I've been doing this columnist/blogger thing for so long that it's possible for me to forget that for many years I was a general assignment newspaper reporter, standing around courtrooms and government offices, waiting for various stories to unfold. And often political reporter Andy Shaw was there too, alongside in the media scrum.
We both moved on, me to whatever it is I'm doing here, he to the Better Government Association for a decade and, now, Substack. I've read the piece he links to, and if you'd like to discuss it below, feel free — I don't want to color the conversation, but let him sink, or swim, on his own merits.
We both moved on, me to whatever it is I'm doing here, he to the Better Government Association for a decade and, now, Substack. I've read the piece he links to, and if you'd like to discuss it below, feel free — I don't want to color the conversation, but let him sink, or swim, on his own merits.
When he asked me to ballyhoo his latest endeavor I said, in essence, "Do it yourself." So take it away, Andy Shaw:
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| Andy Shaw |
I’ve been writing op ed columns for Chicago newspapers for years—occasionally while I was still covering politics at ABC 7, more frequently when I led the Better Government Association, and now as a good government nonprofit board member and semi-retired observer of the local scene. But I noticed that newspaper layoffs and buyouts prompted many columnists to migrate to Substack, which also appeared to be an increasingly viable option for me since local newspapers don’t pay for content and have become increasingly picky about what they do and don’t want. So voila—here I am!
Yeah, do what??? No hint of a solution. Andy you are better than that.
ReplyDeleteAgree. And the solution is….?
DeleteDitto.
DeleteBorn in Chicago, raised mostly in the suburbs, then lived in the city and suburbs for another 17 years in adulthood. Left my hometown almost 33 years ago. Keep hearing about how broken Chicago is, and how dangerous it is. Eagerly awaiting for tangible and specific methods of fixing it. Still waiting.
DeleteRead his link, sounded like classic republicans talking points.. I’m in my 79th year of living here. Problems? Yes, but Jesus, they ain’t that bad. Also, his op ed piece about wintering in Mexico in today’s sun times is a fucking head slapper
DeleteI read his link. Didn't see classic Republican spew.
DeleteUblican
Sorry, ever since the storms hit this week we have had electric, internet and WiFi problems! Everything has a mind of its own now.
DeleteWhat i tried to say was I read his link and did not hear classic republican spew.
Being one of the lowest class, just want to say problems are almost never that bad if you reside higher on the food chain.
It was only a grand total of 36 years for me. Was never mugged, carjacked, robbed, or attacked. Knew where to go and where to avoid. Carried little maps in my head, as all savvy Chicagoans do. The one time I had trouble, on the "L", the cops were there when needed. And I started carrying a blade.
DeleteProblems? Hell, yeah. But not like in Detroit or New York or plenty of other places. Despite being a fraction of Chicago's size and population, my adopted hometown, Cleveland, has far more headaches.
Have lived here almost 33 years now. The city is hemorrhaging people and businesses and industries. It has shrunk to half the population it had at its peak, in the Fifties. The schools are abysmal. City Hall is a shambles. Same graft and corruption as Chicago. A boy mayor replaced a career politician...who slept for sixteen years.
Gunfire and shootings are routine. Packs of dirt-bikers, carjackers, and gangs of car thieves prowl streets and roads. Car chases happen almost every day. People online kvetch about their plight, and they will endlessly denigrate their benighted city.. But Chicago frightens them even more, and they are positive that it's even worse. Do I buy any of that noise? Hell, no...
Please, guys, get off Substack. There are other platforms. Substack has a far-right problem. I don't want to subsidize it.
ReplyDeleteI think you are wrong about Substack. Their main problem according to those who have left is that there Nazis' on the sit on some other fr right stuff. How ever those substacks don't show up in your mail unless you subscribe and no one is forcing you to read them. There is plenty of that stuff all over the net. I never run into any of it unless some I read talks about it. I think it is better to know who is out there than not
DeleteI should have added: It's not a viable model in terms of readership. I supported many writers before I left the site, but I can't keep throwing $7 here, $6 there to a slew of writers who have left newspapers where I could pay one monthly subscription.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot that's wrong with the news business and I *wish that the techbros would come up with micropayments already, but in the meantime, I can't pay $7/month per byliner.
