Entries associated with the tag "John Cruickshank":

Michael Cooke has resigned as editor in chief of the Sun-Times. The paper announced Wednesday that he's going back to Canada to become editor of the Toronto Star, Canada's largest-circulation newspaper, where he worked early in his career. The publisher of the Star is John Cruickshank, who used to be publisher of the Sun-Times and to run the entire Sun-Times News Group consisting of a hundred or so daily and weekly papers.

It's not the first time Cooke's quit the Sun-Times. He was editor in chief from 2000 to 2004, when he quit to become editor in chief of the New York Daily News. That job didn't work out and Cruickshank brought him back to Chicago in 2005 as vice president, editorial for the news group -- meaning top editor of every paper but the Sun-Times itself.

In September of 2006 Cruickshank gave him back his old job too. John Barron, who'd been the editor in chief, was given the fancy title of executive editor of the news group, which actually meant that he ran all the operations but editing. Cruickshank told me at the time that the news group needed a central administrator. "I knew that wasn't Michael. That's not his strength," Cruickshank said. "I really needed John to step up to a broader management role. And it seemed silly not to give Michael full rein with all our newspapers. John did a great job, but Michael just has an enormous amount of experience. I have Michael now at the Sun-Times working on that paper on a daily basis. I have editors of all the other papers reporting to Michael."

Cruickshank and Cooke were summoned to Chicago from Vancouver in 2000 by then publisher David Radler to run the Sun-Times together. The world turns quickly, and in the past nine years Radler has resigned under fire, pleaded guilty to corruption charges, served a prison sentence, and been released. Cruickshank left Chicago in 2007 to become publisher of the CBC. He was succeeded as publisher of the Sun-Times by his boss, Cyrus Freidheim, board chairman and CEO of the Sun-Times Media Group, which is the corporate remnant of the Hollinger newspaper empire that Radler had built up with Conrad Black (who's still in prison).

With Sun-Times Media Group stock selling at pennies a share, a major shareholder recently revolted, and last month they forced Freidheim and other incumbents off the board of directors. Freidheim resigned from the company, and he was replaced as publisher of the Sun-Times by John Barron, the same person whom Cooke two years ago replaced as editor in chief.

"His contributions have been immeasurable," said Barron Wednesday in a statement praising Cooke's "exceptional flair and creativity." Cooke said the opportunity to edit the Star was "irresistible," and he noted that for 30 years Cruickshank has been his "friend, colleague, partner, and boss."

Jeremy Halbreich former president and general manager of the Dallas Morning News, has succeeded Freidheim as chairman and interim CEO of the Sun-Times Media Group.

The Sun-Times wants Chicago to know the paper "is alive and well and vibrant and strong" -- in the words of publisher Cyrus Freidheim Jr. -- so it posted this story on page four of the Monday paper: "Sun-Times circulation up."

"Setting itself apart from most American newspapers," the story announced, the Sun-Times reported increases in both weekday circulation, up 0.3 percent to 313,174 copies, and Sunday circulation, up 3.4 percent to 255,906 copies.

The Sun-Times showing looked amazing. While papers everywhere were losing readers, it had gained them! On Monday the Audit Bureau of Circulations released its latest six-month circulation figures, and among the nation's dailies that report to the ABC, daily circulation was down 4.6 percent and Sunday circulation 4.9 percent.

The Tribune did even worse than that, and it can't be blamed for tucking away the news of its dismal showing inside the Tuesday business pages. The Tribune's weekday circulation dropped 7.8 percent and its Sunday circulation fell 5.8 percent.

But wait a minute . . . Along with its own figures, the Tribune reported the Sun-Times's.  The Tribune said that although Sunday Sun-Times circulation rose by 4.5 percent, weekday circulation fell by 3.9 percent. That's what the ABC reported too.

Was the Sun-Times doing some voodoo with its weekday numbers?

