The Media Notepad: Chicago Reader publisher steps down
Also: ABC 7 hires new person for its creative services programming team; Fox’s Chicago duopoly to air new game show; Devil in White City to be adapted for the small screen
After leading the paper through a difficult transition as a non-profit, Chicago Reader publisher Tracy Baim is stepping down after four years at the paper and three months as publisher.
“I did what I came here to do. I’m exhausted, especially from the most recent battle, but I’m not at the point where I can’t do anything more,” Baim said in a statement. “I have covered enough nonprofits and businesses in this community that I’ve seen people stay too long and then they have nothing left to give. I still have something left to give, in a different way.”
Baim isn’t leaving right away; she’ll stay on board at least until Dec. 31 or until her replacement is named.
The transition was a bumpy ride. The IRS gave the Chicago Reader the green light to covert to a non-profit, but was held up by co-owner Len Goodman, after staffers took issue with his stance over the effectiveness of the Covid vaccine. Goodman stepped aside, and the non-profit conversion was completed this spring.
The Reader has turned around its financial situation since Baim arrived. The paper’s budget has grown to $3 million annually and the Reader is now more racially diverse than it’s ever been, with 38 percent of the staff persons of color. The Reader is the latest Chicago newspaper to convert to non-profit, following what the Chicago Sun-Times and the merger of South Side Weekly and the Hyde Park Herald has done, as declining circulation and ad revenue continue to decimate the industry.
ABC-owned WLS-TV has added a new person to its creative services programming team. Beginning today, John Owens will join the top-rated station as a programming producer.
“Owens is a critically acclaimed writer, producer, and videographer with over thirty years of experience in news,” said David Lee, WLS’s VP of marketing. “His expertise and knowledge of Chicago will make him a great addition to the Creative Services programming team at the city’s leading news station.”
Owens began at the Chicago Tribune as an editorial assistant and worked his way to senior video producer and reporter. He’s also a writer and producer, creating material for Weigel’s Decades and MeTV, including Collector’s Call and Toon In With Me. He’s also worked in journalism with stops at City News Bureau, Fox’s WFLD, and the former CLTV in a variety of positions. Owens has also had work published in several publications, including the Tribune, Block Club Chicago, New City and the Los Angeles Times, among others.
Owens has also taught media courses to students at Kennedy-King College, one of the City Colleges Of Chicago and is currently president of the NATAS’ Chicago chapter.
Beginning today, several Fox-owned stations are testing a new game show for the next few weeks called Person, Place, or Thing (maybe they’ll have a better name for it if it gets greenlighted for a series.)
The series is being tested in nine markets including Chicago, where it will air at 3:30 p.m. on My50 and midnight on Fox 32. Other markets where the show is airing are New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas-Ft. Worth. Fox First-Run is the distributor, and the run is slated for four weeks and twenty episodes.
Hosted by Melissa Peterman, PPT where contestants answer in “yes” or “no” fashion in a game which intersperses comedy with common knowledge.
“This is the perfect summer game: light, fun, and breezy, like an Aperol Spritz”, said Stephen Brown, who is executive vice president of programming and development for Fox First-Run (don’t ask me what an Aperol Spritz is.) “Melissa is the host of this summer party- it’s her house, her game and you’ll leave having had the best time ever.” (Don’t forget to wipe your shoes clean.)
In August 2021, several Fox-owned stations tested a Pictionary reboot with Jerry O’ Connell as host for twenty episodes, in conjunction with CBS Media Ventures. The test was successful enough to be greenlighted for a daily strip starting this September.
This isn’t the first game show titled with two or more commas. NBC had a game show called The Who, What, and Where Game hosted by Art James and ran for four years from December 1969 to January 1974. Elements of Who, What and Where were later re-worked into The Challengers, a syndicated game show hosted by Dick Clark during the 1990-91 season.
Another streaming series set in Chicago is coming as Hulu greenlighted The Devil In White City, adapted from the 2003 novel by Erik Larson. And there are some big names attached to this project too, with Keanu Reeves starring with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese as executive producers. For Reaves, this is first acting role in a television series in his long career. Production on the series begins here in Chicago next year.
This is not the first time a period piece about a Chicago history subject was filmed in the city. In 1992 and 1993, Paramount’s syndicated reboot of The Untouchables filmed throughout the city, though the original ABC series was filmed at Desilu in Hollywood. The new version ran for 42 episodes from January 1993 to May 1994 and in-season reruns through October 1994.
The book is divided into four parts, with the first three set in Chicago between 1890 and 1893, and evolves around Daniel Burnham and his plans for the World’s Fair, which would take place in Jackson Park in 1893. The final part is not related to Chicago, but involves a Philadelphia pharmacist who would lure victims to an abandoned lot across the street from his pharmacy and kill them in a plot you can say would pass for a segment on any current true crime show.
The show is a limited series, with eight episodes ordered and is expected to premiere in 2024. White City hopes to create the same kind of buzz FX/Hulu’s The Bear has achieved this summer as the set-in-Chicago drama achieved critical acclaim with a “Certified Fresh” 100 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating. With heavy promotion during ABC’s coverage of the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final, The Bear’s eight episodes dropped on Hulu June 23 and was renewed for a second season.
Filmed entirely in Chicago and featuring tons of local actors, The Bear is about a young chef who trades in his fine cuisine skills for running his family’s Italian Beef shop after the suicide of his older brother.