JAMES O'SHEA
Award-winning journalist James O’Shea is former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune and past editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Times, the nation’s largest metropolitan daily newspaper. An industry innovator, James helped convert the Times into an interactive news organization, revived its Sunday magazine and reversed the daily paper’s circulation decline.
James has twice won both the Sigma Delta Chi Distinguished Service Award for Washington Correspondence and the Peter Lisagor Award from the organization’s Chicago chapter. His honors also include the Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award and a National Education Writers Association Award. Under his leadership, the Tribune’s news staff received six Pulitzer prizes.
Having recently completed a fellowship at Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, James is working on his third book, concerning the decline of the newspaper industry. His previous books include "The Daisy Chain," about the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s, and "Dangerous Company," an examination of management consultants’ role in corporate decision making, co-authored with former Tribune staffer Charles Madigan.
Recent Contributions
by JAMES O'SHEA | Feb 21, 2012
To our readers: As you might have heard or read by now, the Chicago News Cooperative is suspending its contributions to the Midwest pages of the New York Times and its website effective February 26 so we can reassess our operations and determine if there is a more sustainable path to the future. Effective next
by BRIDGET O'SHEA and JAMES O'SHEA | Jan 23, 2012
Substation No. 505 in Oak Park, with its nondescript cluster of bulky transformers and web of power lines, seems an unlikely place for Commonwealth Edison to start the $2.6 billion smart grid it says will prepare the region’s antiquated power system for the digital age. Arguments raged over legislation, approved last year over Gov. Pat
by JAMES O'SHEA | Nov 29, 2011
Dear friends of the CNC: I’m not sure if a day goes by without someone mentioning how much they rely on the reporting in the Chicago News Cooperative’s Palm Card, our insider’s daily guide to the most important stories in the city. Often these comments come from sources I believe to be among the brightest
by JAMES O'SHEA and BRIDGET O'SHEA | Oct 3, 2011
In November 2004, Wanda Carter bought a home at 6548 South Morgan Street on the South Side and thought she got a good deal. A bank lent her $142,000, which covered the sale price and loan fees, and provided $20,000 to fix up the place. To Carter, it seemed as if the bank was paying
by BRIDGET O'SHEA and JAMES O'SHEA | Jul 8, 2011
Although it never shared the notoriety of Miami, Los Angeles and Phoenix during America’s foreclosure crisis, the Chicago area now has the nation’s largest inventory of foreclosed homes because it is harder to unload troubled properties here than in most other metropolitan areas. The inventory data compiled by RealtyTrac, a California company that tracks housing
by JAMES O'SHEA | Jul 1, 2011
I just published a new book, “The Deal From Hell,” that provides an inside look at how Chicago real estate investor Sam Zell came to acquire newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. It’s a book full of larger than life egos, huge fees to greedy investment bankers, tragic business miscalculations and
by JAMES O'SHEA | Apr 19, 2011
Welcome to the Chicago News Cooperative’s new website, the latest — but not the last — step in our efforts to sustain our mission of providing Chicago with quality public service journalism. Our goal in launching the website is to provide readers with more and better journalism from CNC reporters and editors. We like the
by JAMES O'SHEA | Apr 23, 2010
When I looked across the table at the subject of my interview, Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis, I remembered a lesson I learned during my stormy tenure as editor of the Los Angeles Times: Every editor should be the subject of news coverage.
by JAMES O'SHEA | Apr 18, 2010
The next few months of warmer weather will be crucial for Jody Weis, whose job running the police department is as close as it gets to “Mission Impossible” in Chicago. Ever since he took over the department in early 2008, Superintendent Weis’s assignment has been to calm police officers who are angry at many things,