I agree. There's a lot of individuals that I would like to support, but can't at $7/month or more. Maybe they could find a way to group together...
DeleteI would agree with you. It could get to be a lot. I think some are worse than others when it comes to giving you free stuff to read. There some that depend on the kindness of strangers to pay for a subscription even though you can read a number of substacks for free. For some it is a way of making a living.
DeleteMr. Shaw, I’ve followed and enjoyed your work as an investigative journalist and with the BGA. If your initial posting is to establish a topical overview for your future Substack postings, that’s fine. But, as our host, Mr. Steinberg, has done, you have to differentiate your product to rise above the crowd in some way. In addition to Mr. Steinberg’s blog (and S-T columns of course), I enjoy Eric Zorn’s Picayune Sentinel blog and Charlie Myerson’s Public Square aggregation site. If you will be posting more in-depth analyses of each of the topics you mention, that’s great and I will follow. However, if future postings will be just a litany of troubles plaguing the city, then you’re treading toward the old-guy-shaking-his-fist-at-the-clouds Gene Weingarten and J. Kass realm of Internet hell, which I choose to avoid. As a fan of your former work, a recently retired, soon-to-be 65 year old, and as someone not as skilled of a writer as Mr. Steinberg and yourself, please accept this in the spirit of a constructive criticism to a member of the same generation. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteJim
There's a huge difference between what Weingarten wrote about & what that loon Kass spews his hatred about!
DeleteI have huge respect for Gene Weingarten's past work, even though his blog posts are not ... my cup of tea. As for Andy's initial post, well, I'd point to the "Work in progress" title. I'd encourage him to become more distinctive, less generic. I agree that Gene and Kass should not be uttered in the same breath; whatever Weingarten's shortcomings, he's not a mouth-breathing moron flogging the dead horse of grievance and conspiracy theorizing.
DeleteMy apologies to Mr. Weingarten and to the both of you, Clark St. and Mr. Steinberg, for placIng GW side-by-side with JK. Yes, other than both being bloggers there are no similarities between the two. I meant to use the two as sort of polar opposites on a continuum, but I failed in concept - I won't make such a mistake again. I don't abhor GW, and did receive his newsletter for some time, but I found it very repetitive and short on solutions, and just preaching to the choir, which is why I unsubscribed recently. I expected more from a talented writer but my expectations weren't met.
DeleteOne more note to Mr. Shaw. I just finished reading an op-ed piece of his that was published on the website of the other daily Chicago newspaper just today it appears. The subject matter concerned his winter vacation in a quaint and picturesque resort town in Mexico called San Antonio Tlayacapan. An extremely interesting piece as it provided a detailed description of a place that sounds wonderful and it added to my knowledge base. I will most likely never visit, as the cartel situation and violence do concern me, so I all the more enjoy reading such informative articles. As the Moody Blues sang, "thinking is the best way to travel". Please keep up this type of unique reporting and I'll be a fan of your blog.
Also, as a related aside, Mr. Steinberg, two of one of my favorite series of postings on your blog revolved around your trip to Antarctica on a special invitation-only sea cruise and the trip through the West and National Parks with your sons. Just wanted to mention this as it's these types of unique and informative postings that keep me a fan and checking in on a daily basis.
Thank you.
Jim
Might be a good idea to describe what Substack is and and how one is to access its wisdom, such as it may be.
ReplyDeletejohn
Pardon my ignorance. I wouldn't doubt that I am the last person on Planet Earth who knows nothing about Substack or any number of other social media outlets.
Substack is a platform, like Blogger (the platform where I write this, run by Google). The only reason I know anything about it is because some kind of Substack content officer actually called me and invited me to join Substack, which I took as a kind of validation, as if Facebook stopped by your house with a basket of muffins. But when I looked at Substack, they charged, and seemed to take control of your work, and I didn't want that. Blogger is free and I don't need to charge, as the Sun-Times, despite their travails, still firehoses money at me. I get a modest sum from my advertiser, Eli's Cheesecake, and if I needed to ramp up profitability, I think my next step would be to double my revenue by lining up a second advertiser. But thank God I don't.
DeleteThank you for the information- I follow several different writers articles on Substack some I pay, some I don’t - and I occasionally I think how/why is EGDT is no charge. I do subscribe to the Sun-Times, only because of you. Thank you!
