Chicago Sun-Times | Tribune Publishing
Chicago Sun-Times parent Wrapports LLC will sell 38 suburban newspapers — six dailies and 32 weeklies — to Tribune Publishing, confirming a report by Robert Feder earlier this month.
Wrapports boss Michael Ferro says the move out of the burbs will allow the company to “focus on our international digital strategy.” Wrapports announced earlier this week that it was launching a national network of sites that will ““offer content in a manner similar to websites such as Deadspin and Buzzfeed.”
Employees at the suburban papers will become Tribune Publishing employees at some point and will leave the Sun-Times’ newsroom. The Sun-Times said in 2012 it would close its suburban offices and move most employees into Chicago digs. Terms of the deal aren’t public yet, according to a Wrapports press release. Bob Fleck will be publisher and GM of the papers, Tribune Publishing says in a press release.
The Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune Media Group have also reached an agreement for CTMG to keep printing the Sun-Times.
Since splitting from the rest of Tribune’s properties, Tribune Publishing has pursued a strategy of increasing its footprint in markets where it has large dailies. In Maryland it’s purchased the Baltimore City Paper and two other papers; in Connecticut it has purchased 15 weeklies once published by Reminder Media.