No, that era's over -- or so we can all hope. The Sun-Times admitted in 2003 that under David Radler, its since deposed and imprisoned publisher, it had been cooking the books for seven years, inflating its actual circulation by more than 10 percent. In 2004 the ABC censured the Sun-Times, requiring it to submit to biannual audits and to come up with a plan to clean up its circulation practices. And in the meantime, it dropped the Sun-Times from its circulation reports. 

Last March the ABC released the paper from censure status.

To celebrate, the Sun-Times decided to report the new ABC numbers in its own special way. Standard procedure is to compare average daily and Sunday circulations for the six-month period that's just ended -- in this case, April through September -- with the averages for the corresponding six months of the previous year. That's how the ABC does it, and it's how the Tribune reported it.

Instead, the Sun-Times compared the past six months with the six months just before. Spokesperson Tammy Chase says that while the paper was on censure, it was too busy cleaning up circulation to build circulation. But when it came off, "we were really able to put some planning and muscle into retaining and expanding the number of people who subscribe or buy our paper."

The paper even boasted about how it pulled off the miracle. It doubled the number of hawkers peddling the Sunday paper in certain neighborhoods, and it dropped the price of that paper from $1.50 to $1. It added a contest, Scratch2Win. And it got lucky with the Sox and Cubs both in the playoffs and Barack Obama running for president.

But now we pause for a reality check. Before weekday Sun-Times circulation went up a hair, it dropped hard for a long time. In March of 2004, the ABC reported a weekday Sun-Times circulation of 486,000. When it found out the Sun-Times was cheating, the ABC withdrew the number, and that fall publisher John Cruickshank told his staff it had been overstated by about 50,000 copies. Even so, the corrected circulation was some 120,000 copies above where the Sun-Times stands now.

Reality check II: The hundred-year-old Christian Science Monitor just announced that after 40 years of shrinking circulation, it's abandoning print (except for a Saturday magazine). Editor John Yemma promises a "much more robust Web presence" for the Monitor, which is subsidized by the Christian Science church, and no diminishment of its national and international coverage. Asked by the Monitor whether the New York Times will still be producing a print edition in ten years, publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said, "The heart of the answer must be we can't care. . . . We must be where people want us for our information."

How long can Scratch2Win play Horatio at the bridge?

Remember Billy Crystal as Fernando, the Latin dandy who understood it’s much more important to look good than to feel good? The Sun-Times has become the Fernando of newspapers, fabulously designed even when there’s nothing much in it to read. But layout won’t be enough for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and to carry out the all-important, highly coveted assignment of following and writing about it, the Sun-Times has chosen none other than Jennifer Hunter, the publisher’s wife.

It has to be difficult being the publisher’s wife. When you’re given a post on the editorial board and then a column – blessings previously bestowed on Hunter – mopes in the newsroom talk. They draw the obvious parallels between the high-living old regime of Conrad Black and his wife Barbara Amiel, who was some sort of editorial VP entitled to stick her nose in anywhere, and the upright new crew led by publisher John Cruickshank and Hunter, who's apparently similarly entitled. What’s changed? they ask. And when Hunter asks for and gets the Obama beat, they consider the question answered.

But then it has to be difficult being a publisher with a wife like Hunter. You’re damned at the office if you give her big opportunities, and probably damned at home if you don’t. In her favor, Hunter has a lot of experience as a journalist, and just because most of it was in Canada doesn’t mean it doesn’t count. Her first piece on Obama, February 9, was a solidly researched story on the political rise of Lincoln, whose mantle Hunter sees Obama hoping to don -- she cites his decision to launch his presidential campaign from Springfield’s Old State Capitol. Tossing around terms like daring and hubris and serious chutzpah, she told Obama to watch his step. 

But someone with her nose for vainglory should be embarrassed by the italicized boilerplate that's apparently going to run after each of her pieces: “Jennifer Hunter is an award-winning journalist who is following Sen. Barack Obama on his run for the White House.” The sulking Sun-Times newsroom consists of almost nobody but award-winning journalists. Hell, this is Chicago. I’m an award-winning journalist myself.  If Hunter thinks she needs to say anything about herself, she should say she’s the publisher’s wife and then write so well the city forgives her.