DeleteOh I thought this might be about Andy’s recommendation in the Tribune’s
ReplyDeletelead editorial today that we all should discover the joys of wintering in a posh little hideaway on the Mexican coast. At least those of us with the means to do so. Too bad for everyone else I guess. #tonedeaf
I've always respected Andy Shaw's work but if I wanted to read another rant about CTA claiming 'crime is rampant,' I'd just open Next Door where people bitch everything and anything and it's all politicians' fault. I've used CTA regularly since 1991. Daily for ~25 years, and few times a week in last 5-6 years; combination of trains an buses. And yet I still haven't been mugged, raped, or killed, nor witnessed crime. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies. I agreed to let him post something without considering what I was agreeing to run. I have a line I sometimes use at home, "You know the problem with walking the dog? You have to walk the dog." The problem with letting people you know post on your blog is, you have to let them post on your blog. Lesson learned — next time I'll vet the material first.
DeleteAndy Shaw here. I have written dozens of columns on multiple topics over the years, while and after 37 years of covering, writing and talking about most of what moves, crawls and sneaks around Chicago, mainly for our local papers, TV and radio stations, and now on Substack. The one on Chicago’s problems was simply one of those columns, and hardly a rant or screed. Just a current overview. But the suggestion that I offer solutions is a good one for future use. Thanks. As for Neil’s apology and vetting pledge? A bit insulting, as it was directed at me, but that’s characteristic of the idiosyncratic charm that makes most of his columns interesting, with the exception of a few that needed better vetting and occasional spiking. 😂
DeleteI ride CTA buses a few times a week. But I've only ridden the L twice in the last 18 months. Even then it was just the Evanston & Ravenswood Lines. The Red Line is far too creepy, it's now a rolling homeless shelter, with them drunk, smoking, fighting with each other & laying across five seats at once, denying us old people a place to sit. Even the Green Line on the South Side feels safer, even as the sole white guy in the L car south of 35th St going all the way to 63rd & Cottage Grove!
DeleteSorry Andy, the fault is mine — I should have ascertained ahead of time whether your column was up to snuff, and then simply not run it. But I've done a number of these, and never ran into that situation nor, frankly, imagined it, and by the time I realized the situation, it was too late to find an alternate. No insult intended. Just the opposite, I was trying to be kind, and off-loaded my responsibility onto readers to give the reaction that I was too soft-hearted to offer up, initially. As for the columns of mine that, like yours, weren't worth the time it takes to read them, do you have a particular example in mind? Or is that just injured ego lashing out at someone who only tried to help you? Because there is too much of that going around already.
DeleteToday's comments pretty well cover most of what I would have had to say about this, right down to the "old-guy-shaking-his-fist-at-the-clouds" reference.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, along with wintering in Mexico, a new home in St. John, Indiana will be in Mr. Shaw's future.
Anonymous @ 8:28 a.m.: "I can't keep throwing $7 here, $6 there to a slew of writers who have left newspapers where I could pay one monthly subscription." Hear, hear!
We currently pay $78 a year for an e-subscription to the Sun-Times and $80.60 for the Tribune. I have no idea what those prices are based on (the Trib floated the idea of $247 a couple years ago, which we declined), but I'm not about to individually pay for the opinions of every single journalist who used to work at one of them who have migrated to Substack.
Now where's that cloud for me to yell at?
Sorry Neil. Ego ergo. Let’s keep on keepin’ on in our respective spaces. Will continue to be a faithful reader of your columns in your big public venue while I crawl back under my subterranean Substack sinecure.
ReplyDeleteI remember when Andy and his wife owned a rooming house for tourists sort of near Twin Anchors. He left Channel 7 and had a nice run at BGA. That should be enough. Time to be quiet now and let younger people do the work. Time to retire and get out of the way.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. Mr. Shaw has things to say. Good for him.
DeleteI wasn't a fan before so I'm not surprised to be underwhelmed by Mr Shaw now. I'd found his occasional guest time on BEZ (while at the BGA) and his columns (like this one) too full of blanket statements, cynicism and a dismissive air of "if you really knew Chicago politics like I do ..., you too would be just as cynical. (add eye roll)." Not at all insightful or interesting to me.
ReplyDelete