We’re Watching You
“But don’t mention my children or my home. Ever. I thought that was against the rules.”
And some other people need to know it.
“Right up until the last second I was working on the edition,” says Adee. He’d worked out his deal early in the week, but Thursday came and his wife hadn’t wrapped up hers. The Tribune’s managing editor, James O’Shea, had met her in Boston Blackie’s late one night a week or so earlier and passed her his offer, but the next morning he’d left for Iran. Finally he was back, and they were going to go over it by phone; yet Adee couldn’t be certain they’d be able to nail everything down.
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“Joyce finally came into my office and said, ‘OK, I think we’re ready to do this.’” And so they told Cruickshank and Cooke they’d decided to become smaller fish in a bigger pond. Adee was taking the number two job in sports and Winnecke was filling the position of associate managing editor for national news, two flow-chart layers below O’Shea. They would start June 3, and they were giving two weeks’ notice.
Cooke told the paper’s staff by E-mail. “We have difficult news. Joyce and Bill have resigned. They have gone to the Tribune. Many of you have known them both for much longer than us, so you know they will both be missed. On a personal level, we wish them good luck.” Then the two editors met Adee and Winnecke for drinks at the Wrigley Building’s 410 Club.
For years there’s been a steady trickle of Sun-Times editorial talent to the Tribune, at times more of a rush. I asked Cooke why.
