Someone Still Believes in the Traditional Newspaper Business

Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell's offer to buy out and take private the Tribune Company (owner of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, among many other things) apparently accepted, for $8.2 billion. For what this might mean to my hometown paper (and home to two beloved former Reasoners, Matt Welch and Tim Cavanaugh), see the paper's own coverage, revealing that David Geffen would still like to buy the LAT itself off of Zell. L.A. community reaction.

Comments

[highnumber]

Cubs for sale!
Get your Cubs right here!
Cubs for sale!
Cubs for sale!

[VM]

Cubbies for sale. Stadium junk for sale. Trixie panties left in the bleachers. cheap!

(Mr. Crane says to remind you that the lake looks lovely today!)

[highnumber]

I'll bet. Beautiful day for a bike ride, no?
Will you boys be participating in the L.A.T.E. Ride this year?

[VM]

He might - I don't bike anymore. (long story)

Lousy day for Chicago beisbol, tho...

we watched them from the balcony last year, IIRC. I wasn't allowed to throw a bleu chaez (sic) stuffed olive down on them... sigh. Whatever group of cyclist types that was...

/kicks rosemary branch.

[JimmyDaGeek]

VM,

As a current cyclist, I must chastise you for wanting to throw bleu chaez [sic] stuffed olives at riders.

Shame On You!

That is all.

[highnumber]

Sorry for the short attention span commenting, but...
My favorite memory from one of the LATE Rides was the drunk guy somewhere around River North yelling first "Why are you riding?! Why are you riding?!" then "It doesn't matter how many of you ride, Bush is still President!" I almost fell off my bike.

[VM]

Shame taken, JdG.

Mrs. Moose prevented that from happening. She appealed to my humanitarian side: "there's still martini on that olive".

High#: hilarious! just point 'em at the Rock N Roll McDonalds there, and everything will be fine!

cheerio. good show.

[Crusader Rabbit]

Wow, can anyone tranlate the preceding ChiTown patois for us foreigners?

[Number 6]

I don't even believe in traditional newspapers, and I work in the business. The industry is tearing its own guts out by decimating news rooms, focusing on drivel, and closing its eyes while shouting, "The world isn't changing, the world isn't changing!"

Still, I blame you, the American people.

[VM]

Sorry 'bout that Rabbit!

Long After Twilight Ends bicycle ride

River North has nightlife and tourist type stuff. Some trixie ad agencies and trixie bars. Runs from the river to Chicago Avenue (about 6 blocks north) and from the river (north branch) to LaSalle St. It's just west of the Magnificent Mile (Michigan Ave from the river to Oak Street)

A New Yawker I know said it kinda reminded him of a Chicago version of SoHo, but I don't know what that means.

In that area is the Hard Rock Cafe and the Rainforest Cafe. For tourists from Wisconsin who want a break from brick cheese and fish fries. There is also a McDonalds nearby done in a rock n roll history diner style.

hier.

("trixie" is the term for the (died) blonde haired, trendy, jetta driving (probably entry level A4 now) late 20 something socialite. Usually working in Advertising. (maybe a Kellogg MBA in marketing)

The type who would watch "Friends" and U2 and talk about how she doesn't like people who are trendy. Another definition is the same type from Michigan or Ohio but found those parts of the midwest to be passe. And they'd go to law school to meet a husband)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trixie_(woman)

[highnumber]

You forgot one:

The Chicago Cubs are the long suffering National League baseball team in Chicago. They have not won a World Series, as the Major League Baseball organization calls its championship, since 1908. They play on the North Side of the city at Wrigley Field.
Here is the best Cubs blog.

[de stijl]

Crusader Rabbit,

Chicago is the largest metropolitan area in the US state of Illinois. It's is not the capital of the state though. Traditionally it was a meatpacking powerhouse and is located near the southern end of a large body of freshwater (see also The Great Lakes) called Lake Michigan.

Many wankers live in the city of Chicago or its nearby environs.

HTH.

[Taktix?]

VM,

Nice Westly Willis reference, I sure miss that guy.

