The High-Tech Trib
Magazine article by Philip Moeller; American Journalism Review, Vol. 16, April 1994
Magazine Article Excerpt
The high-tech Trib by Philip Moeller When it comes to embracing the electronic future, Chicago's Tribune Co. is in the forefront of the newspaper industry BOB GREMILLION AND JACK FULLER CAN joke about it now, but there weren't so many happy faces in early 1992, when the Tribune Company prepared to commit its 145-year-old flagship newspaper to a highly visible role in the electronic information business. Gremillion runs the company's ChicagoLand Television regional cable news channel, which went on the air in January 1993 with 650,000 area households, a total that has since grown to 1.1 million, or more than 90 percent of homes with cable in the Chicago metropolitan area. Fuller was then editor of the Chicago Tribune (he's since moved up to president and CEO of the newspaper). His mission, excuted principally by Howard A. Tyner (then associate editor and now vice president and editor), was to prepare the newspaper's 650 news staffers to collaborate with the new cable channel. A TV mini-studio was set up inside the paper's fourth-floor newsroom, and a suburban news bureau shares space with the main newsroom and studio built for ChicagoLand TV in suburban Oak Brook. With their worlds of television and print journalism about the merge, Gremillion and Fuller worried they would face confrontation between their staffs. "You had to get the lions to lie down with the lambs," Fuller recalls. The task was made more difficult by the surprising discovery that each side thought they were the ones about to be led to slaughter. The TV side thought of the newspaper staff as a bunch of old, gnarled veterans who would eat them alive, he says, while the Tribune crowd feared a parade of blow-dried, on-air performers would take over their lives. The reality has been much different. There have been some rocky moments, but more than 140 Tribune staffers have made some 800 appearances on ChicagoLand TV during its first year. Appearances are voluntary and unpaid (the cause of some grumb;ing), but editors and staffers agree there has been little tangible opposition from the newsroom. And managers at ChicagoLand TV say they're delighted to have the skills and instant credibility that Tribune reporters, columinsts and critics bring to Chicago-area audiences. Tribune Co. has been known to generations of journalists as the arch-conservative home of Col. Robert Rutherford McCormick, who ran the show from 1914 until his death in 1955. Remembered some for his politics, McCormick also was keenly interested in technology. So is today's Tribune, which is quietly becoming an industry leader for its many information technology initiatives. ChicagoLand TV is just one of many efforts throughout the company to make electronic information available to readers. Tribune Co. has developed or invested in most of the emerging communications technologies, and if it's good enough at doing this, Tribune executives think, the company will thrive in a digital future. Tribune's electronic metamorphosis has been a result of its diverse holdings beyond its core newspaper franchise that includes the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel and Ft. Lauderdale's Sun-Sentinel. The company owns seven independent broadcast TV stations (soon to be eight) that reach nearly 25 percent of the nation's households. It produces news and syndicated emtertainment shows for those stations. It owns six radio stations. And its ownership of the Chicago Cubs was an early example of how professional sports, like the new communication technologies, could generate programming and merchandising opportunities. With numerous print, broadcasting and programming holdings, Tribune has concentrated on buying and developing new types of content and expertise. In the past year, it spent nearly $200 million to buy into the CD-ROM business (Compton's Multimedia) and to purchase two educational publishing companies (Contemporary Books and the Wright Group). It bought a large stake in America Online, the fastest growing of the major online services, and created Chicago Online, which allows users to access Chicago Tribune stories and classified, send message to Tribune staffers and shop electronically. Tribune has also made minority investments in a number of small high-tech companies that are trying yo develop information-technology products.With the information revolution yielding more superhype than superhighway, at least so far, some of Tribune's investments could fall on hard times. The company notes that its big dollars have gone to buy Compton's and the two publishing houses--established and profitable companies that have done just fine without an interactive multimedia explosion. The CD-ROM business, which certainly is in a fast lane on the superhighway, is predicted to post substantial gains. The number of ... |
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