WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times

WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR station, is reporting that its board of directors approved a “non-binding letter of intent” to pursue the acquisition of the Chicago Sun-Times, one of two large legacy newspapers in Chicago.

The Sun-Times has, like many newspapers, been facing financial difficulties over the last couple decades. It filed for bankruptcy about a dozen years and has changed hands a few times since then.

As best I can tell from the article, the Sun-Times would continue as an independent organization, but would join WBEZ as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization.

It would also join an increasingly large coterie of nonprofit newsrooms. It wouldn’t even be the first nonprofit newsroom in Chicago–Block Club Chicago has been doing excellent local news reporting for the last couple years. Like many nonprofit newsrooms, including Voice of San Diego and ProPublica, Block Club Chicago is a creation of the internet and has never had a physical product.

But legacy newspapers have also gone the nonprofit route. In early 2020 (iirc), the Salt Lake Tribune became a tax-exempt nonprofit. And so far it seems to be an effective move for them. It will be interesting to watch how nonprofit status treats the Sun-Times (assuming this deal goes through) and the Tribune. To the extent it can help preserve local journalism, it will, I think, be a good thing.

Samuel D. Brunson

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash