immigrant worker. What we are asking for is fairness and equity. When it’s time to mobilize, we can do it correctly." The turnout of marchers has decreased nationally since 2.5 million participated in 2006. Gutierrez blames "the lack of nerve on the part of significant members of the Spanish-speaking media who have helped persuade the community not to continue to participate in the mobilization." But, he contends, "that slogan, ‘Hoy marchamos, manana votamos’ — ‘Today we march, tomorrow we vote’ — has crystallized the movement. People are beginning to feel their power, both when we take to the streets and when we go to the ballot box." — Emily C. Ruiz is a reporter with Hispanic Link News Service in Washington. E-mail ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?id=29367 From this week's Business of Life Are they scared yet? Staff says no By: Lisa Bertagnoli March 03, 2008 To the grim satisfaction of many at the Chicago Sun-Times, both Conrad Black and David Radler are now doing penance after a thieving ownership that drained financial resources and creative energy from the newspaper for a decade. But there's little joy in the newsroom, where 40 familiar faces — both well-liked veterans and promising newer staff — are gone, too, after a brutal round of layoffs kicked off the year. "It's like an exercise in anorexia," says Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times theater and dance critic, who joined the paper 24 years ago. "Each time you think you can't get more skeletal, you do." Yet despite the constant drip of discouraging news about the publication's future, she and many other longtime employees remain loyal to the scrappy paper. They feel an emotional pull to its mission and don't wish to participate in an exodus of talent. But mostly, they just love their work, with a passion that arguably may be blinding them to reality. "I have one of the great jobs in the arts," says Ms. Weiss, who attends performances as often as seven nights a week. "It's an honor to cover the kind of work I cover — I don't see any other way to do it." Sue Ontiveros, a deputy features editor and editorial page columnist, says January's job cuts were "emotional and sad," claiming two of her favorite young employees. Yet the 24-year veteran also sees herself as a Sun-Times stalwart; she's refused two unsolicited job offers since January. "I always say the Sun-Times is the fourth person at my dinner table," she says. "It's not unusual that I often put the paper before family and other personal concerns. There are so many people who have that dedication." The paper's situation "doesn't scare me," she adds. "I've been through other sales, and we go on and put out the paper." Particularly heartening to her was an unusual meeting several weeks ago during which the business-side staff presented its circulation and advertising strategy to the newsroom. "I felt better that someone was actually paying attention to the business side of the paper," Ms. Ontiveros says. "For a long time, it felt like that wasn't happening." 'A TERRIBLE CONVULSION' Editor in chief Michael Cooke says the recent layoffs and firings, including the unceremonious dismissal of four editorial board members and two editors, were "the worst thing I've ever been involved in professionally. The paper has gone through a terrible convulsion." But the meeting with the business side, he says, was meant to show the newsroom that the painful cuts are part of a larger plan to shore up the business until advertising revenue rebounds. "I've seen the numbers. I buy into (Sun-Times Media Group Inc. CEO Cyrus Freidheim's) business plan," Mr. Cooke says. "When the housing industry comes back, when retail comes back, we have a great future. . . . People want the Sun-Times to continue. It's a bloody good paper and a two-paper town." Newspaper watchers, though, say the troubles are far more than a cyclical downturn. "These folks are in denial in terms of the realities facing the newspaper business," says Miles E. Groves, principal at MG Strategic Research Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based media consulting group. Writer and columnist Dave Hoekstra, 52, joined the newspaper in 1984 and says, "I'm looking at a bunch of empty desks" these days, though the staff rallied during the layoffs: "We went out to lunch a lot." Mr. Hoekstra's offbeat coverage of night life, music and travel has endured through the tenures of numerous owners, publishers and editors. "Who knows what will happen if and when we get sold," he says. "I have been through a lot of changes here. We survive them." If getting back to business is now the newsroom's mantra, reporter Andrew Herrmann says, a "galvanizing" point came in early February with the shootings in Tinley Park and at Northern Illinois University, which left a total of 11 people dead. The breaking-news tragedies were a splash of cold water that reminded the grousing staff