4 days ago
From Pulitzer winners to pink slips: Chicago media makes big moves this summer
Chicago Public Media's search for a new leader to run the WBEZ/Sun-Times newsroom is over: Pulitzer Prize-winning Kimbriell Kelly returns to Chicago to take the job.
Kelly, who once wrote for the Chicago Reporter and produced radio programming for WBEZ, has national experience as a bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times and a reporter at the Washington Post.
What they're saying:"Kimbriell has the deep Chicago roots, journalistic excellence, and forward-looking vision to help shape the future of our integrated newsroom," CPM CEO Melissa Bell said in a statement.
Zoom in: Kelly returns to Chicago as the public media organization faces turmoil. The company recently offered buyouts to select staff and laid off others to make ends meet.
That was before Congress voted to rescind federal funding, which resulted in a loss of $3 million annually, 6% of the organization's yearly budget.
Kelly succeeds Jennifer Kho, who the company says will move to a special project dealing with the future of public media.
In other local news:
🍽️ Eater Chicago was impacted by its parent company Vox Media's latest round of layoffs. Longtime award-winning editor and journalist Ashok Selvam was let go. It's unclear who replaces him, but the site is still up with feature stories from other writers.
🏀 Earlier this year, sports fans were shocked by the surprise firing of longtime host Dan Bernstein by 670 "The Score." Bernstein had a run-in with another social media user on X.
📺 WGN-TV is bringing in a new news director. Akemi Harrison will oversee all newsgathering on the WGN TV platforms. She previously was the news director at NBC Chicago.
On the WGN Radio side, hosts Bob Sirott and John Landecker will host a three-hour show Friday night reflecting on their careers, most notably their time together at WLS in the 1970s.
They are calling it "For Radio Geeks Only." It airs 7-10pm.
📈 Finally, the July radio ratings just came out, and for the first time in recent memory, no station scored more than 5% of the market share.
