The Chicago Tribune is about to change. According to this report by Crain's, the staid broadsheet is testing out a four-section prototype. The first will be devoted to "consumer-oriented and entertainment features." Local, national, international and business news will appear in the second. Weather will lead off the third, which will include comics and classifieds. The fourth will be a tabloid sports section. It's uncertain whether these "dramatic changes" will emerge in practice.
But Juan Antonio Giner scoffs at the notion that such changes are dramatic. He writes: "What the Chicago Tribune is going to test has been done for decades by many European newspapers. The big difference is that they don't need sections, because they know that readers want 'compact' newspapers. And then you won't need this model that still exists in US newspapers, where sections put content into 'ghettos.'"