why they come to work every day. "There wasn't time to sit around and cry and bitch and moan," says Mr. Herrmann, 47. He was one of six Sun-Times reporters covering NIU, a story that drew international attention. "To see the staff work together and everyone pitching in . . . is one of the beauties of the Sun-Times and what makes it so wonderful to work here." Mr. Herrmann's wife, Ginny Lee, is an editor at the northwest suburban Daily Herald. "We have had many conversations about what I'm doing, but she understands the appeal and allure of a newspaper job," Mr. Herrmann says. Still, "I can't tell you how many people have said to me, 'Are you okay?' " he adds. Missing from the city room these days is Esther Cepeda, 33, who was among those laid off based on seniority. She still writes her column, a prominent full page on Hispanic issues, for the paper as a freelancer. She joined the Sun-Times in June 2006, well aware of the paper's difficulties; several marquee writers, including classical music critic Wynne Delacoma and book editor Henry Kisor, accepted buyouts that year. Still, "it never crossed my mind that these large-scale layoffs would occur," Ms. Cepeda says. Her last day in the newsroom was in late January. "There's worry," she says of her former colleagues. "The hushed conversations in the hallway . . . people passing along information on how people who have been laid off are doing. The people left behind have had to scrape themselves together." Editorial board member and 22-year veteran Mike Gillis also was laid off in January. "From mid-December to the day I got laid off, the mood was grim," says Mr. Gillis, 45. "Everybody felt that, not like you had a target on your back, but is 2008 going to be a life-changing year for us?" "I don't think there's anyone there" who thinks everything will be fine, Mr. Gillis adds. "And it's not just there — it's industrywide. It's not a good time to be looking for a job." COMMITTED TO THE PAPER Indeed, newspapers nationwide are in miserable financial shape. Both the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times have recently announced sizable layoffs. "Everyone's looking into the future, and it's foggy," says Sun-Times Managing Editor Don Hayner. "No one sees the clarity of the industry." Mr. Hayner, a city desk veteran, is a popular leader; other employees describe him as the heart and soul of the newsroom. "Everyone here has got a commitment to the paper," he says. "People actually love this paper." Every morning now, instead of heading off to the Sun-Times building, Bob Mutter walks to his corner drugstore in Oak Park to buy a copy of the paper. Mr. Mutter spent 24 years on the copy desk and was a union leader from 2000 to 2006, guiding staff through two contract negotiations. In January, he took a buyout. "I thought about it a lot," Mr. Mutter says, and eventually figured that with the extensive cutbacks, working at the paper "wouldn't be fun anymore." His leaving, too, "would save a job or a job-and-a-half" for a less-senior colleague. The newspaper "looks good," adds Mr. Mutter, 58. "I'd be interested in who's going to buy it." And there looms the remaining question: Who would, and what might they do with it? Theater critic Ms. Weiss holds out the last best hope — that the paper will be bought by someone "with deep pockets" and "a passion for the honor of owning a newspaper." The buyer would need to be "someone with innovative ideas," she says, "who can combine print and electronic media in interesting ways." Industry watchers have more dour predictions. Younger staff in particular should be updating résumés rather than hoping for a savior, says Mr. Groves, the media consultant. "I'd be taking my skill set and figuring out how to translate that into a different medium," he says. "It doesn't have to be ink on paper." Should the newspaper group be sold, "I don't think it's going to be a rebirth and then heaven," says Mr. Groves, adding that its smaller suburban publications might prove more valuable than the flagship city paper. The Sun-Times most likely would be folded immediately, "or it's death by 100 pecks." "This is a very difficult time," he says. "For employees to say they've come back before is to not understand that." ©2008 by Crain Communications Inc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/column/the_thursday_papers_95.php The [Wednesday] Papers By Steve Rhodes "As much as you tear down the Sun-Times, this extreme downsizing hurts journalism in Chicago," an e-mailer wrote to me recently. Another correspondent imagined I was feeling "glee" over the plight of the Sun-Times. Nothing could be further from the truth. The thinning of the Sun-Times is not only depressing to those of us who have loved newspapers, but is a disservice to the city by a mercenary management group that doesn't understand its own newspaper, much less the market it operates in. The Sun-Times still retains a certain kind