Chicago Trib to launch biz innovation coverage

Chicago Tribune next week will launch new coverage of corporate innovation in Chicago’s business community, whether at start-ups or larger established companies, according to sources familiar with the plans, reports Lynn Marek of Crain’s Chicago Business.

Marek writes, “The content will appear in print and online with the more extensive treatment on the paper’s website, as part of its business section. The effort, developed by Editor Gerould Kern, will have its own dedicated resources and reporters to produce content and host related events, a source said.

“The move comes as the newspaper’s parent company, Chicago-based Tribune Co., is planning to spin off its publishing group, which includes eight major dailies, to separate it from the more profitable broadcast division. The newspaper group had been put up for sale earlier this year, but those plans were put on hold.

“The papers, which also include the Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun, also have been bracing for cost reductions, including possibly job cuts, that Tribune CEO Peter Liguori has said the company is contemplating.

“The new business coverage is slated to begin on Oct. 15 and will be exclusively sponsored, at least initially, by Chicago-based United Airlines, which telegraphed its sponsorship in a half-page ad in the paper on Oct. 11 that declared: Chicago Tribune Blue Sky Innovation — coming soon.”

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