About a year ago, I was standing on a corner near the Reader‘s River North offices, picket sign in hand, pleading with passersby to help save the publication. The paper’s editorial employees, my colleagues, were well into a second year of contract negotiations with management, and things were looking pretty gloomy, to say the least.
So let me pause from my usual rage against the machine to thank the readers in Readerland who signed our petitions and offered words of support. No way could we have done it without you.
After that it was hard to keep up with the turnover at the top. One boss seemed to replace another as the hedge fund’s operators tried to figure out what to do with a newspaper they’d never intended to run.
So it went, as months passed and the world moved on. Rahm was reelected. The Cubs won the World Series. Donald Trump won the presidency. Ferro purchased a controlling share of Tribune Publishing, which was soon after rebranded as Tronc. After that we weren’t even sure who was calling the shots for Wrapports.
What a difference new owners make. They must have issued new directions for Rilea. Suddenly, he was all smiles and sweetness at the bargaining table. I half expected him to burst into “Have an Eggroll, Mr. Goldstone.” (That’s a song from the musical Gypsy about—ah, forget it. Only old-timers like Rilea and me will get that joke.)
