Chicago Tribune mulls evening online ‘edition’

The Chicago Tribune is thinking about focusing some of its reporting staff on an evening “edition” online. “One reason to consider such a publication is that people now are absorbing news and headlines throughout the day. There may be a new appetite for something more thoughtful to read during the evening,” said the Tribune’s Public Editor Timothy J. McNulty. The idea of dayparting is not new, but backing it up with reporter deadlines is a more serious attempt at attempting to bring in appointment users outside their typical workdays. Also, it’s important to note that despite the 24/7 nature of news and the web, both paper and TV websites still largely rotate around old media deadlines simply because that’s how the staff is scheduled and tasked. Newspapers have their biggest burst of fresh enterprise stories at night, and TV stations have them at 5 p.m. Ideally, if you ask me, these stories should be distributed throughout the day, especially in the peak 11 a.m.-1 p.m. hours.