A daily newspaper vies for relevancy in the social media age

When I left the Sun-Times in 2010 after working as a Web editor and sometime reporter, many had completely written off the organization. Layoffs, declining readership, and bankruptcy had pushed the paper to the brink. Depending on whom you might ask, the paper was hours from liquidation in October 2009.

The Sun-Times is certainly not alone as a struggling news organization. A few blocks east, the Chicago Tribune is still mired in a never-ending bankruptcy filing. The 175-year-old New Orleans Times Picayune is scaling back its print edition to three days a week. Outside of The New York Times and some other titans that made early commitments to digital delivery, there are few old media news organizations that are thriving in the new world.

Yet the Sun-Times, two ownership teams later, is still afloat. And recent shakeups in the newsroom indicate a commitment to remaining relevant in a rapidly shifting media landscape.