‘Chic Trib’ Ed: Experience of the News Is as Important as the News Itself

The new editor of the Chicago Tribune, Gerry Kern, has sent a memo to staffers saying that “the experience of the news is as important as the news itself.”

The phrase is meant to offer an explanation for the changes the paper is making, and perhaps to serve as a sort of rallying cry to get all staffers onboard with the new direction. Kern goes on (via the Tell Zell blog), “Without an engaged audience that finds value in what we offer, we cannot succeed. Journalism is not an abstraction that exists apart from the audience. It must deliver what the audience needs and wants.”

Tribune Co’s newspapers are, like most big-city papers, struggling with challenges that include a migration of readers to the web, slipping ad revenue, rising paper costs and, now, a challenging economy.

Tribune Co. has been implementing sweeping changes, from significant staff cuts to redesigns of their pages and a more equal editorial/advertising mix (which means fewer pages of news coverage), meant to improve revenue. Sam Zell, who took the company private last year, is facing a mountain of debt he accumulated with the transaction.

Kern claims to see “tremendous opportunity amid all the uncertainty,” but only if the staff can pull together and get readers engaged. “We will enlighten, provoke, surprise and entertain them. We want them to say, ‘This is my Tribune and I can’t get along without it,’” he wrote.