Why did Cecil and the Chicago Reader forsake me? (No Reader at Midway airport!)(mild)

The BBQ Pit
1

Sick (with a cold) and sad, coming back from a funeral in Pittsburg.

One thing I was looking forward: on the scale I had to take on my way home: I had to make a stop in Midway airport in Chicago, a stop of three hours.

Fine, I thought, at least I will get a copy of the one an only Chicago Reader, and get to read the latest Cecil column…

Alas…

There was no Chicago Reader in any newsstand in the airport!!!

:sigh:

Had to “enjoy” Fox news on the gate TVs while waiting for the plane… :smack:

Why? Why there was no Reader at the airport?

2

The Reader is ubiquitous in Chicago cafes, bars, and restaurants. They like to charge for everything in airports, so I’m not surprised there were no free newspapers to be had.

If you really want a Reader, email me your address, I’ll send you one. Address is in my profile.

3

When I asked for it at one newstand at Midway, the sales lady said:
“Oh yeah! I read it all the time! But no, sorry, it not available here!” :frowning:

Wow! Really Kyla? I will send you a note, thanks a million! :smiley:

4

I’d guess there’s a deal between the airport company and specific print houses, excluding the reader. WAG, though.

5

You’d be surprised where you can’t find it, specifically near the entrances to the non-CTA train stations. Really used to piss me off when I had a long train ride and had finished my book…

Please, not after the redesign. Out-of-towners who think that the Reader is some great mythical paper will start to laugh at us. I’ll say it again though: at least now we can read News of the Weird.

6

News of the Weird was always in there!

I agree, the redesign sucks and is confusing. You open it and have to turn it upside down and around to find the front page. What on earth were they thinking?

7

If you look at the Chicago Reader circulation map (warning: PDF), there’s appears to be no distribution in the Midway Airport area. (I know I’ll be corrected if I’m totally off, but Midway’s about 1.5-2 miles south of the Stevenson near the western/southwestern edge of Chicago city limits, and I don’t see any distribution figures there.)

I’ll try to pick up two Chicago Readers next time I’m in Chicago, however. (Also, sending warm thoughts for your health and condolences on the recent funeral.)

8

Yeah, well, Midway is on the Southwest Side, which is decidedly unhip, and everybody knows The Reader is only aimed at the far, far hipper North Side. Us in the burbs only get The Reader’s Guide, a version with Cecil and a bunch of ads. But that shows how unhip the Southwest Side really is: even us losers in the burbs are considered hipper.

9

That’s true. The Reader’s version of a sports section is one long essay, invariably about the Cubs. I don’t think I have ever once seen them write about the Sox.

10

It was, but it used to have this weird gradient behind it (or maybe it was all grey, can’t recall) and it was nearly illegible.

As for why: Apparently, they’re trying ot get the jump on Time Out! Chciago.

Re: not reading about the Sox: You’ll never see it as they’ve taken the Sports column out. And Hot Type too! Why, oh why?

11

Ah, just like the Examiner went it went from Hearst to Fang. Problem was, Examiner is supposed to compete with the Chron, not East Bay Express. :rolleyes: (They fixed that particular format problem, but it’s still a rag.)