Sun-Times: Shaking Up…
There’s nothing novel about a newspaper vowing to describe the forest as well as the trees–“It’s what editors have been telling reporters forever,” Britton told us. He conceded at the beginning of his pep talk that his staff probably would have heard it all before, and he joked about his own cliches. What makes now different, he said, is the state of the paper. Circulation has leveled off at 530,000 after dropping for two years, Britton said; but unless the Sun-Times seizes a “niche” for itself as the paper that day in and day out delivers local news clearly, concisely, and in the context of its readers’ lives, it’s as good as gone.
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“I haven’t been a very smart editor,” said Martinez, admitting that he wasn’t always open to the story ideas that reporters brought him. “You’ve been doing the right things, and some of us haven’t been listening. I apologize.”
“They usually send you a letter ahead of time, do you want lobster or steak? There’s usually a beautiful dinner after the golf, and then people sit around and tell stories. It’s about the only time all year the retirees get to see a lot of the people we used to work with.”
That sounded odd to us. Mark Dacey, the Sun-Times’s new advertising chief, is famous at the paper for his love of golf and the delight he feels when everyone around him is enjoying it too. As editor Dennis Britton remarked about him, “He invited half of North America to the U.S. Open.”
“He and I made a decision to keep it all in the family this year,” Dacey said.
