By Michael Miner
Until last week the Press papers had a real one. There were guest columnists, and there were the regulars: Jack Zimmerman opining on Jerry Falwell and Teletubbies, Hal Dardick ripping the death penalty, Mike Sandrolini musing on Bill and Monica, Don Hammontree finding glimmers of peace in Northern Ireland. These were local guys, unknown outside Du Page but weighing in on the same hefty matters that occupy George Will, John Kass, and Robert Novak.
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In December Liberty expanded again, acquiring Life Printing & Publishing Company of Oak Brook, which published 17 weeklies in Chicago’s west and southwest suburbs and had been owned by the Kubik and Randa families since the 30s. Larry Randa, vice president of operations, stayed on to run the Life papers, and when Jack Cruger resigned as publisher of the Press newspapers in early March, Randa took them over as president of Liberty Group Suburban. The tribute to Melvin Cruger vanished from the editorial page. And last week Dardick, Sandrolini, and Hammontree disappeared from the op-ed page.
Randa told me: “In essence we are trying to create a better local news product.” With what? “Names, names, names. Pictures, pictures, pictures. People want to know what’s going on in their town, what kids are doing in the local Little League and the schools. That’s the bread and butter of the local newspaper industry. The fact is, if we’re going to create that kind of news we’ve got to create some space. We felt that the columnists no longer with us were not, were not–”
“This is an example of what’s going on around the country, with community newspapers being bought out by huge corporations with a profit motive rather than a community-service motive in mind,” he said. “But this one I think is particularly insidious.” He fears the marketplace of ideas has been reduced. Under Jack Cruger, the Press papers endorsed Carol Moseley-Braun for the U.S. Senate last fall. Under three generations of Randas and Kubiks, the Life chain had been dependably Republican. Heir apparent Jack Kubik was a Republican legislator from La Grange Park from 1985 until this year, when Governor Ryan appointed him executive director of the Illinois Racing Board. He intended to step in and run the company with Larry Randa, but Liberty Group came along with an offer too whopping to refuse.
Fifteen years ago Press Publications gave Jack Zimmerman a column, and Randa is keeping him. Not once, Zimmerman said, has he been told what to write or not write. “That’s pretty amazing,” he reflected. Zimmerman supports himself by handling PR for Ravinia, and he’s rarely in the newsroom. He had no idea change was in the air. “I opened the paper on Friday, and there I was [at the top of the page]. I looked down below me–and nobody was there. It was an odd feeling.”
Why did Melvin Cruger disappear? I wondered.
