Tribune Powders Cubbies' Bottom
Does it seem to you that the Tribune is going awfully easy on a Cubs "juggernaut" that has lost seven of its last 10 games? We seem to recall that just about every time the White Sox lost a game in the second halves of 2005 and 2006 the Tribune compared them to some spectacular collapse of the past, such as the 1969 Cubs, but so far the 2007 Cubs have been spared such indelicate comparisons. Last night, for example, they were pummeled 15-2 by the Colorado Rockies. Tribune headline: "Rocky stop for Hill." Well, it's a cute headline anyway. Almost as cute as the little cartoon baby bear on the toothpaste-blue pajamas worn by the company team.
In the midst of this darkening of Cubbie fortunes, Cubs beat reporter Paul Sullivan writes a thoughtful column titled, "Tribune Years Could End With a Bang." And we don't think he's referring to any Tribune executives eating a bullet in the tower's most stratospheric offices because here's the subhed: "No pennants but team in far better shape than in 1981."
Team in far better shape than in 1981? Isn't baseball in general in better shape than in 1981? If the Tribune has gotten the Cubs in better shape than in 1981, it has less to do with baseball than with an ingenious marketing strategy that, by casting journalistic ethics to the wind and exploiting all the Tribune's media properties, successfully redepicted, in the public mind, an empty crumbling ballpark as a "jewel" that now fills to the gills with drunks 81 times a year. On that basis, and that basis alone, the Tribune will get a billion dollars for selling the Cubbies. But, as Jesus might ask, "What does it profit a newspaper if it gain the whole world and suffer the loss of its soul?" Even with an extra billion in cash, the widely disrespected, increasingly irrelevant, and financially troubled Tribune will be in much worse shape than it was in 1981.
In the midst of this darkening of Cubbie fortunes, Cubs beat reporter Paul Sullivan writes a thoughtful column titled, "Tribune Years Could End With a Bang." And we don't think he's referring to any Tribune executives eating a bullet in the tower's most stratospheric offices because here's the subhed: "No pennants but team in far better shape than in 1981."
Team in far better shape than in 1981? Isn't baseball in general in better shape than in 1981? If the Tribune has gotten the Cubs in better shape than in 1981, it has less to do with baseball than with an ingenious marketing strategy that, by casting journalistic ethics to the wind and exploiting all the Tribune's media properties, successfully redepicted, in the public mind, an empty crumbling ballpark as a "jewel" that now fills to the gills with drunks 81 times a year. On that basis, and that basis alone, the Tribune will get a billion dollars for selling the Cubbies. But, as Jesus might ask, "What does it profit a newspaper if it gain the whole world and suffer the loss of its soul?" Even with an extra billion in cash, the widely disrespected, increasingly irrelevant, and financially troubled Tribune will be in much worse shape than it was in 1981.
Labels: Chicago Tribune, marketing, Tribune Company
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