Steve Rhodes says they were singing “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” around the newsroom at the Chicago Sun-Times, with the publisher ousted and Conrad Black defanged…
But the newsroom is also tinged with trepidation. For one thing, though Black has been reduced to the role of ?nonexecutive chairman,? and though the investigation of the financial dealings continue, Black still retains nominal control of the company, at least for now. Even if Black is cut loose, Hollinger is still Hollinger. If it survives, it may be kinder and gentler without Black and Radler (who was also Hollinger?s president and chief operating officer), but it isn?t likely to discover a heart it didn?t know it had. And with the whiff of a sale in the air, who knows what the paper might face under yet another new owner, which would be the fourth in the past two decades.
The Sun-Times should be a destination paper … a gutsy tabloid in downtown Chicago that actually cares about covering local news there … but I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about newsroom’s working conditions. If anybody asks I’d be apt to tell ’em: Chicago’s a great town but you don’t want to live there that bad.