Former Sun-Times Columnist Adjusts to New Media Landscape

It’s a shock to the system. A lot of the daily humor inherent in the toy factory of sports was thrown overboard with the steady steam of human ballast tossed to keep the Chicago Sun-Times afloat.

But what former Sun-Times colleague Robert Feder, now a blogger covering local media for TimeOutChicago, called “a guilty pleasure for his fans” via his "Quick Hits" column will continue in many ways for ’s Elliott Harris on his new online show, Sports and Torts.

Earlier:

Laid off from the Sun-Times after 32 years in August, Harris penned the popular, whimsical “Quick Hits” sports column since September 1998. But even as the column’s space and placement in the shrinking newspaper declined over the past year, its format featuring beautiful women somehow connected to sports along with humorous and informative bits was transferred to the weekly Sports and Torts--produced at the Morton Grove studios of TalkZone.com--that Harris co-hosts with attorney David Spada.

New career dynamic

“What I built up at the Sun-Times in ‘Quick Hits,’ there was interest in my writing…or my photo selection?” Harris said, always ready with his wit even after his layoff. “Somehow, the less I write and the bigger we make the pictures, the more I’m appreciated. I don’t quite understand the dynamic.”

So when Harris recently added co-hosting duties to Sports and Torts, a weekly audio sports-talk program, he wouldn’t be himself without, well, pictures. Fortunately, TalkZone has three to four cameras in studio at people's disposal. 

Instead of just a color photo in print, now the featured eye-candy is now live and in video color in the studio, augmenting Harris’ and co-host Spada’s phone interviews with various athletes, including Hall of Famers.

“We just had April Rose of Maxim fame in studio,” Harris said of a recent guest. “On occasion, they’ll stay for the duration of the show. They’ll participate in our conversation with the athletes. Usually it starts out with the female–ladies first. That will go 15-20 minutes.  David gets the athletes, I get the females. It works out well, I’m amazed who he’s able to get.”

Sports and Torts is streamed at noon Thursdays at TalkZone.com, and is available as podcasts. The program is an outgrowth of attorney Spada’s former show, Bearly Legal, on WIND-AM (560), which Harris joined as a contributor late in its run.

Having light-hearted side

The one female guest Harris would cherish, but probably won’t get due to TalkZone’s suburban location, is tennis-champion-wannabe Anna Kournikova. The Russian beauty was frequently featured as a photo star in “Quick Hits” to the point where she knew of Harris’ constant mentions. One day, he decided to go for the home run--a kiss from Kournikova.

“She was in town for a [tennis] exhibition a few years ago,” he said. “I asked very gentlemanly and she was more than happy to respond."

The peck on Harris’ bearded cheek was dutifully recorded for a Sun-Times photo logo.

Now that image is gone, as repeated editorial layoffs were shockingly joined by the Sun-Times’ closing of its printing plant and the resulting loss of more than 450 jobs. Press runs are now done at the Chicago Tribune's facility.

“The layoff was a little bit like Jay Cutler going back to pass,” said Harris. “You could feel the pressure, but you don't expect to get hit from the blind side.

"OK, partially blind side because job insecurity comes with just about any journalism job nowadays," said the veteran scribe. "I thought I might last a little longer. I suppose in retrospect cutting back 'Quick Hits' space should have sent me a message.”

Harris quickly heard from scores of colleagues, friends and "Quick Hits" fans.

“Folks I've known for a long time, readers I've never met,” he said of the outpour. “A variety of voices. It was gratifying to receive the response I did. It was kind of like being at your own funeral--and people say nice stuff about you. The big difference being that I didn't die; merely my career at the Sun-Times.

“I had the rare opportunity to cover fun stuff and people and still call it work. I can't complain--not that anyone would listen to the complaints anyway. There has to be room for a light look at sports. How can there not be? Especially in cyberspace where there's plenty of space,” he said.

Influential effect

The people from his days at the Sun-Times’ former site, now the Trump Tower, and its present headquarters, on North Orleans Street near the Merchandise Mart, were just as influential on Harris.

“Wow,” he said. “There were so many. And I know I'm going to leave out a few unintentionally. I had the good fortune to work with Bill Adee, the sports editor who gave me the 'Quick Hits' column. I'm forever indebted to him. I wouldn't be where I am today, if not for him. Actually, I would be where I am today--laid off--only a lot sooner.

"Columnists Bill Gleason, Ron Rapoport, John Schulian, Ray Sons. Writers like Mike Downey are rare. Former copy desk mates Terry Boers [before radio], John Grochowski, Ralph Greenslade, Dan Kaye, Dave Manthey, George Vass. Some exited long before the newspaper industry's troubles started,” he added.

In his off-hours, Harris is a sedate Winnetka burgher, living with wife Sue and after having seen son Mark, now a Los Angeles artist, and daughter Rachel matriculate through New Trier High School. A St. Louis native, Harris moved to Chicago in March 1979 to work at the Sun-Times and located to Winnetka two years later.

Living west of the Metra train line, Harris theorized he lives on the “right side of the tracks” compared to a bevy of arch-competitor Tribune Co. executives who resided on the east side of town. But if folks think that Harris is misplaced in a high-rent district, they are wrong.

“I remember wondering how I am ever going to fit in with these bank execs and CEO’s, and I’m a newspaper schlub,” he said. “Then we found out not everyone in Winnetka makes $1 million or half million. We made good friends with normal people. But mostly a lot of extraordinary people. We found people with vast wealth who were down-to-earth people, or people without financial background who thought the earth revolved around them.”

The cyberspace frontier

All his neighbors no doubt have adapted to a changing world of communications. So too has Harris as he tries to find ways to attract revenue to Sports and Torts and his ElliottHarris.com site.

“At some point, papers, TV, radio, websites all pretty much become the same thing on the Internet,” he said. “Papers have better content. TV has the better visual. Radio has the better talkers. You go to a computer or hand-held device, there has to be something to look at and something to hear.”

Now if only the online world could make as much money as old media.

“I’m mystified by ad revenue,” Harris said. “Newspapers have less of it than they used to. Television has less of it than they used to. Radio has less of it than they used to. Where did it go? Into the ether?

“It hasn’t translated dollar for dollar or fraction of a dollar to the Internet. I think most newspapers would love not to publish a print product, save the printing cost and save the delivery costs. Read it on your computer or [hand-held device].

"But the ad revenue is so heavily one-sided to the print product, you can’t afford to do it. A major media company has a more difficult time than an individual to make a go of it,” he observed.

This is the challenge for Spada and Harris, not just in marketing Hall of Famer interviews, but “visuals” as only Harris in his quick-hitting style can conjure up.

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