of goodwill in this city it has yet to learn how to deploy: A deep desire for a feisty, upstart underdog to the Tribune. The desire is so deep many folks imagine, in an exercise of wish-fulfillment, that the paper already fulfills this role. On the whole, no. You don't tap into this yearning by bragging on your front page that you are still only 50 cents, or with sophomoric self-promotion that only reinforces the notion that you are a bumbling young sibling constantly trying to get mom and dad's attention by standing on your head. You get there by practicing a fundamentally different kind of journalism that endears you to whatever print audience is still out there, and using the Internet to grow new audiences. That means, for example, reporters in the neighborhoods instead of a neighborhoods reporter. Beat reporters allowed the freedom to write the truth in a snappy way, instead of rewriting press releases about how great our mayor is and how cool the Olympics will be. Turning the page on the Sneeds and Stellas of the world. Just for starters. The paper has many assets, and maybe my praise gets lost in my criticism. Columnist Laura Washington, for example, wrote in a New Year's resolution column that I "should resolve to lay off the vitriolic, personal cheap shots and give our Fourth Estate a little love. We do some things right." I have a lot of respect for Laura Washington, and I certainly don't take offense. I have showered a lot of praise on a lot of people at the Sun-Times, though, over the years, both here on the Beachwood and in my old "Press Box" column at Chicago magazine. I'll do so here again. * Carol Marin. I'm obviously a fan. Best political columnist in town is an understatement given the multiple roles she fills. * Tim Novak & Steve Warmbir. Reporter's reporters, serving our city to the fullest of their considerable abilities. * Abdon Pallasch. Easily one the city's best and most knowledegable reporters. * Jim DeRogatis. We're blessed with two of the finest, if not the best, daily rock critics in the biz with DeRo and the Trib's Greg Kot. * Greg Couch. The city's best sports columnist, particularly when it comes to the Cubs. * Paige Wiser. A sharp cultural observer who is funny as hell and can write. * Roger Ebert. Obviously. * Quick Takes (Zay Smith) and Quick Hits (Elliott Harris). Bite-size musings that often contains more truth than anything else in a given day's paper. (Minus Harris's cheesecake.) * Lynn Sweet. A one-woman Washington bureau who is also the only local reporter routinely reporting, in limited space, on the differences between Barack Obama's rhetoric and his reality. * Teresa Budasi. The new books editor whose section has been shrunk but whose column has been a breath of smart and witty fresh air. * And by the way, I know she's not local, but in case you're wondering, I'm not joking about "Ask Ellie." I love her. She's really good. She's actually a real therapist, as opposed to some other advice columnists we know. And there are others. As I've written before, Tom McNamee's now-dead Controversy section could have been a model for remaking the whole paper for the digital age. And the paper was so caught up in battling RedEye that it never knew what it had in Red Streak. Maybe more than making me sad, though, the Sun-Times's problems make me angry. Angry because those folks who knew David Radler was up to no good sat still and quiet. Angry because of the resignation with which folks there seem to sit back and take it. Angry because of the ineffectiveness of the union to proactively and creatively engage. And frustrated at the shamefully low standards the paper so often has. There are stars in that newsroom, and there are embarrassments. It's a wide gulf, and the bench isn't deep. - Judging the recent job losses according to the quality of work each lost individual produced is the wrong way to look at it. Those aren't just people whose departure we might applaud (Jennifer Hunter) who have been cut, those are positions lost. Still, I think the loss of Esther Cepeda hurts the paper the most. True, every time I was on the verge of becoming, to use her parlance, a Cepeda fanatico, she wrote something that drove me nuts. But Cepeda carved out a space for herself that happened to also bring deserved attention to Hispanic life and viewpoints in Chicago. She was also tres productive, writing all over the paper in a variety of areas. And you have to feel bad for someone like Doug Elfman, whom I only read occasionally but was actually recruited to come here. It's a brutal, dysfunctional business. So much of what's in a newspaper is journalists instructing everyone else how to conduct their business, from politicians to sports teams to corporations, but journalists can't seem to conduct their own. Either they don't read their own work or their sage consulting is worthless. * Many of us have been waiting for years for a savior to scoop up the Sun-Times. Is there no civic figure or foundation in this great city ready to step up to the plate? The Sun-Times is more important to the city than Millennium Park or the Olympics. This is about our civic life and, at least occasionally, about our democracy. Or do we just want to take the Tribune's word for it every day? * Other changes coming soon to the Sun-Times, according to a Beachwood Labs investigation: * Will only cover horoscopes for six of the astrological signs. