Tribune’s Changing Tempo
Tempo had already seen plenty of changes. Tempo editor Rick Kogan succeeded James Warren, who left at the end of 1993 to become the Tribune’s Washington bureau chief. Then Tempo’s staff was broken up last fall, scattering seven feature writers throughout the paper. The new plan called for groups of five writers drawn from anywhere in the paper to rotate in and out of Tempo in four-month stints, something this column called “sort of weird” at the time. Youngman says the rotation will continue, though he hasn’t discussed with managing editor for news Ann Marie Lipinski whether to keep that exact number of writers or that exact time period.
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The most controversial part of this plan, of course, is the new focus on entertainment and popular culture. Youngman explains that the Tribune has “evolved dramatically” since Tempo began about 20 years ago. Back then, Tempo was the only place for features. “But over the past few years all of the sections of the newspaper have taken on that task,” he says, pointing especially to frequent features on the front page. Tempo “has lost its uniqueness. And so we’ve been casting about to find a way to again give it a unique role in the newspaper. And clearly there’s a lot of interest inside and outside the newspaper for news of the world of art and entertainment and popular culture, and so by focusing on that six days a week we achieve that.”
More specifically, Youngman says Bob Greene will stay in the Sunday Tempo/Arts hybrid. James Warren’s “Sunday Watch” column will move to the Perspective section, which Youngman calls “newly configured.” (Lipinski says she’s still “going over the details” for the revamped Perspective, but they include an expansion, color on the first page, a couple of new features still under development, and a more “distinct identity.”)
Others are more tempered. “The [front] section is getting tighter and tighter, the focus of the news is shifting, so for writers who like to do this kind of stuff it seems it’s going to be very difficult to find a space for it. That’s my real concern,” said another Tempo believer. “You can get a 30- inch story into the [front] section or the metro section, but anything longer than that is very very hard. . . . They’re hoping these stories will get into the [front] section, but there are long features that are just not going to make it.
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