Further Reductions Taken

There's yet another new look for the Chicago Tribune, the newspaper boldly proclaims on their banner.

A minor change. Purely cosmetic. You'll hardly notice.

The tabloid-sized sheets that detail the television listings for the week will be stuffed into Saturday's paper. Hardly anyone buys the Saturday edition, and if you want that handy guide, you'll have to change your routine.

Oh, and one other thing you might notice when you leaf through the hard-copy version of Chicago's biggest daily. The book section has been reduced even further.

Last week, there was a separate section for book reviews, movie listings, the comics, and other miscellaneous bits of verbiage.

Today, it's all one section, the news and editorials sharing the other side of the fold with a much reduced collection of human interest stories and reviews.

There's no room for more than a few book reviews, and there's only the one article about Nelson Algren for the literati. The best sellers listing is nice and big, though, and the Literary Events part has bigger pictures of authors. Sam Zell doesn't have to pay a writer to fill up those spaces with book reviews, so it's a money-saver.

And he's dropped the crossword puzzle, the tough one. There's a few pennies in his pocket that can go towards paying down the debt he took on when he bought the place.

The Tribune Company has saved themselves a little change, and they're saving me a lot of time. We're all coming out on top, except for those of us who still take delivery of the newspaper. We're getting short-changed.