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.maynardije.org/columns/dickprince/080124_prince/ "Journal-isms" by Dick Prince Diversity Collides With Seniority Sun-Times Lays Off 2 Journalists of Color, Saves 1 Two journalists of color were laid off at the Chicago Sun-Times and a third was promoted after the newspaper management locked horns with the Newspaper Guild of Chicago over the impact of its downsizing on diversity, Editor in Chief Michael Cooke told Journal-isms on Thursday. Let go were reporters Leonard N. Fleming, who a year ago had been laid off at the Philadelphia Inquirer and is African American, and columnist Esther J. Cepeda, who is Latina. Norman Parish, a recent hire from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who is African American, was spared a layoff by being promoted to the night city desk, Cooke said. A black journalist in lower management was said to have accepted a buyout, but that person could not be reached. "I feel terrible, terrible, especially for Leonard and Esther," Cooke said. "It is an awful, awful thing. The truth is there are really no bad guys, as far as I can tell. We went into this reduction with the union contract in our hands, and we wanted to keep as many minorities as we could. They say the union contract is all about seniority and they would not budge. Their position did not change," Cooke said of the guild. Union leaders Misha Davenport and Bob Mizzone did not respond to requests for comment. As reported two weeks ago, black journalists Avis Weathersbee, assistant managing editor, and editorial board member Michelle Stevens were among five Sun-Times newsroom employees in the first round of layoffs Jan. 10 as the parent Sun-Times Media Group attempts to slash $50 million in operating costs. "Fourteen full-time and three part-time newsroom staff members were notified of their layoffs in Wednesday night telephone calls from their bosses," he wrote, although Fleming told Journal-isms he was working then and was told in person. "Misha Davenport, the Newspaper Guild's co-chairman at the Sun-Times . . . noted it was better than feared because of the buyout packages accepted voluntarily. "Parent Sun-Times Media Group Inc. had said earlier this month that it planned to eliminate as many as 35 union-covered jobs in the newsroom of the city's second-largest newspaper, or nearly 20 percent of what formerly was a total of 188 Guild-covered jobs. The final tally could now end up being 32, including three vacant positions." Fleming, 38, told Journal-isms he expected to be laid off because of the seniority rules, and had already removed many of his belongings from the building. "I'm not sure what direction I want to take," he said, noting that the Sun-Times had been his fourth newspaper. He began his career at the Indianapolis Star and worked at the old Houston Post, and was lured to the Sun-Times partly because he grew up in Chicago's western suburbs. "Even though I don't want to leave the business that I love, I have to consider leaving the business," Fleming said. He added, "I remember the hurt and denial many folks had in Houston. While I was on the phone looking for a job the minute the paper closed, they were hoisting beer and whiskey hidden in their desks. . . . I've learned that as a black man in this business, you can never get too comfortable." Cepeda, 34, said she wants to keep writing her column. She wrote a news column and a sports column simultaneously, she said. "I was in the paper three times a week" until the newspaper stated getting smaller. She had been at the Sun-Times only a year and a half. Born and raised in Chicago, Cepeda said the Sun-Times taught her to read. "I didn't speak English until my first day of kindergarten," she said. Cepeda worked as a schoolteacher before coming to the newspaper, and said she now wants to work for a publication with an even larger circulation. Noting the nation's changing demographics, she said of Hispanic journalists, "There aren't that many of us. I'd love to keep bringing that voice." The National Association of Black Journalists and its Chicago chapter both urged union and management to consider diversity when the cutbacks were made, Fleming said. A year ago, when the parent company of the Philadelphia Inquirer laid off up to 71 newsroom employees, or about 17 percent of the editorial staff. NABJ, the Asian American Journalists Association and Unity: Journalists of Color protested the disproportionate