Chicago Sun-Times ends Red Streak edition.

Posted by Robb Montgomery on December 20, 2005 at 10:13 AM

The final edition of Red Streak, the commuter youth city edition launched three years ago by the Chicago Sun-Times, will be published Thursday. Created from scratch in 23 days by a senior team of Sun-Times editors and junior reporters and editors from Hollinger's sister papers, Red Streak was designed to spoil the business model of the Chicago's Tribunes Red Eye edition, that paper's first foray into tabloid commuter journalism.

Sun-Times Editor John Barron told the AP "The Tribune was going after our demographics, and we weren't going to let them do that without a fight," Barron said. "The plot line for Red Streak from the start was to confuse the marketplace and not allow the Tribune to set up a successful paid-circulation tabloid."

The Tribune officialy converted Red Eye to a free sheet on October 3 after nearly three years of publication. Chicago Tribune officials declined comment on Red Streak's closing.

On a personal note I was one of the founding editors and the designer of Red Streak so it is a sad duty to write it's obituary. I posted a memorial of favourite pages at Visual Editors.