The Tribune or the Sun-Times? (Chicago, Washington: movies, live, move to)

[Castro Viejo]

In anticipation of my move to Chicago this summer, I've been trying to get a local feel by reading both the Tribune and the Sun-Times. I haven't figured out which has better coverage of local issues and events, but I'm beginning to lean more toward the Sun-Times whereas I was reading the Trib almost exclusively a few months ago.

So which do you guys prefer for local news?

For the international/national stuff I'll probably stick to the New York Times or the various news outlets (CNN, Fox News, ABC News, MSNBC, etc.), so I'm looking for a strictly local paper.

Thanks.

[Drover]

I'd say the Sun-Times devotes more of its resources to local coverage than the Tribune does. The Trib has greater stature as a regional/Midwest paper and therefore covers regional and national issues more thoroughly. I also daresay that the Trib is the more serious of the two papers; the Sun-Times has a bit more of a "tabloid" streak in it. Not quite as bad as, say, the New York Post, but definitely along those lines.

[misspetite]

I like the Sun Times better but I read both.

[via chicago]

The Sun Times is a half-step above grocery tabloids. Aside from the occasional "big break" story (hired trucks scandal, etc), its relative trash.

The Tribune, while perhaps not incredible, is heads and shoulders above the Sun Times.

I will say the Sun Times focuses slightly more on the city itself, while the Trib is more suburban oriented in its news coverage. Thats about the only advantage I see it having.

I especially enjoy the Trib for a lot of their in depth features, and some areas they cover intelligently that no one else does (Blair Kamin's insight and reviews on architecture, for example. For an architecture obsessed town, he's a true gift to have writing here).

[Manigault]

The Trib is a better paper. One just has to avoid its editorials and some of the Op-ed contributors. You gotta understand: In its history the Trib has never endorsed a Democrat for president, not once. It endorsed the Republican nominee over Paul Simon in a US senate race. Even the editors this year had to mention that messup.

The Trib is not as bad as the Wall Street Journal, but it does have a right-wing, Republican stance. It also had its own share of scandals: In addition to the recent firing of columnist Bob Greene for boinking a teenager, it had a 'youth' columnist (Rick Soll) fired in the seventies for lifting his columns from books. You hear about the problems on the NY Times and at the Washington Post, but the Trib has had to apologize, too.

[mdz]

Sun-times has better sports coverage and Roger Ebert, whose movie columns I really enjoy reading. But they've hit real hard times lately, laying off a lot of the news staff over last few weeks, and I've got a bad feeling that paper is going bye-bye soon.

[Drover]

Feh. Ebert's a schmoe. Long live Roeper.

[Avengerfire]

Imo they both suck now. The Trib like others said is better than the Sun-Times though.

[mdz]

It has seemed recently that ebert hasn't met a movie he hasn't liked, but I really do like his weekend "answer man" columns and the "great movies" columns. The old Siskel-Ebert days were a lot more fun when they would start yelling at each other

[Lookout Kid]

I like to read the Sun-Times during the week and the Tribune on Sundays. The Sun-Time's format is better for commuting or taking to lunch. It's columnists are more light-hearted, and actually quite entertaining at times. It has a tendency to plaster sensationalist headlines across the fron page, but is certainly less trashy than any of those stupid celebrity mags.

I subscribe to the Sunday Tribune, and love the ritual of slowly getting through it on a Sunday morning/afternoon. I read the Tribune's webpage quite frequently on weekdays, however, and find that it gets the local "scoop" pretty quickly. Chicago is an interesting place, and there's always something going on.

But the New York Times is definitely tops for National and World coverage. If you have time for all of these newspapers, I'd definitely keep the Times in the mix.