numbers of journalists of color on the list. Management and the Newspaper Guild each blamed the other for that outcome, then negotiated a small number of reinstatements. Because so many white journalists were laid off at the Sun-Times, the diversity numbers might actually increase, Cooke said. But he said that editors who find themselves in his situation should know that "You've got to jump through hoops to save the minorities, and if you've got a union contract, you've got to push it as far as you can." The Sun-Times readership is about 30 percent African American and 15 percent Hispanic, he said. Fleming said, "The time has come where unions have to be asked and have to be cajoled by the NABJs of the world to start taking diversity into consideration, because we're the first fired and last hired in an oftentimes punitive seniority system." Journalists left standing had mixed emotions. "It was a relief, but I feel for the other folks," Parish, a Chicago native, said of his promotion. "I feel blessed. I've been there before." In 1997, Parish was among 60 reporters laid off when the Arizona Republic closed its afternoon sister paper, the Phoenix Gazette. Reporter Monifa Thomas, a black journalist who said she would have been next in line to be laid off, said, "I feel relieved, but also very sad. I'm watching people that I care about pick up their stuff. It's not as if there are any winners in this." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://blogs.chicagoreader.com/news-bites/2008/01/24/shrinking-sun-times/ by Michael Miner on January 24th 2008 - 6:09 p.m. The Chicago Reader The hammer has come down at the Sun-Times, where more layoffs were just announced. (Read here about earlier layoffs.) Names you'll recognize are about to disappear, and the strange thing is the palpable degree of relief, even satisfaction, among the staff -- it could have been a lot worse. Editorial columnist Steve Huntley asked for and received a buyout, though he'll continue his column as a freelancer. TV critic Doug Elfman has been laid off. Special Barack Obama correspondent Jennifer Hunter, wife of former publisher John Cruickshank, took a buyout. Columnist Esther Cepeda was laid off, though there's a possibility she'll continue to freelance her column. Religion reporter Susan Hogan/Albach (known as "Slash" around the office) was laid off. Reporter Kara Spak, who's married to star investigative reporter Steve Warmbir, was laid off, a loss people seem to be mourning in particular. Editor in chief Michael Cooke's old pal Garry Steckles -- Cooke summoned him from Saint Kitts to help out and then gave him management status to protect his job -- was returned to Newspaper Guild status when the guild protested and then lost his job. Deputy metro editor Phyllis Gilchrist resigned because she knew that eliminating her management salary might save a couple of guild jobs. Assistant city editors Nancy Moffett and Robert Herguth took buyouts, as did veteran writer Jim Ritter and business copy editors Chris Whitehead and Bob Mutter. Business editor Dan Miller had resigned earlier. In all, 14 full-time and 3 part-time guild employees were laid off (on the basis of seniority) and 12 others took buyouts, says Gerald Minkkinen, executive director of the Chicago Newspaper Guild. "In the long run," he says, "the company worked with us and did as much as they could to lessen the pain. I really have to give them credit." So does Elfman, with a cat to feed and a new job to find. "It's not a situation where they're laying off people unjustly," he says, well aware of the fact the company's bleeding money, "and I'm in favor of seniority in theory. It just happened to bite me in the ass." I've caught Elfman on his way out of the office to get a drink. "The Sun-Times has really been great about the way they've handled a lot of this," he says. "But there's a but. I was recruited here, I was asked to come here," he muses. "I guess my message to the newspaper editors of America is if you recruit someone don’t lay them off." That's the temperate end of the spectrum of reactions to getting canned. So it was a little surprising to be told that Bob Mazzoni, the sports copy editor who's cochair of the Sun-Times's guild unit, seemed to be in a "a pretty good mood" Wednesday night, which is when calls were made to the staffers losing their jobs. It's all relative of course, but Mazzoni allows that in a sense he was. "To get down from [management's] original request of 35 jobs to 17 who are leaving involuntarily made us feel like we had really accomplished something," he told me, explaining that when the guild proposed buyouts management agreed to them at once and -- as was not true with a round of buyouts a couple of years ago -- accepted everybody who applied. Managing editor Don Hayner is being hailed as a hero around the office. Mazzoni said, "We were told that whenever they had a meeting of any kind with