Pioneer Press
|
|
- The St. Paul Pioneer Press of Minnesota (owned by Knight Ridder) is often simply referred to as the Pioneer Press
Pioneer Press is a company which publishes over fifty local newspapers in suburban Chicagoland. It is a division of Hollinger International. Pioneer Press' headquarters is in Glenview. There are several other satellite offices: Waukegan (where, ironically, there is no community paper published by Pioneer), Oak Park, Hinsdale, Arlington Heights, and Park Ridge.
The community newspapers are the main source of local news in affluent communities like Winnetka, Highland Park and Lake Forest, where there is virtually no competition. Because of this, it is often viewed as a "cash cow" for embattled Hollinger, which has operated a number of money-losing operations in the Chicago area.
Unrest among staffers has marred Pioneer Press' reputation somewhat. In March of 2002, a sportswriter covering Highland Park High School basketball learned his beat would switch to covering the Villages of Lake Bluff and Lake Forest, effective immediately. It meant he would not be afforded the chance to cover the high school's first-ever trip to Illinois' boys basketball quarterfinals in Peoria.
Angry with that and stung by several other ethically-questionable actions by the newspaper, the sportswriter wrote an angry letter to Executive Editor Paul Sassone. The letter was distributed and the letter-writer was terminated. [1] (http://www.chireader.com/hottype/2002/020322_1.html)
In August 2003, the company made headlines when arts and entertainment editor Virginia Gerst ran a negative review of a restaurant which advertised in their papers and was reportedly reprimanded and told the press was "not in the business of bashing business". Soon after she was given a new review of the same restaurant to run, this time written by Kyle Leonard, a former restaurant reviewer and managing editor who had since moved to the newspaper's marketing department.
She refused to run the review and was immediately terminated. [2] (http://www.chireader.com/hottype/2003/030905_1.html)
External links
- Official website (http://www.pioneerlocal.com/)