# Chicago Reader up for sale — effect on SDMB? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 12, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559 "2012-03-12T16:11:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/21 "2012-03-13T00:52:18Z")
Hey! Nowhere in my post did I describe Board members as “people who can type.” ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/22 "2012-03-13T02:01:50Z")
Subject to review of financials I’d be willing to go somewhere around half a million. But I’d want to know the extent of the rest of the property that would come with it, especially if any of it is real estate. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/23 "2012-03-13T02:08:51Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Subject to review of financials I’d be willing to go somewhere around half a million. But I’d want to know the extent of the rest of the property that would come with it, especially if any of it is real estate. I bid $500,000.50. Wait, we’re playing by eBay rules, right? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/24 "2012-03-13T02:19:29Z")
> [@dzero](#): > > I bid $300 billion dollars. > > Yea!!! I win!!! > > Zimbabwe dollars are cool - right? 😃 I think you better withdraw this offer before the Reader accepts. I’m suspecting you didn’t check the exchange rate. You just offered US$798m. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/25 "2012-03-13T02:29:04Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > moving away from a tone she described as ‘the smartest-kids-in-the-room kind of lecturing everyone else.’" But that’s what Cecil Adams stands for! ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/26 "2012-03-13T02:30:41Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > I think you better withdraw this offer before the Reader accepts. I’m suspecting you didn’t check the exchange rate. You just offered US$798m. Who is this dzero fellow you’re talking about? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/27 "2012-03-13T10:57:34Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I bid $500,000.50. > > Wait, we’re playing by eBay rules, right? Careful, Xap. I’d put you in the editor’s seat! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/28 "2012-03-13T11:00:45Z")
I bid US$10,000,000 for the Chicago Reader. However, I do not have ready access to these funds at this time. They are being frozen in my accounts overseas and I need to pay processing fees to have these funds released. So, if Creative Loafing will kindly wire the sum of US$4,500,000 to my lawyer, Mr. Yuben T. Richt, in Lagos, I will give the matter my utmost attention and pay the $10 million, plus the $4.5 million in good faith money, plus an additional 25% interest for the inconvenience as soon as my funds are made available to me. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/29 "2012-03-13T13:41:21Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Wow. Way to totally miss the point. I think that the emphasis is on lecture, not smart. It’s not the content, it’s the tone. I interpreted it as a call to move towards dumber and snarkier. But, I am pseuso-peripteral. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/30 "2012-03-13T14:58:58Z")
TO: Chicago Reader Dear Mr. Reader. I am Doctor I.M. Matches. I am the emloyee of the united first bakque of mongolia. In my positen, I often find missing airs of fine people of deceased wile our account was had. I am led to you because of this fine people who have died. Your relateve have died and is now dear and left a will for 25 million dollars US naming Mr. Reader as the persen they want to have this fine money. It will be my pleseauer to offer to you my services for me to get you this 25 million dollars US to you. I will need to help me for this 25 million dollars US to be sent to you from the united first bakque of mongolia. I will need this information to begin to send to your place your 25 million dollars US claime. Once it is complete, you will receive your 25 million dollars US in 3 weeks from the united first bakque of mongolia. Please send to me title to any business you may have that show me you are interested in me getting you this 25 million dollars US. When I reciieve these papers, I will trust you to accept this 25 million dollars US and a payment of 25 million dollars US will be sent to you from the united first bakque of mongolia. If you would like to know about me. I will to refernece me people who no me and the goode I does for all my fine friends like your dead good friend who remembered you. You may see that I have asked for nonthing of your 25 million dollars US. It will be all yours, no taxes for our help here. You need to tell me your place where I must send this 25 million dollars US . Your faithfull service Doctor I.M. Matches PS. My good friend morgenstern has said he will be quite happy to run the social dope boards while this transaction in process of processing out payment. You can send him the keys to the vault please. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/31 "2012-03-13T15:11:28Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Careful, Xap. I’d put you in the editor’s seat! Class, today’s lecture is an especially important one. Now, my illiterate baboons, pay attention for once. I want your slack jaws closed, your eyes propped open with toothpicks, and some sort of recording device in your fingers. The eraser goes to the right. Your other right. Any ear buds will be driven so deep that they may intersect with the randomly twitching brain cell that is all you have in operation. The subject of today lecture is how to marketize the Chicago Reader’s assets in a modern online media environment. Come back here, Adams. I will hunt you down if I have to! ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/32 "2012-03-13T17:51:30Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > TO: Chicago Reader > > Dear Mr. Reader. > > I am Doctor I.M. Matches. I am the emloyee of the united first bakque of mongolia. In my positen, I often find missing airs of fine people of deceased wile our account was had. I am led to you because of this fine people who have died. > > Your relateve have died and is now dear and left a will for 25 million dollars US naming Mr. Reader as the persen they want to have this fine money. It will be my pleseauer to offer to you my services for me to get you this 25 million dollars US to you. I will need to help me for this 25 million dollars US to be sent to you from the united first bakque of mongolia. > > I will need this information to begin to send to your place your 25 million dollars US claime. Once it is complete, you will receive your 25 million dollars US in 3 weeks from the united first bakque of mongolia. > > Please send to me title to any business you may have that show me you are interested in me getting you this 25 million dollars US. When I reciieve these papers, I will trust you to accept this 25 million dollars US and a payment of 25 million dollars US will be sent to you from the united first bakque of mongolia. > > If you would like to know about me. I will to refernece me people who no me and the goode I does for all my fine friends like your dead good friend who remembered you. You may see that I have asked for nonthing of your 25 million dollars US. It will be all yours, no taxes for our help here. > > You need to tell me your place where I must send this 25 million dollars US . > > Your faithfull service > > Doctor I.M. Matches > > PS. My good friend morgenstern has said he will be quite happy to run the social dope boards while this transaction in process of processing out payment. You can send him the keys to the vault please. Outdone! \*Bows We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/33 "2012-03-13T18:02:16Z")
> [@whitetho](#): > > So maybe they’d be happier if we dumbed it down a little… “Embracing ignorance since 2012 (it’s actually pretty easy).” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/34 "2012-03-13T19:05:00Z")
I suddenly feel like I did when we were assured that C Band satellite would still be subscribed to. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/35 "2012-03-14T00:54:32Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Class, today’s lecture is an especially important one. Now, my illiterate baboons, pay attention for once. I want your slack jaws closed, your eyes propped open with toothpicks, and some sort of recording device in your fingers. The eraser goes to the right. Your other right. Any ear buds will be driven so deep that they may intersect with the randomly twitching brain cell that is all you have in operation. > > The subject of today lecture is how to marketize the Chicago Reader’s assets in a modern online media environment. Come back here, Adams. I will hunt you down if I have to! So you DOUBT my abilities, Mr Mapcase? I, for one, would feel perfectly comfortable running a paper like the Reader. I’ve certainly done it before. But it’s not dumbing down the smart that’s necessary. It’s changing the target of the smart. Stop outsmarting the readers and helping the readers outsmart the elected and appointed officials. Do that and they’ll love you until they turn on you. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/36 "2012-03-14T01:21:31Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Do that and they’ll love you until they turn on you. Like starving zombies. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/37 "2012-03-14T02:04:56Z")
There’s some fun stuff in the news reports on this. [NBCChicago.com](http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/The-Chicago-Readers-Moment-142485645.html) > [@](#): > > The Chicago Reader is being shuffled from owner to owner like a broken-down claiming horse in its last year at a tank-town racetrack. In 2007, it was sold by its founders to Creative Loafing, a newspaper chain that went broke the next year. The Reader ended up in the hands of Creative Loafing’s chief creditor, Atalaya Capital Management, which is now trying to peddle the paper to its fourth owner in five years. [Chicago Business](http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120312/NEWS06/120319997) > [@](#): > > Rising competition from Time Out Chicago also has hurt the Reader, Mr. Whitaker noted. Before that weekly magazine appeared on the market in 2005, the Reader’s subscriber and advertising base was distinct from many other outlets in Chicago because it had particular appeal to the “hipster” set, but Time Out and others now target that audience, he said. And on the [Chicago Reader home page](http://www.chicagoreader.com/) > [@](#): > > Best tater tots Nothing that hipsters love more than tater tots. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/38 "2012-03-14T02:19:44Z")
Perhaps we should all subscribe…“I am interested in your views, and wish to subscribe to your…whatever the hell it is.” ---
**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/39 "2012-03-14T02:34:42Z")
> [@](#): > > . . . because it had particular appeal to the “hipster” set . . . Damned hipsters. How can they not understand that, since no one reads The Reader, it is therefore cool - which makes it required reading. QED. They’re just a bunch of pseudo-hipster poseurs. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559/40 "2012-03-14T04:18:13Z")
…"‘the smartest-kids-in-the-room kind of lecturing everyone else.’" She spelled _kinda_ wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chicago-reader-up-for-sale-effect-on-sdmb/615559.md?page=3)