Fisherman! Your Help is Needed!
Long-time collector Dan Basore forwarded me a disturbing email that prompted me to put aside what I was working on and pen this special blog. It was with shock, frustration, and growing anger that I read that The Chicago Tribune has discontinued its twice-weekly Outdoors recreation coverage.
This decision is angering (and inexplicable) for any number of reasons. Traditionally, The Tribune has had a long history of great outdoor writers, from John Husar to Tom MacNally to Bob Becker to Larry St. John to Dixie Carroll. It has been a leader in alerting people to the outdoor pursuits available in the Greater Chicago area, as well as the surrounding vacation lands of Indiana and Wisconsin.
As Basore pointed out in his letter, 87 million Americans pursued outdoor sports last year. It is a multi-billion dollar industry, and I would surmise the Chicago region has a higher percentage of outdoor enthusiasts than many others. The decision to discontinue outdoor coverage is bizarre and indefensible in an internet era where thousands--if not millions--of readers go to the The Tribune to learn about the available vacation resources for the region. I know I regularly checked the Tribune web site for its outdoor coverage, and am one of those readers who frequents sponsors of such newspapers that cover the material I read. No longer. I will rarely, if ever, have much reason to visit The Tribune's web site anymore.
So how does this effect the non-Chicago fisherman and outdoorsman? As a flagship newspaper in the nation, The Tribune is one of the media leaders, and where they go others will follow. The ramifications of this decision may very well prompt your local paper to reconsider its own outdoor coverage, to the detriment of local outsdoorsmen and women everywhere.
What to do? Dan has forwarded me the following contact information. I am asking every reader of this blog to take two minutes out of your day and contact the following Tribune people by email or letter to express your displeasure over this terrible decision. You may very well be saving your own local outdoor writer in the process.
Ann Marie Lipinski, Editor - ctc-editor@tribune.com
James Warren - Managing Editor - JCWarren@tribune.com
Dan McGrath - Associate Editor Sports - DMcGrath@tribune.com
Chicago Tribune
435 N. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60611-4041
-- Dr. Todd
Doesn't suprise me. I bet if a pole was taken, most outdoors people are conservative, probably in the range of 75%. Another way for the liberal press to stick it to the conservatives.
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