Four business reporters at the Chicago Tribune were among the 53 laid off in the newsroom on Wednesday, a source tells Talking Biz News.
The four are technology reporter Eric Benderoff, real estate reporter Susan Diesenhouse, futures, derivatives and agriculture reporter Joshua Boak and spot news and manufacturing reporter Jim Miller.
Benderoff had been a tech reporter and columnist for the paper since January 2006. Before that, he was an assistant business editor overseeing the tech coverage. He previously spent five years at the Chicago Sun-Times as an associate business editor. Benderoff is a Michigan State graduate.
Diesenhouse was part of a team that won a Society of Business Editors and Writers Best in Business Award in 2006 for covering the Chicago Board of Trade merger with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
Boak came to the Tribune from the Toledo Blade. He graduated from Princeton University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he received the Philip Greer Award for Financial Writing. For his work about Ohio’s rare coin investments while at the Blade, Boak shared recognition as a National Headliners award print grand prize and investigative reporting winner and as finalists for the 2006 Pulitzer for public service and The Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.
Miller is the head scratcher because the mantra at the Tribune is “digital first,” and he seemed squarely in the sweet spot, writing breaking news for its Web site. He operated much like an old-line rewrite man.
