By Cody Cutter, NISB Publisher
[email protected]
The Chicago Tribune, operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, announced the layoffs of 53 staff employees on Wednesday. A report by the Chicago Sun-Times stated one of the names is Bob Sakamoto, longtime high school sports writer.
One of the leading prep writers in Illinois, Sakamoto covered high school sports for most of his over 30 years of sports writing experience. He had a brief stint covering the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Bears before settling back in the preps scene in 1992. He also co-hosted the "High School Extra'' Television show on the Chicagoland Television network CLTV.
Sakamoto's last piece for the Tribune came in the form of a blog entry (link) on Tuesday. It is about his choices for the top boys basketball teams for the next school year. Among other organizations, Sakamoto is also a member of the IHSA News Media Advisory Committee.
Sakamoto was unavailable for comment.
Other sports names reported in this round of cuts were Terry Bannon, Missy Issacson, John Mullin and assistant prep sports editor Bob Vanderberg.
The cuts come eight months after a round of buyouts claimed two Tribune prep sports writing veterans. Barry Temkin and Alan Sutton each put in over 30 years of experience at the newspaper. Reporter Dave Surico left soon after, and has since started PremiumPreps.com.
The paper, owned by Sam Zell and Tribune Company, filed for Chapter 11 on December 8 while struggling under a debt load of $13 billion. Tribune became private in 2007, which has contributed to the financial decline.
Sakamoto's departure left no other full-time high school sports reporter on staff. Every future high school sports article will be written by a part-time staffer.
Last month, the Sun-Times News Group, publishers of the Sun-Times, filed for Chapter 11 bankrputcy protection. The Group owns numerous Chicagoland dailies, including the Aurora Beacon-News, Elgin Courier and the Joliet Herald-News. Payroll was cut by 15 percent last week by the Group, effecting non-union employees.
The suburban Daily Herald newspaper, based in Arlington Heights, has made four rounds of layoffs in the past 18 months. |
