Chicago Sun-Times

Eric Kallgren    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 4:35pm on Friday, May 29th, 2009

Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Greg Couch has left the newspaper to join the AOL Sports web site Fanhouse. He follows Sun-Times sports writer Jay Mariotti, who left for AOL last summer. The Chicago Tribune had this report on March 25, 2009:

"Sports columnist Greg Couch is leaving the Chicago Sun-Times after a dozen years to cover golf, tennis and college football and basketball for AOL's FanHouse.com site.

AOL Sports earlier signed former Sun-Times sports columnist Jay Mariotti, who resigned last summer after returning from the Beijing Olympics with complaints about the paper's Internet efforts. Couch was the other half of the Sun-Times contingent in China to cover the Games.

Although Couch tendered his resignation Tuesday, Sun-Times Sports Editor Stu Courtney said Wednesday he did not know when Couch's last day at the paper would be. Couch said the Sun-Times was still planning to send him to cover the NCAA men's basketball regional in Indianapolis later this week, leaving his AOL start date up in the air.

"I just wanted to start playing offense," Couch said. "All newspapers, not just the Sun-Times, you're playing defense, you're hanging on for dear life. AOL seems to have found their niche, and they're thinking big. ... I just wanted to go with someone who was trying to grow rather than just trying to hang on."

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 2:39pm on Saturday, April 4th, 2009

The Sun-Times Media Group, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, filed for bankruptcy protection on March 31, 2009. Sun-Times staff reporter David Roeder filed this report:

"Sun-Times Media Group Inc., owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and many suburban newspapers, today voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with the aim of reorganizing operations, settling a tax liability and making the company fit for a buyer.

The petition was filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Chairman Jeremy Halbreich said the filing was a difficult decision but essential for the company “to re-establish itself as a self-sustaining, profitable operation. That is worth fighting for.”

His overriding goals are to sustain the company’s print and online news operations while “preserving as many jobs as possible," he said.

The company has one significant creditor -- the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS has said Sun-Times Media Group owes up to $608 million in back taxes and penalties from past business practices by its former controlling owner, Conrad Black, now imprisoned for theft from corporate coffers.

Unlike other newspaper owners that have filed for bankruptcy amid steep dropoffs in advertising, including Chicago-based Tribune Co., Sun-Times Media Group has no bank debt. But its IRS debt thwarted efforts to raise new capital."

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 3:52pm on Thursday, February 19th, 2009

February 18, 2009: The Chicago Sun-Times has promoted Don Hayner to editor in chief. Hayner will replace Michael Cooke, who is leaving to become the editor at the Toronto Star.

Hayner was most recently the managing editor of the Sun-Times. The Sun-Times also announced that it has named long-time reporter and editor Andrew Herrmann as Managing Editor.

Mr. Hayner, 57, has had a long and distinguished history with the Chicago Sun-Times, where he has served in various capacities for nearly 27 years. At the Sun-Times, Mr. Hayner has been the metro editor, city editor, a general assignment reporter, a personal finance writer, a neighborhood beat reporter and a Sunday features writer. He has won several awards for reporting including a national award for education writers.

Prior to the Sun-Times, Mr. Hayner practiced law for three years before switching careers to work as a reporter at City News Bureau. From there he went to the Suburban Trib where he was a reporter and later a columnist. For five years he co-hosted a Saturday morning talk radio show for WLS-AM (890). He also co-authored three books: Streetwise Chicago, A History of Chicago Street Names; The Metro Chicago Almanac; and The Stadium: 1929-1994, The Official Commemorative History of the Chicago Stadium.

Mr. Hayner is a graduate of Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, and John Marshall Law School in Chicago. He is married to Dawn Hayner and they live on the South Side of Chicago. They have two sons.

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:37am on Monday, February 16th, 2009

February 11, 2009: The Chicago Tribune reported that Chicago Sun-Times editor Michael Cooke is leaving for the Toronto Star:

"Chicago Sun-Times Editor Michael Cooke told staff today he is leaving the newspaper at the end of this month, a day after former newsroom colleague John Barron was appointed publisher by parent Sun-Times Media Group.

Cooke, 56, said in his memo he is joining the Toronto Star as its editor. The move reunites him with former Sun-Times Publisher John Cruickshank, now publisher of the Star.

The Sun-Times, whose parent on Tuesday appointed a new board chairman and interim chief executive and made other management adjustments, did not immediately name Cooke's successor.

Cruickshank and Cooke arrived in Chicago together from separate Vancouver newspapers in 2000 to jointly oversee editorial operations at the Sun-Times, with Cruickshank eventually moving into the publisher's office. Cooke left to become editor of the New York Daily News in January 2005, but Cruickshank welcomed him back to the company as a vice president the following December, overseeing the company's regional coverage through its suburban papers."