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There is no doubt about what type of sports city Chicago is. It is a pro sports town. We live for our teams 12 months a year. If a Chicago sports fan doesn't root for one or all of our major pro sports teams--Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Bulls, Bears--they certainly are interested in news about them. No one understands this dynamic better than Joe Collins, managing editor of csnchicago.com and Comcast Sports Net Chicago. We tackle several topics with Joe on in this month's Inside Chicago Media podcast. You can listen below, on iTunes, or subscribe to the show using your Android or iOS podcast app. Show highlights: • How Joe balances coverage of the five major sports teams in Chicago; the Bears, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls. • There are times in the calendar when all five teams are playing at the same time. Decisions have to be made. On a night when crazy events took place, Joe gives an example of when he and his staff had to decide which team would be the lead story. • Owners of four of the five franchises have ownership stakes in CSN Chicago. How does this circumstance shape coverage of teams and does it restrict how CSN practices journalism? • Joe gives his insights on the future of regional sports programming. Will there be a bubble in Chicago? You can visit csnchicago.com to read up on Chicago's sports team. Joe can be found on Twitter @joecsn.

On April 11, the Chicago Cubs open their 2016 home schedule. Fans will see a different Cubs team inside Wrigley Field. And they will see a different neighborhood outside. Paul Skrbina is as versatile a sports writer as you will find in Chicago. Paul satisfies baseball diehards with nuts and bolts stories on Cubs players and Joe Maddon's progressive managerial moves. Interested in the Wrigley Field restoration project? Paul writes about that as well. And oh by the way, he is the Tribune's beat writer for Notre Dame and covers the Blackhawks. We tackle several topics in this month's Inside Chicago Media podcast. You can listen below, on iTunes, or subscribe to the show using your Android or iOS podcast app. Show highlights: • What is going on with the ballpark at Wrigley Field and what is in store for fans on Opening Day. • Paul spent time with the Cubs at spring training in Arizona. He gives his take on the team's remarkable locker room chemistry and why Maddon is the perfect manager. • Having just competed his first full year covering Notre Dame football and basketball, Paul take listeners behind the Golden Dome. What are challenges/advantages to writing about the country's most polarizing program? • The NHL playoffs begin this week. Paul will be on the Blackhawks beat. He explains how he was able to get a story no one else did on a well-known Blackhawks player. • How do reporters like Paul get their stories? He lets listeners in on his sourcing and writing process. You can read Paul's stories by visiting his personal page on the Tribune's website. He is on Twitter @chitribskrbina.

Before ESPN Recruiting Nation, Scout.com or 247Sports.com commercialized the recruiting analysis industry, there was a lone cowboy roaming the internet (and fax machines before .com). His name is Tim O'Halloran. Or for subscribers of his website, edgytim.com, he is known as Edgy Tim. Since 1995, Edgy Tim has been the premier voice in the Chicago area for high school football fans ravenous for information about the college destination of their favorite Jimmy's and Joe's. You can listen below on iTunes or subscribe to the show using your Android or iOS podcast app. Read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights of our conversation: • How Tim worked his day job as a trader in Chicago while building up his recruiting analysis business. • In the early days of the internet, there was no such thing as a recruiting analyst. Tim listened to his audience which demanded more. How the evolution of his community helped shape the business model. • A partner with the Rivals network, how Tim distinguishes himself from competitors with a subscription model. • There is so much free content on the internet these days. How delivering unique content to a niche audience is a key to keeping subscribers. • No one has shaken up the current recruiting landscape quite like Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh. We talk about Harbaugh's methods and the challenges coaches have with connecting with the modern teenage recruit. You can learn more about Edgy Tim by visiting his website, www.edgytim.com. He is also the recruiting expert for csnchicago.com. He is on Twitter @edgytim.

