The Chicago Tribune is in talks to purchase the Chicago Sun-Times and in all likelihood create a media monopoly in Chicago print newspapers. Tronc, the incredibly stupid name of the corporation holding the Chicago Tribune properties, has said that it would keep the Chicago Sun-Times as an independent newspaper, but we all know that won’t last. The Sun-Times has been fading rapidly, and this will be the end. The only rational reason for the Tribune to buy the Sun-Times is to get rid of the competition. Recently, the Sun-Times purchased the last major free alternative weekly in Chicago, the Chicago Reader (the staffers of which just authorized a strike vote), and the Tribune is likely to turn the Sun-Times, the Reader, and its own free weekly Red-Eye into a weekly newspaper down the road.
The result of media monopoly in Chicago will be the same as everywhere else: Job losses, cuts in journalism, and more subservience to the wealthy and powerful who own, run, and advertise in the Tribune. This is a huge story, and a terrible one for Chicago.
UPDATE: The Sun-Times just announced the extent to which the Trump Justice Department will be enforcing anti-trust law: The Sun-Times has to run an ad announcing that they’re selling the paper and allow 15 days for someone else to make an offer. Then the Tribune deal to buy them out will be completed. No way anybody else can put together a deal in that time frame.