Steve Bogira of the Chicago Reader writes primarily about urban poverty. One place where poor people's stories are told again and again, with unexpected nuances, is in the courtroom. Bogira's award-winning column, Courtside, recounts these stories, as does his recent book, Courtroom 302. This is the 16th in a "How I Got That Story" series highlighting the AltWeekly Awards' first-place winners.
We don't know enough about art or classified advertising to answer that question definitively, but the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's upcoming "I Saw You" exhibition certainly qualifies as rare and unusual. The exhibition, which opens Nov. 4, features work by SAIC students "inspired by the Chicago Reader's I Saw You classifieds," according to the school's Web site.
In her collection of essays, "She's Got Next," Melissa King recalls the Reader as "the forefront of the possibility trade." As this review explains, King's stint in Chicago "launched her on a yearslong search for life's meaning within the confines of a basketball court."
Chicago Reader staff writer Steve Bogira's book, "Courtroom 302: A Year Behind the Scenes in an American Criminal Courthouse," was published this month by Alfred A. Knopf. By detailing the happenings at Chicago's Cook County Criminal Courthouse over the course of one calendar year, the book shows how the war on drugs is overloading the justice system and threatening the integrity of due process. A review in The Economist calls it "a brilliant piece of journalism and a genuine eye-opener" that "provides the context, both locally and nationally, for understanding what is going on."
The Chicago Reader's 2004 circulation of 119,486 was down from 129,437 in 2003, reports Chicago Business. According to the report, Reader executives attribute the dip to chain retailers limiting or removing papers from their stores in an attempt to reduce clutter, and to new restrictions on the size of sidewalk news boxes.
Competition in the Windy City stiffened today with the entrance of the weekly listings magazine into an already-crowded marketplace. The Daily Herald reports: "Critics at rival publications point out that Chicagoans are accustomed to getting their entertainment listings and coverage for less than Time Out Chicago's price tag, $2.50 an issue." Chicago Reader Editor Alison True tells the paper that Time Out will be "perfect for people who want second-rate listings and want to pay for them."
Grant Daniel Pick, 57, died Feb. 1 of a heart attack. Editor Alison True tells the Chicago Tribune: "There was a generosity of spirit that was typical of him no matter what he was writing about." Pick "produced stories on topics ranging from religion to transgender individuals," and won a Peter Lisagor Award for exemplary journalism from the Chicago Headline Club, the Tribune reports. A story he wrote about Uday Hussein's hypnotist is set to run in Friday's edition of the Reader.
Hartford Advocate Editor Alistair Highet calls the listings calendar his paper's "universal point of interest." The calendar is -- and long has been -- indispensable for most alt-weeklies, attracting readers who don't necessarily agree with a paper's perceived political stance. But the marketplace is increasingly crowded with online and print publications listing concerts and theater times. Freelance reporter Charlie Deitch speaks with AAN members to find out what they're doing to fend off competitors' attempts to infringe on the alts' longtime stronghold.
Predictability took a tumble at the Chicago Reader Sept. 17 when the paper adopted a fresh new design. Freelance writer Nora Ankrum tells the story behind the 33-year-old paper's transformation, accomplished through a collaboration between the paper's staff and Spanish design firm Jardí + Utensil. While some readers may miss the old Reader, advertisers say they like the way the new look captures readers' eyes.