Neil Hayes came to Chicago from the Bay Area in the mid-2000's. A newspaperman his entire career, he had hit the big time. His new job? Enterprise reporter for the one of the two big dailies in town, the Chicago Sun-Times. During his time with the Sun-Times, Hayes found himself in many locales researching stories; one  memorable trip took him to rural Louisiana for a feature story on Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk. Neil has covered Super Bowls and Daytona 500's, but says no sporting event can simulate the adrenaline rush of chasing down a good narrative long form story. You can listen below on iTunes. Read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights of our conversation: • Chicago is one of the most competitive media markets in the country. How Neil was able to leverage sources from his time at a newspaper in another market to use for his CST pieces. • Soon after Neil arrived at CST, his job changed. How his versatility as a reporter allowed him to seamlessly pivot into other roles. • The death of the general sports columnist is not rumored, its reality. How legacy newspaper companies, as well as internet media outlets like ESPN, Yahoo and Comcast, now brand writers as "experts" in their beat to serve a more splintered audience. • Neil wrote a book, "When the Game Stands Tall" that became a Hollywood-produced film. We talk about the process from page to screen and how Neil's once-in-a-lifetime experience on the movie set changed his life. • Now a self-professed, "writer for hire", how Neil is carving out a career writing more books and with other projects. You can learn more about Neil by visiting his website, www.neilhayeswriter.com. He is on Twitter @bynhayes. .

John "Moon" Mullin is the Chicago Bears beat reporter for CSNChicago.com. He has covered the Bears since 1992, working previously at the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Herald. You can listen below or on iTunes. Read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights of our conversation: • What has changed about how a beat reporter does his job since John's first year in 1992. • How digital is first. Reporters and editors now have to think about mobile strategy when crafting stories. • The process of reporting, how sourcing is done. How close should a reporter get with a source? • How competition from national media outlets like ESPN, Yahoo or NFL.com impact local reporter's jobs. • Who are the most interesting athletes John has covered in two decades? Why? • John is a guitar player. If he could play like one guitarist in history, whom would it be? • What famous baseball game did John attend as a young man living in Pennsylvania? He'll share his memories. You can read John Mullin at CSNChicago.com/bears. He is on twitter @csnmoonmullin..

We wrap up 2015 with a wish--well, actually more than one. If I were Chicago Media Czar for a day--a frightening thought--here are the 10 ideas I would implement for 2016. They are idealistic but by no means impractical. Tell me what you think. What is your wish or wishes from Chicago media outlets for 2016? Leave a comment below. Happy New Year everyone. We'll be talking in 2016. Jon.

              What's it like to cover the NBA? Is Derrick Rose portrayed fairly by the media? Are pro athletes more or less thoughtful than college athletes? These are questions posed to Mark Perlman, this week's guest of the Inside Chicago Media podcast. Mark is a sports writer for the Associated Press. He has covered the NBA and the Bulls for over a decade. He also writes about Northwestern University. In this episode, we discuss: • Covering the NBA. A typical day in the life of an NBA reporter. • Interviewing Kobe Bryant. The Lakers great recently announced his retirement. Mark had a one-on-one with Kobe.  • The saga of Derrick Rose. Once thought to be the next Michael Jordan, Rose is now often a punch line in Chicago. Mark shares his experiences dealing with Rose and whether or not he is fairly portrayed by the Chicago media. • Use of social media. How does Mark uses social media tools such as Twitter to do his job.  • Life with Fitz. The colorful Northwestern football coach is synonymous with the university. What it's really like to cover Pat Fitzgerald. • College sports culture. Starting with an attempt by Northwestern football players to unionize, and most recently with Missouri football players threatening to boycott, there's been quite a few stories involving college athletes lately that delve into culture. How should the media cover these stories? We discuss. • Advice for young writers. Mark is also an instructor at Columbia College in Chicago. He gives tips for aspiring reporters and shares an example of one resourceful student who went Paris to cover the recent terrorist attacks. You can find Mark on Twitter at @markdavidperlma. Listen to the show below or on iTunes..