stockholders or the board, Don would be there to plead the newsroom's case. Had it not been for his efforts the original number of 35 would have been higher and therefore the ensuing number of layoffs greater. He looks at the newsroom as his baby and he really felt an obligation to save as many of these jobs as he could, especially a lot of the less tenured people he was instrumental in bringing in." Layoffs usually poison the atmosphere between management and labor. Not this time, said Mazzoni -- "I actually think this process as we went through it strengthened the trust both sides feel with each other." Friday is the last day for Nancy Moffett, a buddy from my own Sun-Times days, a happy warrior who joined the paper in 1970 and has been there through Marshall Field, through Rupert Murdoch, through Conrad Black. Moffett told me she feels like a "basket case" knowing it's all about to end, even though she's leaving on her own terms. "It's a circus," she said. "It's a lot of smart people being funny all the time." Working at a newspaper, she's discovered, is something she can only explain to people who already know. It's addictive. "It's like being on crack." ~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=27895 Sun-Times columnist Cepeda, TV critic Elfman among casualties By: Lorene Yue Jan. 24, 2008 (Crain’s) — Chicago Sun-Times television critic Doug Elfman and columnists Esther J. Cepeda and Jennifer Hunter are among the newsroom employees leaving the paper as its parent looks to cut $50 million in costs. Sources familiar with the situation say Mr. Elfman, Ms. Cepeda and Ms. Hunter are among the newsroom personnel who were laid off or took a buyout. Also leaving are: Deputy City Editor Phyllis Gilchrist, Assistant City Editors Nancy Moffett and Bob Herguth and real estate editor Sally Duros. A Chicago Sun-Times spokeswoman declined to name those affected. ~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=27692 Columnist could end up among Sun-Times cuts By: Ann Saphir Jan. 09, 2008 (Crain’s) — With Sun-Times Media Group set to cut 32 newsroom jobs from its flagship paper, even high-profile columnists may not be exempt. Esther Cepeda, whose column at the Sun-Times focuses on issues that affect the city’s 2 million Hispanics, is on the list of reporters, copy editors and other staffers whose lack of seniority makes them most vulnerable to layoffs. Ms. Cepeda, who declined to comment for this story, joined the Sun-Times in 2006. No final decision has been made: The number of cuts and who will be directly affected by them is the topic of ongoing negotiations between management and the Chicago Newspaper Guild. But the prospect that a Hispanic columnist at a major Chicago paper — and one of the few in the country — could lose her job in the Sun-Times’ cost-cutting blitz has some observers worried. "I think she’s an important emerging voice. She says things that don’t always go with accepted wisdom, and that’s what makes her important," says Phil Ponce, host of WTTW-TV’s "Chicago Tonight." "The fact that there are so few Latinos that have this forum makes us all a little nervous about her status." On Tuesday, the Sun-Times informed the newspaper guild of plans to cut four part-time and two full-time editorial positions from the Herald News in Joliet. That brings to 22 the planned job cuts at suburban papers whose newsrooms are covered by guild contracts. The majority of the dozens of newspapers owned by the Sun-Times aren’t union shops, and staffing changes at those papers could come at any time. The proposed layoffs at the Sun-Times and its satellite publications are part of a plan to reduce expenses by $50 million in the first half of this year. The guild has two weeks to offer alternatives, such as buyouts, that could save others from involuntary termination.
Laura Garza is a vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 1. She’s been busy mobilizing the union’s heavily immigrant membership for tomorrow’s march. This year, Garza says, the march takes on a different significance.
That support doesn’t go over well with retired electrician Mike Madia. He’s a union pensioner and a member of the Chicago Minuteman Project, which fights for tougher immigration enforcement.
Globe Gazette ^ | Mar. 8, 2008 | EMILY C. RUIZ, Hispanic Link
* All comic strips reduced to one box featuring Jeffy.
* Neil Steinberg and Michael Sneed will share a column called Sneedberg.
* City Hall stories will be written directly by the mayor's office.
* Newspaper will be renamed Some-Times and only come out occasionally.
* Company will eliminate newsroom to focus on revenue-generating divisions such as Bears medallions.
* In sports, only home games will be covered. If they're on TV.
* Home delivery now in hands of Dominos.
* Citizen journalists will now generate all content for free from their cell phones.
Posted on January 31, 2008
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