Chicago Trib killed story on CEO compensation last May

That’s the allegation made today by Geoff Dougherty, a former reporter at the Chicago Tribune, who researched and wrote an article about CEO compensation for the Tribune last year in which parent company Tribune Co. CEO Dennis FitzSimons figured into prominently because of his large compensation package.

Dougherty, in a post on the ChiTown Daily News web site, said he researched and wrote the article, and editors approved it, but it was killed 36 hours before publication. He never got an honest answer as to why. He quit the paper as a result. The article now appears on the Daily News web site.

Dougherty writes, “And editors have become so enamored of their place in the pecking order they’re unwilling to publish stories that risk roiling the bosses. But journalism doesn’t have to be like that, and we aim to prove it.

“We plan to raise as much hell as we possibly can. We plan to take a close look at Chicago’s most powerful business and government institutions, carefully document the results and share them with you, our readers.”

Read his entire explanation of what happened here.

If you were a business reporter at Mother Trib, how do you think you’re feeling right now that an Internet newspaper has written a story that should have been in your paper almost a year ago?