When you have something to say, it's best to just get it out. So beginning with this first episode, I am launching the Chicago Media Podcast. This is my third attempt at starting a podcast. My plan is to fight off that cut fastball and stay in the batter's box this time. The mission of the show is to inform and entertain with conversation on topics surrounding the intersection of media, sports and culture, specifically as they relate to Chicago. Every day there is an event that unfolds in Chicago that commands our attention. Most recently we had the Patrick Kane investigation, the Fox Lake policeman suicide, the Bears (always the Bears). The public's insatiable appetite for news does not allow time for consumption assessment or examination. There is always another news hole to fill, a Facebook feed to saturate with outbound links. What I hope with this podcast is to do a deep dive on topics that otherwise get flushed down the merciless data rabbit hole. This directive starts and stops with engaging conversation with interesting people. For this first week, I have a conversation with Joe Aguilar. Joe is the definition of a multi-platform journalist--newspaper, digital and television. He is a sports columnist for the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper. He writes about the Bears, Blackhawks, Cubs and prep sports. He does a weekly video segment on the DH website. And in his spare time, he is a commentator on the ABC-7 morning news. There is no topic out of bounds for Joe, he seamlessly bounces back and forth on all issues Chicago sports. In this episode, Joe and I discuss: • Today's definition of being a reporter • The importance doing many things, of having an entrepreneurship mindset • Covering the Chicago Bears in an NFL age of minimal information allocation • How the Chicago media covered the Patrick Kane investigation You can find Joe on Twitter @joeaguilar64 and online at dailyherald.com. To listen to the show, click the player below. Subscribe on iTunes..

Have you ever wondered how an idea becomes a book? And how books become movies? In this episode of Author University, I interview Neil Hayes. Neil is the author of the book "When The Game Stands Tall," the story of the De La Salle High School football program. From 1992-2003, De La Salle won 151 consecutive football games, a national high school record that still stands. Neil spent the 2002 season embedded with the Spartans. His book chronicles his season with the team. This spring, a movie version of the book was filmed in New Orleans. Neil served as a creative consultant on the movie, which will be released in August of 2014. In the episode, Neil reveals: *how the idea for his book was hatched. *how he was able to gain full access at a private, Catholic high school. *the challenges he overcame in getting the book sold to an agent and published. *why it took 11 years for the book to be converted into a film. Neil is a former newspaper columnist with both the Contra Costa Times and the Chicago Sun-Times. He is also the author of "The Last Putt: Two Teams, One Dream, and a Freshman Named Tiger." You can learn more about Neil and how to get copies of both his books at his website, neilhayeswriter.com.  He can be found on Twitter at @bynhayes..

Good feature writing is a lost art in this day and age of internet aggregation. When was the last time you actually sat down with a newspaper or online with your tablet or laptop and read a story about an interesting person doing an extraordinary thing? In this episode of Author University, Jon interviews Joe Aguilar, reporter/editor for the Daily Herald, a newspaper that covers the Chicago suburbs. Joe has been writing features for 20 years and on today's episode, shares a few of his secrets for drawing in a reader and keeping their attention. 1. Joe's five key "how's" to make your feature story fresh, original, and entertaining for the reader. 2. We discuss a recent feature written by Joe about a local sporting event involving students with disabilities. How did Joe use descriptive language in opening lede? How can a reporter use the senses--sight, smell, sound--to add more detail and context to writing? 3. In our culture segment, we talk about the possible unionization of Northwestern University football and its reverberations on sport and society. SUPPORT MATERIALS This is link to Joe's story: http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140419/sports/140418045/ We also discuss a terrific story by St. Louis Dispatch reporter Todd C. Frankel. Joe's Twitter handle: @joeaguilar64. Todd's Twitter handle: @tcfrankel.      .

