'It's A Wonderful Life' Flashback: My Chicago Trib Story on Karolyn Grimes, aka ZuZu Bailey

Karolyn Grimes, as a 6-year-old
ZuZu, in Jimmy Stewart's arms

A P.S. here to my post last week about Community Bank of Oak Park River Forest and It's A Wonderful Life.

Exactly four years ago, to the day, I had the privilege of writing a story for the Chicago Tribune about Karolyn Grimes, the actress who played ZuZu more than 60 years earlier.

At the time, I was charmed by the entire experience. How cute, I thought, as people young and old lined up for a chance to meet this woman who had played ZuZu so many years earlier.

A recent photo of Grimes

Of course, I had only seen bits and pieces of the movie at that point, so I didn't really get what all the fuss was about.

In fact, I passed up the opportunity to see the film on the big screen--I was too focused on getting in front of my computer and filing my story. How fortunate to have gotten another chance, this time with my family, earlier this month at the Lake Theater in Oak Park.

One last note: in my recent reading, I was pleased to see that Karolyn remains on the It's A Wonderful Life circuit, appearing again this past weekend at Hollywood Blvd. Cinema in Woodridge.

Rahm Emanuel Residency Brouhaha is Latest in Chicago Area's Storied `Silly Season' History

Rahm Emanuel, (occasional) Chicago resident

The residency flap over Chicago mayoral candidate Rahm Emanuel is just a variation on the "Silly Season" theme in Chicago-area politics.

Six years ago, one of the central characters in the Emanuel controversy, Burt Odelson, was in the midst of a scrum in Cicero that I covered for the Chicago Tribune.

Here is one of the all-too-many stories that I reported in the 2005 Cicero election cycle.

Intriguingly, Larry Dominick was the only person who was not knocked off the ballot in that Silly Season cycle for Cicero. He went on to topple, by a slim margin and to the shock of political observers, Ramiro Gonzalez in the election.

One thing I learned in covering all the technical tussling: the only ones guaranteed to be winners are the attorneys who rack up large hourly billings and, often, the losers are citizens who don't get legitimate challengers to elect since they are bullied off the ballot.

Marketing/Journalism Tension Flares at Tribune

If you haven’t noticed lately, the line between journalism and marketing has been getting blurrier.

The latest case in point: the Chicago Tribune’s marketing department apparent soliciting of “subscribers’ opinions on stories before they were published,” according to an Associated Press story.

As the AP reported, “An e-mail signed by 55 reporters and editors, sent Wednesday to Editor Gerould Kern and Managing Editor Jane Hirt and obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, questions why the newspaper was conducting the surveys and what stories were used.”

It will be intriguing to see how this plays out, though it is unrealistic to expect any clarity emerging as to whether subscribers had any effect on news coverage.

The Cyber-News Tension: A Story's Worth

I had to chuckle this morning when I came across a story online at The Wall Street Journal. It was about the Chicago Tribune’s announcement that next Monday it will soon be offering a tabloid edition (with the same content as its home-delivered version) for newsstand sales

Earlier, I had seen the story, by Phil Rosenthal, on the Trib’s front page (since I am one of the dinosaurs who still gets the print edition delivered to my home). But I had yet to follow the jump inside, distracted as I was by the Obama bobblehead doll reference that also graced Page 1.

So I figured I’d see what the esteemed WSJ had to share about the development.

The Wall Street Journal piece built up a head of steam, captured my interest and then….asked me to fork over some money (“to continue reading, subscribe now”) if I wanted to continue reading the third paragraph, let alone the rest of the story.

I moved on, my credit card safely tucked in my wallet. That moment underscored the tension that newspapers are waging in terms of traditional vs. online content delivery.

I didn’t want to subscribe to the Journal—I simply wanted to finish reading the story.

In a world where access to information is so rampant, what is the worth of any given shred of news? If a single copy of the Trib is 75 cents, how much monetary value can be assigned to a John Kass column --a few pennies, a nickel, eight cents?
Some day, maybe they will devise a system that zeroes in with such laser-like fashion. For now, anyway, I’ll just flip back to the Trib’s print edition and pick up Rosenthal’s story where it left off.

(A John Kass P.S.—mark my words, within six months he will be a household name in America, as the rest of the media world catches up with his no-hold-barred reporting on the “Chicago Way” and its intersection with President-elect Obama.)

Minasian Exhibit Gains Tribune Coverage

Minasian Rug Co.'s textile arts exhibit that I've been promoting the past few months received a nice mention in today's Chicago Tribune, as an "Editor's Pick" in the House & Homes section.

You can check out its coverage of “Island Magic - Court and Tribal Textiles from Indonesia” online here.

Previously, I posted more background about the exhibit (at Minasian's Evanston location, 1244 Chicago Ave.) at Neighborhood Circle.com.

