Tribune may try dramatic change

Crain's ChicagoBusiness is reporting the Tribune may dramatically change its structure, devoting the first section to "consumer-oriented and entertainment features. Local, national, international and business news is consolidated in the second section. Weather leads the third section, which also includes comics and classifieds, while the sports section is converted to a tabloid format." This is, the report says, one possible change, and is not final. The Trib may make the change on Saturdays in August, then continue with changes that appear popular with readers.

My first thought was "News you can use" dominating the Tribune's front section. How long 'til "Tracking Online Preditors" takes over, as it has television? I also thought of Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in The Elements of Journalism talking about what they called "the paradox of giving people only the news they want." My view, like their's, was that this thinking led television news into not just selling their audiences short, but losing those audiences by concentrating on news that the audiences wanted, but didn't care about all that deeply -- which is why after many years of being slavishly devoted to tuning in the 10 o'clock local news, I watch The Daily Show at 10 o'clock. Would I rather read about Milwaukee County budget problems or an analysis of why the music track is so loud at the end of The Dark Knight that you can't hear the dialog? Certainly the latter. But if that's all that's in my newspaper, I'll go with the Internet where the unlimited space can do such stories better. . . and find somewhere else for news that's important.