Dear editor,
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It’s sad to read what’s happening at the Chicago Reporter [Hot Type, June 17]. I was the first reporter/writer hired there by John McDermott and Lillian Calhoun in 1972. I began the job while still a student at Medill, and it was, in retrospect, a fantastic experience working with a group of exceptional people, many of whom have become exceptional journalists. I haven’t lived in Chicago now for more than 20 years, like many of the Reporter’s alumni. After a year I became the first managing editor at the Reporter and then left to join the team that started up Crain’s Chicago Business. Today I’m still an editor, but in Philadelphia, not Chicago.
Even in these days of the Internet and blogs, Chicago will be worse off without the Reporter. I don’t know of any city in the United States that could encourage such an institution to grow and mature. It’s one of those things that makes Chicago special.
