It will be done with a strong business plan that sustains itself, Tyree told the more than 250 people at the banquet April 23. “I think it will work.” The Sun-Times company “was stuck in an old business model,” he said.
“For journalism to try to survive, you must focus on where the world is going,” Tyree said. He predicts newspapers and broadcast journalism will live on for five to 20 years. At some point, he suggests, news might be viewed on holograms. “This business is going to continue to evolve.”
The chairman and CEO of Meisrow Financial since 1994 spends much of his time on
charitable works, he said the Sun-Times is first and foremost a business. He also offered a less business-oriented-centered view. “If you don’t sustain it (the news), you are not helping anybody. There’s a lot more to life than commercial success. It’s making a difference.”
Also at the banquet honoring journalists for top 2009 work, Mary Field of WTTW-TV and Phil Kadner of the SouthtownStar received Lifetime Achievement awards.