[VM]

High#:

our very own Gaius Marius posts there!

Nice to see he doesn't use caps there, either 🙂

[highnumber]

de stijl: Dutch for "the style"; refers to a Dutch modern design movement in the first half of the 20th century.
Also a commenter at Hit & Run, see Cruising for a Bruising, and It Takes One to Know One.

[ChicagoTom]

In that area is the Hard Rock Cafe and the Rainforest Cafe. For tourists from Wisconsin who want a break from brick cheese and fish fries. There is also a McDonalds nearby done in a rock n roll history diner style.

Fucking priceless!!

[Crusader Rabbit]

Thanks, Moose! I'm now a thoroughly enlightened Angeleno.

[Pro Libertate]

Forget the lake--"if they can dye the river green [on St. Patrick's Day], why can't they dye it blue the other 364 days of the year?"

[Isaac Bartram]

Chicago is the largest metropolitan area in the US state of Illinois. It's is not the capital of the state though.

The metropolis not being the capital is quite common in these United States.

[Happy Jack]

our very own Gaius Marius posts there!

A Cub's fan, heh. No wonder he always had a dim view of humanity.

[kevrob]

What will be interesting is what, besides the Cubbies, Zell sells. The Tribune Co. owns the L.A. Times and Long Island's Newsday, along with various TV and radio properties, notably WGN (World's Greatest Newspaper.) It would depend on the level of debt burden he's willing to carry, along with the various cross-ownership waivers the FCC lets him retain. Some business wonks on the PBS NewsHour tonight mentioned that Mother Tribune's setup is as an employee-owned company, and that if Zell arranged to be the largest, but still a minority stockholder, they might not have to be reapplied for. A divorce of WGN radio and TV from the dead-tree Trib would be momentous.

Kevin

[Rhywun]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trixie_(woman)

Ah. Like a Sex in the City chick, but younger. Yeah, we have a few of those here in NYC.

[Rhywun]

I read somewhere that state capitals were traditionally set up in backwater shitholes in order to remain untainted by business interests in the big city.... How'd that work out?

[Isaac Bartram]

Rhywun,

That was the version I heard too.

The exception is Tallahassee, FL, which was made the capital because it was in the center of the state. 🙂

[kevrob]

Rhywun:

There were other considerations in state capital siting, like the travel distances from the hinterlands. If the state's metropolis was on a coast, or was a river port with the next state on the other bank, legislators or anybody else who need to make an overland trip from clear across the state would be burdened more than those who lived in and aroung the "big city." Pick some centrally located burg, and the misery gets spread around.

Another popular reason for plunking a capital in a fairly unpopulated area, or even, like D.C., building a city from scratch, was land speculation. The out-state folks wouldn't get a share of the grease from putting the capital in an already developed town the way they would in a small or not-yet-existing one.

Kevin

[Rhywun]

There were other considerations in state capital siting, like the travel distances from the hinterlands.

Yeah, I heard that one too, but it doesn't offer as good a punchline....

[VM]

"Rhywun | April 2, 2007, 10:24pm | #
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trixie_(woman)

Ah. Like a Sex in the City chick, but younger. Yeah, we have a few of those here in NYC."

can imagine! And what about the LA version?

Didn't Jim M. do a little ditty about them once?

ProL: cuz the machine is in the pocket of heavy metal.

[Russ 2000]

At the time Springfield was made the capital of Illinois, it was about the same population as Chicago. Chicago didn't see the population boom until the I&M Canal was finished.

[J Golden Rockwell]

If you read that idea about state capitols in a newspaper, you need to learn not to believe everything you see in the bottom of a birdcage.

Phoenix is the Arizona capital because when the territorial capital was in Prescott, it effectively locked the southern half of Arizona out of political power.

Salt Lake City is the Utah capital because it was the first town in the Territory of Deseret (which was later trimmed down).

Sacramento is the California capital because it was the town at the center of the Gold Rush, the largest city at the time of statehood.

Honolulu is the Hawaii capital because it was chosen by King Kamehameha, before "business interests" discovered the islands.