Chicago Tribune Sportswriter Asks How Many Reporters Were Furloughed For Ad at Wrigley

Paul Sullivan, a longtime Cubs and White Sox writer for the Chicago Tribune, noticed an advertisement for his newspaper at Wrigley Field and wondered aloud how much it cost and thus how many reporters had to endure furloughs to total the equivalent of how much they paid for it:

In May the Chicago Tribune and their union agreed that unionized members of the newsroom making $40,000 a year or more would take three weeks of unpaid furlough, in one-week increments in May through July. The parent company has also induced other cost-cutting measures, such as closing newsrooms for five local newspapers, including the New York Daily News.

It's understandable why Sullivan would be upset at company management. We don't need a full refresher, but Sullivan's been there for about 40 years and has seen a number of regimes who have strip-mined the institution's journalism and lined their own pockets in the process. Currently, the paper's workers are hoping to ward off a takeover from Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund that has implemented job cuts at a number of newspapers nationwide.