The exhibit has nearly two more weeks to go, concluding January 10th, so don't just settle for watching some of the YouTube videos I uploaded--check out "Island Magic" in person for yourself.

In addition to coming across some amazing pieces, you may just bump into Stephen Blackwelder, the textile arts director for Minasian, or co-owner Carney Minasian (pictured, above).

PR Must Follow Audience's Online Migration

In recent years, newspapers have seen a significant decline in their circulation, partly due to readers' migration to the Internet to get their daily news fix.

In my neighborhood, I'm a dinosaur--the only one among 20 households that gets a Chicago newspaper delivered. Among all my immediate neighbors, generally well-educated, middle-class types, only one even joins me in picking up Sunday delivery of the Trib.

From a public relations standpoint, all of this points to the wisdom of placing increased emphasis on the strategic online placement of stories, through user-generated portals like the Chicago Tribune's Triblocal and the Sun-Times News Group's Neighborhood Circle.

While neither site appears to command an audience anywhere close to rivaling the traditional print editions, they clearly can play a complementary role in any media outreach. They are particularly useful in light of newspapers' shrinking news hole, which has made it even tougher to secure coverage than in the past.

At the least, sites like Triblocal and Neighborhood Circle serve as a credible online location to position news releases--a step I've taken scores of times for a variety of clients over the past year.

On a related note, a recent column by Chicago Tribune media columnist Phil Rosenthal (pictured here) is worth checking out.

In his Dec. 14 column, Rosenthal examines the dramatic step that beleagured Detroit newspapers are taking amid declining readership: abandoning newspaper home delivery most days of the week.

The move, writes Rosenthal, "would make them the first major metropolitan dailies in the country to pull so far away from the traditional newspaper business model."

"This new playbook," Rosenthal adds, "less a bold innovation than a Hail Mary pass, comes at a tough time for the entire industry, which has suffered double-digit decline in ad revenue this year."

My Drew Peterson Doughnut Dilemma

Remember Drew Peterson?

He's still in the news, still a free man, and his fourth wife Stacy's whereabouts remain a mystery. In contrast to his national media exposure (NBC's "Today" show, People magazine cover, among others) of last November, the intensity of interest has waned since he first became a dubious household name in America.

Exactly one year ago, on Nov. 11, 2007, I became part of the media horde pursuing this saga.

I was one of a rotation of Chicago Tribune freelance reporters and staff writers stationed outside the former Bolingbrook police sergeant's home.

During my stake-out that Sunday morning, I was the nearly-speechless recipient of two dozen doughnuts from Drew's brother, Paul. Later, I tried to use those same sugar-filled treats to secure an interview with Drew.

For the full blow-by-blow, check out My Drew Peterson Doughnut Dilemma.

Chicago Tribune Has Designs On New Era

Today marks a new era for the Chicago Tribune, with a radically new layout and design.

I'm still wading through it, and it's going to take some time to adjust to it and give this re-invention a full assessment. Clearly, the Internet has wielded a major influence on the design and sensibility of the latest incarnation. Its graphics, splashes of color and layout include a quasi-navigation bar to guide readers throughout the various sections, for example.

Years ago, as newspapers were taking baby steps online, they often limited their cyber-layout with the print-edition construct in mind. This new Trib reflects editors' awareness that readers often are coming to their pages with a web-surfing mindset.

It's no coincidence that Jane Hirt (right) was at the helm of the paper's graphics-heavy, short-attention-span-friendly RedEye edition before her August appointment as the Tribune's managing editor.

It's easy to look at the Tribune today and dismiss it as a superficial and shallow product. But that would be a superficial, shallow judgment.

The truth as to the Trib's relative commitment to hard-hitting, public-service journalism lies in the content between and amidst the colorful layout. And if the layout can more effectively lure a new generation of readers to those stories, then the redesign will have been a success.

Full disclosure: I was a freelance writer for the Tribune most heavily from 1999 to 2005, largely covering local governments. I continue to maintain a freelance relationship with the paper, though I have not had a byline in the Trib this year.

Faith & Finances: Recommended Reading

Most of the time, this blog is devoted to PR topics. But on occasion, I'll read something so on-target, so timely, that I feel compelled to pass it along.

A commentary in today's Chicago Tribune, by Sojourners Magazine founder and editor Jim Wallis, is the latest example, as Wallis holds up the elements that led to our nation's troubled financial state against the backdrop of faith-based morality.

An excerpt:

"The behavior of too many on Wall Street is a violation of biblical ethics; the teachings of Christianity, Judaism and other faiths condemn the greed, selfishness and cheating that have been revealed in corporate behavior over decades now and denounce their callous mistreatment of employees. Read your Bible."

Amen.