Navigating the Media Waters with the Sun-Times and Tribune

MODERATOR

Ron Childs, Media Relations Director
Flowers Communications Group

PANELISTS

Don Hayner, Managing Editor
Chicago Sun-Times

Jim Warren, Deputy Managing Editor, Features
Chicago Tribune

PROGRAM SUMMARY

PCC October panelists (from left): Ron Childs, Flowers Communications (moderator); Don Hayner, Chicago Sun-Times; and Jim Warren, Chicago Tribune (photo by Ted Lacey).

Article by Sue Masaracchia-Roberts

What began as a panel of three top-notch media representatives dwindled to two when it was announced that the representative from Crain’s Chicago Business, Brandon Copple, was unable to attend due to the birth of twins earlier in the day. Under the moderation of Ron Childs from the Flowers Communications Group, the rest of the program came off without a hitch. Don Hayner and James Warren, respectively, offered a great deal of insight to the editorial thinking of both major metropolitan dailies – the Chicago Sun-Times and Tribune.

Don Hayner

Currently the managing editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, Hayner began his career as a practicing attorney, before joining the City News Bureau. He then became a reporter and columnist with the Suburban Tribune and then migrated to the Sun-Times, where he has worked a number of beats including a beat reporter to the Sunday features editor to being a city and metro editor. He also co-authored three books along the way.

Receiving hundreds of faxes daily, Hayner calls these "unguided missiles, which have no effect unless they are one page, one paragraph and incredibly riveting." He advises that a better use of a PR person’s time is to confine pitches to a specific reporter who fits the appropriate beat or discipline you are trying to match. Show you read the paper! "A highly competent PR person is very much appreciated," said Hayner. "Those who make the job easy, who can communicate clearly and quickly – especially in this ADD society – and get the job done, are great!"

He finds the most focused help coming from academia, hospitals and museums. Hayner decries persistence as being anything BUT a virtue, especially if the person who is persistent is not trying to reach the right person. "Call a health reporter about a health story. The reporter is the one who has to sell his idea to the editorial desk. You need to sell [the reporter]; that is the most effective way to go".

Hayner stated there is no corner on what news is, but explained, "often it is the rarest, the most extreme. It’s something I’ve never heard of before but has relevance to life or changes life and captures imagination." Online stories are more abbreviated; they are digested from the news version. Publications are still feeling their way around how it works with print media and how online translates to subscriptions.

An excellent way to pitch stories, according to Hayner, is through columnists. They are always looking for a good story, especially one with humor or a unique event with a national implication. However, "there is more in the selling than the telling," he cautions.

Like the online publications and its competitors, the Sun-Times seeks to capture a younger crowd, the source of new and sustaining readership. The challenge is that younger adults don’t always have the time for a newspaper, so newspapers are resorting to guerilla warfare to capture young readers who rely on alternative news for share of mind, such as cell phones and iPods. He bemoans, "Where is the money in podcasting?"

The Sun-Times, which tends to get younger readers, looks for diversity to maintain a feel for Chicago, periodically dropping in and out of neighborhoods. This is becoming difficult to do, especially in places occupied by first generation immigrants.

He would like to see more stories focused around people, to reconnect the news to the personal level. "We need stories that from people who know and trust you enough to tell their stories. We know what we want to do – human interest stories with some conflict that brings a community alive, rather than just ceremonies or holidays." He added that publicists can often kill stories by not providing access to their clients or if they become too protective. In tragedies, for example, he has found that families want to talk, finding talking cathartic. They don’t want to be protected.

On the other hand, Hayner urges PR people to get the basics down. Make sure spellings and addresses are correct. "We seem to be retreating into the past," he said. "We need old fashioned reporting with PR people who provide fundamental information well!"

James Warren

As deputy managing editor for features for the Chicago Tribune since 2001, Warren also comes from a diversified background. He began his career at the Newark Star Ledger and as a labor specialist for the Chicago Sun-Times, responsible for covering national developments and writing a column "About the Town." His other assignments have run the gamut from being the Tribune’s "Tempo" editor to being the Washington bureau chief, a political analyst and a regular panelist on the McLaughlin Group.

He began his comments by stating that one of his friends, a PR person, once took out a newspaper and circled every item placed by a publicist; the pitches were that transparent. "There is a constant obsession with spin, on staying on message," said Warren. "We [as journalists] need to cut through that. This is especially true in these days when Hollywood seems to hold a death grip on PR. People use their clients; gaining access is not easy any more. It’s a weird time – a period of transition."

Warren described this as an era low on resources, one where newspapers are spread thin and need creative ideas.

Describing some of his pet peeves, Warren said bluntly, "I don’t like getting lied to." Specifically referring to Washington, DC, he added, "There is no job more out of kilter than those in the Washington press room getting fed a bunch of lies."

This now is a 24-hour news world. While one might hear about a car bombing in Baghdad when it happens, it will be a story a day later in print. Features are easier because they don’t deal with hard news and are "antidotes to somber, heavy, institutional stuff in the news." He likes to see little stories like in small town papers that are fun and show the little guy dong something special.

"The future of newspapers," theorizes Warren, "may be down the path of making this connection, giving relevance to our lives."

Good headlines can go a long way to sell news. A three or four word headline as part of a strong pitch can lead to great success. This is especially true for online editions, an entirely different world, according to Warren. A poignant, revealing story from print can die online.

Describing the "Red Eye" publication for younger readers, Warren calls this a "dandy product" targeted also for people who find it cheaper and smaller and who like shorter stories, especially about evening entertainment. In the battle for younger readers, Warren shared, "It will be interesting to see what happens. We are having dozens of new adventures, including finding a fair overlap among readers. It’s often a second buy for older readers."

The Tribune, said Warren, is its own worst enemy when it comes to diversity, with only 10 percent of those in the newsroom representing minorities and "way too few who know how to speak other languages here." Reporters seem to be chained to their desks, unable to get out. To counteract this, he mandated visits to underserved communities for everyone from writers to copy writers and made the visits part of the annual evaluations. He sees a need to get more involved in the communities.

As for his involvement in television’s "The McLaughlin Group," he said that, although it helped to elevate the profile of the Tribune in terms of recognition, it is a "weirdly intellectual challenge to condense complex issues into two or three sentences. It takes intense discipline, especially in this ego-filled world of Washington."

"Publicists are given power by the people who pay them," said Warren, "and it trickles down. However, when someone consistently "stays on message," he mused aloud, "How do you get back to the truth? We are trying to find answers and cut through the BS. The publicist becomes a debater with reporters. It is your job then to provide a defense for your side of the debate."

He urged PR people to know the demographic realities of what you are pitching and make sure you pitch it to the person who covers that beat.

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