Covering live events has never been more compelling and challenging for sports journalists. Content platforms such as Twitter allow reporters to engage their readership in real time, a multi-dimentional approach that has plenty of upside but is not without its pratfalls. In this episode of "Author University", Jon interviews Kirk Wessler, the sports editor of the Peoria Journal-Star newspaper. Kirk moonlights as the president of the United States Basketball Writer's Association. Jon and Kirk discuss: *how best to cover breaking news using Twitter and digital technology, using a recent example from the Illinois Boys Basketball State Tournament involving a player from Stevenson High School, Jalen Brunson. *Kirk has been a sports journalist since 1977, having written hundreds of columns over the years. Jon asks Kirk what makes a great sports column and if filing for digital has changed how writers approach their work. *The mission of the U.S. Basketball Writer's Association. *A product of 1970's rock n' roll, Kirk reveals his all-time best concerts and why a Harry Chapin concert still stands out so many decades later. You can read Kirk's columns at pjstar.com and at usbwa.com. Follow him on Twitter at @kirkwessler.com.  .

Writing a novel can be fraught with emotions that swing from dismay to jubilation. In the end, it's all about finishing. In this episode of Author University, I speak with writer Kathleen Rude. Kathleen published her first novel earlier this year, titled "The Redemption of Red Fire Woman." Kathleen is an environmentalist, writer and shamanic practitioner. We discuss: *the writing process and how Kathleen traveled to Colorado several times in order to get details for her geographical descriptions. *tips on character development when crafting a novel. *self-publishing. Kathleen looked at many options before choosing her platform. We discuss ideas on how to work through the process of choosing a publisher in a rapidly evolving industry. Kathleen's book is now available on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback versions. You can learn more about Kathleen by visiting her website, gaiawisdom.org.    .

  Once a newspaper man, always a newspaper man. That's how the Daily Herald's Joe Aguilar came up in the media business (while also spending time behind the microphone doing radio). But as newspapers shrink in form, their function remains the same: to inform and enlighten. Journalists who stay true to those principles while adapting to the sea changes in content distribution will survive, just as Joe has. In this episode of Author University, Jon interviews Joe on a variety of topics. Listeners will hear Joe's views on: *how reporters can not longer just look at themselves as writers. Reaching a increasingly preoccupied audience requires a multitude of skills. *how Twitter has changed how he approaches his job every day. *knowing how to interview has never been more important. Joe gives tips on how asking the right question can yield the best answer. Joe is a high school sports editor for the Daily Herald. You can find him online here: www.dailyherald.com Or on Twitter: @joeaguilar64. On next week's episode, I'll have Neil Hayes, author of "When The Game Stands Tall", a book (and now film) about the longest winning streak in the history of high school football..

The HBO series "Newsroom" attempts to depict the culture inside a modern-day newsroom. "Newsroom" is fiction but is based on real life experiences of broadcast anchors, reporters and executives. In this episode of Author University, Jon interviews a local television anchor and gets a first-hand account of what life is like inside a local television newsroom. On this show, we discuss: *how social media is impacting decisions made by reporters and anchors. *how fact and source checking has become more critical than ever in the news gathering process. *what television news will look like 10 years from now. As we do each week, we will discuss current events in the world of media. Here's links where you can find more info about Owen: Website: www.1011now.com. Facebook: www.facebook.com/owen.jensen.7 Twitter: www.twitter.com/1011_News.    .

Who reads a newspaper anymore? My parents, uncles and aunts. Most of today have scrapped print and get our news online. In this episode of Author University, I talk to Jim Powers, online editor of Palm Springs Life Magazine. Jim comes from a print background, but he's made the transition to digital. He's doing so in a niche community where he has to balance content for the magazine's print edition and regularly updating the site online. On the show, we talk about: *synergy between online vs print *building an online community without losing print subscribers *communicating with reporters on how to enhance digital content We also talk about current events in media. Here are some key links where you can find Jim: Website: www.palmspringslife.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/palmspringslife Twitter: @palmspringslife.