UPDATE: Departing 'Sun-Times' Biz Editor Miller Says Newsroom Mood Actually 'Improving' Despite Cuts

By: Mark Fitzgerald Chicago Sun-Times Business Editor Dan Miller, who announced his resignation Thursday, says the tabloid's journalists competitive fires have been stoked even as they prepare for the departure of as many as 32 colleagues because of cost-cutting.

"The mood, it's, this is going to sound bizarre, but it's improving, in that people are saying, my God, it can't get any worse," Miller said in an interview Thursday evening.

Performing under adversity, he added, is nothing new for the Sun-Times newsroom. "It's part of our DNA," he said. "We've always been small, always been under-staffed while the (Chicago) Tribune has been over-staffed. We worked harder, and wrote better, and wrote shorter. The professionalism has been amazing."

If the newsroom mood is improving, telling the business staff he was leaving was a "very unpleasant" duty, Miller added.

The newsroom has been roiled by the decision of it parent corporation, Sun-Times Media Group (STMG), to cut 32 newsroom positions represented by the Chicago Newspaper Guild. STMG is also planning to lay off 11 Guild-represented newsroom workers at its Pioneer Press chain of weeklies, and five newsroom employee at the Lake County News-Sun, a daily in Waukegan, Ill.

The cuts are part of a chain-wide plan to chop $50 million in operating expenses within six months.

Miller, as an editor, was an exempt employee. He said he decided to leave because the business section was shrinking and "doesn't need two editors. The section will be headed by Deputy Business Editor Polly Smith. Miller, who joined the Sun-Times in 1999, said he does not have another job lined up, and will stay on at the paper through February to work on the paper's second annual campaign for prostate cancer detection.

The Sun-Times, he said, will likely have a new owner within a matter of month. "If on a spreadsheet the current management can show that it is operating in the black or close enough, sure, it'll be sold," he said. Several big shareholders have demanded a sale, and had urged the dramatic cost-cutting, the biggest in the company's history.

"The brand Sun-Times has tremendous equity," Miller said. "And the talent pool here is very deep. It's not broad but it's deep. The Sun-Times is going to be in a much stronger position after the blood-letting ... And there is still value here. There is $600 million in current assets on our balance sheet. Think about that."