My son is going to college in the great city by the lake and has, finally, begun reading newspapers.
He much prefers the *Sun-Times * to the Tribune. All I really know about the present-day Sun-Times is that it’s tabloid-size rather than broadsheet.
He says it’s an easier read than the Trib, but the stories are complete enough to tell him what he wants to know. The feature stories are lively, and often feature colorful local characters, rather than just the latest movies and trends.
I’m more familiar with the Tribune – for one reason, I live 300 miles away and I can buy it in vending machines here. The only place I can even get a Sunday Times is at the biggest news stand in the area.
Anyone familiar enough with both papers to tell me whether my son is getting his 50 cents worth, or if he’s dangerously eroding his mind and should stick with The Onion ?
Both are fine newspapers. The Sun-Times tends to be more liberal-leaning; the Tribune more conservative. The Sun-Times also seems more likely to put local news on the front page, compared to the Tribune, but part of that may be the more limited front page space on the former. Both papers do impressive investigative reporting and special article series. I personally subscribe to the Tribune, but I prefer its format and slightly more indepth articles.
I personally prefer the Tribune. That’s what we’ve always had in my house, even when we lived in Indiana. I can’t say exactly why I like it, but…I do. But your son should be fine. It’s not like he’s getting his news from my [hideous] university newspaper.
My boyfriend’s worked for both papers, and he despises his current job at the Trib, whereas he looks upon his time at the ST with fond memories.
I agree with ferretherder’s assessment. My folks suscribe to the Tribune and I get the Sun-Times from the convenience store. We read them and then swap papers. I do think the Sun-Times is a bit more reader-friendly with the tabloid format. Richard Roeper has a decent column and they usually run gratutitous cheesecake pics in the sports page which could have some appeal value to the young college male.
Also of note, I think the Chicago Tribune has a sister tabloid paper called the Redeye, mostly available in the city proper for a mere quarter. This is the lightest of the light in content (headlines, short articles, decent features, and arts/entertainment, sports) and IMO fits the term of “McPaper” more than USA TODAY ever did. From what little I’ve seen of it, a nice read if you can only invest 5-10 minutes for reading the paper. Maybe someone else can offer a more in-depth opinion.
Since I like to read the paper while I’m commuting, I prefer the Sun-Times. It’s easier to carry, has lots of good columns, the NY Times crossword, plus all the local news.
Nothing against the Trib, though, one of my coworkers always brings his copy to work and I read it most days. It has more in depth international news, which I like.
Generally, I prefer the Tribune, but I’ve read my share of the Sun-Times. On occasion, I also read the Red Eye since they send my company about 80 gazillion copies everyday and you can barely walk anywhere without tripping over one.
I read the Trib, mainly because on Sundays they run two crosswords, one in the Books section and another in the magazine. But I have nothing against the Sun-Times at all.
I used to suscribe to the Trib–the Sunday edition, until their marketing kept calling me to increase it to 3x/week or more, so I cancelled it altogether.
I prefer the Trib, b/c it feels like a traditional paper to me. It is not as conservative as it would like to think it is. I really miss the Chicago Daily News, but that is long ago and far away.
The Sun-Times to me is all ads–I cannot find the articles for all the clutter. I am not saying that it doesn’t have solid journalism–I just can’t stand the presentation.
I agree with this, and don’t get why people say it’s easier to read due to its tabloid size. To me it’s tougher to read (physically) because it’s all broken up by the advertising blocks (and the different sections [Business, Metro, etc] aren’t distinct separateable pieces, you have to slog through all of it to find something).
I read both daily and agree with the assessments above, the Sun-Times is much more liberal and they really pride themselves with their investigations into the notorious corruption that is Chicago politics, but it’s not that great for international news.
Also, Roger Ebert is the film critic for the Sun-Times. I’ve noticed that since he had all those health problems (didn’t he have some sort of heart surgery?) there isn’t a movie that he doesn’t like, especially if it has a big name star in it that he may need to kiss up to on the “Red Carpet”. I think he’s getting a little enamoured of his own celebrity.
Big_Norse, I don’t think the tabloid argument is meant to apply to the ease of reading from the content perspective, I think it’s meant to be the real physical aspect.
In my prior job, I rode the El to and from work from the Addison stop. The Sun Times was really the only paper I could read, due to the fact that you only had to fold it over once to get readable copy. The Trib involves two foldings to go from page to page, one longitudinal fold, and one lateral. If you get a seat (and at 7am they were quite scarce that far down the Red line), you could read the Trib. So, everyone from Evanston would read the Trib, and everyone from about…oh…Sheridan on down would read the ST.
In regards to content, I find that the ST has slightly better columnists, and the Trib has the greater content (I like the international news, too, much like a previosu poster).
I second (third?) the Reader, too. Free, throw-outable, but still not tabloid…
Yup. When I was just a wee lad growing up in the land just beyond O’Hare, the Sun Times was a paper read by “those” people who rode the bus or El, rather than the Chicago & Northwestern train.
The whole thing is is one piece and doesn’t require unfolding into something approximating the size of a tablecloth while you hang on to the other sections. Perhaps unimportant when you’re on the couch at home, but it’s certainly easier to manage while on the bus or train. OTOH, it’s impossible to share without ripping pages out.
No, I got that, I just don’t agree that it makes it easier. The whole thing is a lot thicker and hard to break up in sections. It must be personal style, but I like to be able to break the paper into easily separated bits, rather than having to hold a thick chunk of paper. The damn thing always ends up falling apart on me.
Oh, I asked them not to call me. I practically begged them (I think it’s important to ahve a paper inthe house–I’m a whacky person) and they kept doing it.
buh, bye!
Now I get my news online, but it’s not the same. I like the feel of a paper in my hand. And the Op-Ed stuff is always interesting. gotpasswords The Daily News was my family’s paper of choice–and a damn good liberal paper it was. I was very young when it stopped,but I still have the last edition (somewhere).
Yo! I live on the South Side (well, the southern suburbs, alot of U of C professors live here and alot of BP–formerly Amoco–live here too) and we all took the Trib.
Sometimes, they are too conservative for me, but I balanced it with The New Yorker. Now I just get the New Yorker and noone bugs me.
When I went to college (millions of years ago) the Sun Times was notorious for having the most typos per square inch of any publication ever seen. I wonder if they still do…we used to speculate that the proofreaders (if any) drank.
