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Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 6/20/2008 11:33:00 AM
Title: Chicago Tribune editor's memo
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
Memo from Chicago Tribune editor Ann Marie Lipinski

Dear Colleagues,

As you well know, we have launched a project to remake the newspaper,
necessitated by a call to reduce our resources but, I hope, guided by our
desire to serve our readers and this great city as smartly and passionately
as ever.

The timeline for this is faster than previous redesigns of the paper and
will require the uninterrupted attention of many of our staff. It also will
demand the best thinking of you all and a process by which everyone has the
chance to be heard even while decisions are proceeding at a quickened pace.
I wanted to share the outlines of that process and the timeline so you know
what to expect.

Bill Parker is overseeing the project and a steering committee that includes
Hanke Gratteau, Jim Warren, Randy Weissman, Joe Knowles, Jane Hirt, Linda
Bergstrom, Jim Kirk, Kerry Luft, Geoff Brown, Louise Kiernan, Eric Zorn and
me. Our charge is to chart a direction for the Tribune that consistently
delivers the quality our readers expect and value most, while enhancing and
protecting a viable business model that will flourish long into the future.
We are committed to determining the basic architecture and sectioning of the
paper within 30 days; deciding on paging (how many and where) within 45
days; understanding our staffing levels throughout the paper in 60 days; and
being ready to launch a rethought and redesigned Tribune within 90 days in
mid-September.

In order to accomplish so much at that pace, we have drafted two terrific
groups of colleagues to begin executing new versions of the news and
features portfolios under the direction of Joe Knowles:

--Jim Kirk is leading the news group, which includes Bill Adee, Rochell
Bishop, Robin Daughtridge, Cara DiPasquale, James Janega, Mike Kellams,
Peter Kendall, John P. McCormick, Dan McGrath, Flynn McRoberts, Jennifer
Mystkowski, Mike Tackett and Joyce Winnecke.

--Linda Bergstrom is heading the features group, which includes Tim Bannon,
Geoff Brown, Torry Bruno, Wendy Donahue, Chris Jones, Scott Powers, Sheila
Solomon, David Syrek, Liz Taylor and Shaila Wunderlich.

Each of these teams will be calling upon additional expertise in the
newsroom as they reach certain decision points. Moreover, they will be
working closely with colleagues in key departments outside of editorial,
especially advertising, circulation and operations. In addition, Owen
Youngman has been generously participating in many of our sessions in order
to provide us with key research and financial data.

Independent of this project, we had taken the Saturday newspaper into the
lab a few weeks ago and gone a fair distance in rethinking the last edition
of the week. We were excited about that work, and now see it as an
opportunity to test some notions in advance of this newspaper-wide redesign.
This week, we put Colin McMahon in charge of that project with the goal of
speeding it along and going to market this summer with a reimagined Saturday
paper that should better serve readers while also giving us feedback to
inform the larger undertaking.

You are, of course, welcome and encouraged to speak with any of the folks
mentioned here and share your thoughts about this process and its outcome;
some of you have already done so. In addition, Scott Williams of our
business staff has created an online forum where all of us can post ideas.
The link is http://trb.hswilliams.net/future/ Because transparency and
collegiality will be vital to the success of this project, I would ask you
all to take advantage of this forum, to keep the discussion focused on this
important work, and to please sign your posts.

I thank you all in advance for the hard work that will be required to
complete this undertaking at the same time that we are upholding our highest
standards in publishing today's Tribune. Please let me know if you have
other thoughts about how I and others might improve this process.

With admiration for you all,

Ann Marie

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