Chicago Tribune Memos
and Other Bits

One of the moments of journalism history that I had a chance to live was the Chicago Tribune’s publishing of some of the Nixon White House tapes – the Watergate tapes – in 1974. It was also a moment where

The Chicago Tribune Marketing Department, sometime in 1975 [my guess] produced a guide to the newspaper for the educational services department of the company. It was a look, written for consumers [young ones] about how the Tribune was created —

I wrote a memo about the future of the Chicago Tribune. It was part of a task force looking to redo the paper.  

Here’s the Editorial Department phone directory for the Chicago Tribune Staff in April 1980. The paper had an easy to remember phone number: 222-3232.  And for Classified Ads: 222-2222.

The Chicago Tribune production deadlines for its 24-hour publishing/printing cycle in 1982. Some of the stories were on paper and some via an early computer [PPS] system.

This is an example of the Chicago Tribune’s graphics request form. According to a note attached to this document, “graphics are handled through a full-time graphics editor who works with source editors. The graphics editor works with source editors and

An example of the Chicago Tribune’s photo request form used in 1985. Picture assignments were made through the picture assignment desk, either in the main city room or in the suburban Hinsdale, IL, bureau. Assignments were requested by either the

This is an example of the workload of Chicago Tribune photographers in December, 1985. The Day Picture assignments on December 26, 1985 run from 7:00 am until 3:30. The notes on the disposition column show the photographer and whether the