The long-unprofitable Chicago Sun-Times, which sold just over four years ago for $1, has been reborn as a nonprofit newspaper with $61 million in backing through a potentially groundbreaking merger with public radio station WBEZ-FM 91.5.
The deal, which closed Monday, puts the daily tabloid and its colorful history under the banner of Chicago Public Media, the parent company of WBEZ, forming a nonprofit news organization that reshapes the local media landscape.
Chicago Public Media raised $61 million in philanthropic support to finance the merger, with the money pledged over five years to fund the Sun-Times operation, including commitments to “deepen and broaden” its journalism, maintain the print newspaper and invest in a digital transformation, according to a news release Monday.
“The response from the philanthropic community has been tremendous, and we are deeply indebted to this community of donors leading the way to invest in and protect journalism in Chicago,” said Matt Moog, CEO of Chicago Public Media.
The proposed merger was first announced in September, when Chicago Public Media and the Sun-Times signed a nonbinding letter of intent. The Chicago Public Media board voted Jan. 18 to move forward with its acquisition.
The newspaper and radio station will operate as separate newsrooms with their own editors, but will share content and resources across multiple platforms. The combined entities will have nearly 300 employees, with no plans for staff reductions after the merger, Chicago Public Media spokeswoman Betsy Berger said Monday.
Both WBEZ and the Sun-Times will launch a nationwide search for executive editors to lead their respective newsrooms, Chicago Public Media said.
Michael Sacks, chairman and CEO of Chicago-based asset management firm GCM Grosvenor and a Sun-Times investor, helped secure the agreement to transfer the newspaper’s assets and committed “significant future financial support,” according to Chicago Public Media.
Other financial supporters include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; the Pritzker Traubert Foundation; Builders Initiative; Chicago Community Trust; Walter and Karla Goldschmidt Foundation; Joyce Foundation; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Mansueto Foundation; Robin Steans and Leonard Gail; and an anonymous donor.
“I am proud to have played a part in securing the future of the Chicago Sun-Times and honoring its great legacy,” Sacks said in the news release.
Founded in 1948 by Marshall Field III, the Sun-Times has had a succession of owners, including media baron Rupert Murdoch, who bought it in 1984. Murdoch was forced to sell the Sun-Times in 1986 after acquiring WFLD-Ch. 32 because of Federal Communications Commission cross-ownership restrictions.
In 2009, a group led by former Mesirow CEO Jim Tyree rescued the Sun-Times from bankruptcy, paying $5 million in cash and taking on $20 million in liabilities.
Wrapports, a local investor group headed by tech entrepreneur Michael Ferro, stepped up after Tyree’s death to buy the Sun-Times and 38 suburban newspapers for about $20 million in December 2011. The suburban papers were sold to the Chicago Tribune for $23.5 million in 2014.
In 2017, an investor group that included the Chicago Federation of Labor bought the money-losing Sun-Times from Wrapports for $1, after Tribune Publishing was thwarted in its own bid to buy the newspaper by Justice Department antitrust concerns.
