Tronc Dumps Robert Feder

CHICAGO, IL — Robert Feder, a journalist who loves journalism, who turned his informative and critical eye on the media business, has been dropped by Tronc. Feder on Thursday announced the company's decision not to renew their licensing and marketing agreement on his website, RobertFeder.com.

His reporting and observations on the media beat will no longer appear in the pages of the Chicago Tribune.

All I can say is I enjoyed every day of my association with the Chicago Tribune and I appreciate the unique opportunity and freedom I was given. I came to know a lot of great people there and I wish them well.

Feder, 60, will continue to report on Chicago media at RobertFeder.com. He notes the Tribune's pay wall will no longer impede visitors to his site.

A pro's pro, Feder has covered the Chicago media scene for 36 years. When he was 14 years old, Feder started the first-and-only Walter Cronkite Fan Club, according to a 2009 Chicago Sun-Times story.

You really couldn't pick a better journalist to idolize than Cronkite. And if Cronkite was the standard against which Feder judged integrity, talent and quality, then those who failed to measure up undoubtedly deserved the criticism.

Born on Chicago's South Side and raised in Skokie, Feder earned his degree at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, then went on to work as radio and tv columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times until 2008. He took a buyout as the newspaper-business death spiral picked up speed. He blogged at Vocalo.org and became the media critic for Time Out Chicago before starting RobertFeder.com and striking an agreement with Tribune Publishing in August 2013.

From time to time in his three-year bond with Tribune Publishing, Feder would turn his critical eye on the corporate media giant. When Michael Ferro's regime took over and renamed the company Tronc (Tribune Online Content ... no really, that's what the name means), Feder kept doing what he's always done.

He reported on Ferro's buy-in and eventual takeover of the Tribune, writing:

A self-styled tech entrepreneur, Ferro has been a controversial figure since he acquired the Sun-Times in December 2011. While failing to improve the paper’s digital presence, he has made drastic cuts to the print product and editorial operation. Once a lightning rod for criticism, Ferro more recently has lowered his public profile and distanced himself from the Wrapports brand. In 2015 he took his name off the editorial masthead of the Sun-Times.

“As nutty and crazy as he is, Ferro has kept the Sun-Times alive,” said a source close to both companies. “You have to give him credit for that.”

And on the now incessantly mocked name change, in a piece titled "Stop the presses: tronc if you love Ferro," he wrote:

How did we ever get from the “World’s Greatest Newspaper” to this?

What’s more, employees who previously identified with their respective newspapers got official word from their new bosses that they’re now working for “a content curation and monetization company focused on creating and distributing premium, verified content across all channels.” Yep, that’s tronc!

As corporate names go, it’s even worse than Wrapports, which Ferro inflicted on the Sun-Times before the self-styled tech entrepreneur began his five-year reign of failure there.

And this:

If the new name for the former Tribune Publishing isn’t enough to make you cringe, then surely the “introductory video” released Monday will do the trick. Typical reactions: “Tronc threatens a nightmare hellscape of video content in new warning to employees,” mocked Casey Newton in The Verge.

Not one to pull punches, Feder was not averse to kicking shins, either, as he filed a piece on May 31 titled "Can somebody find Michael Ferro an editor?"

If you want a good laugh sometime, check out michaelferro.com, the personal website of self-proclaimed “tech entrepreneur and philanthropist” Michael W. Ferro Jr. Four months after Ferro became chairman of Tribune Publishing and gave up his financial interest in Wrapports, the site still identifies him as “the founder and CEO of Wrapports LLC, Chicago Sun-Times’ parent company.” (For the record, Ferro was never CEO of Wrapports. That title was held by Tim Knight, who resigned last October.) Chirped one ex-employee: “Funny how tech savvy genius wizard Ferro is gonna launch ‘Tronc’ and set the publishing world on its ear, yet he can’t even update his pathetic little site that he created for himself, to reflect that he no longer is associated with the Sun-Times.”

Tuesday update: As of noon, Michael Ferro’s website at michaelferro.com has been taken down.

As a media mogul, Ferro is reportedly very thin skinned. You see where this is going, don't you?

"Officially I was informed that this was done 'for business reasons,'" Feder notes.

His fans offered their own well wishes and thoughts upon hearing the news he'd been "troncked."

Feder reassured his fans he would keep up his work. And he thanked them, too.

"... please know how grateful I am for your loyalty and trust over the past 36 years," he wrote. "I promise I will never take that for granted."