Chicago Tribune Honored with 2018 Gerald Loeb Award


CHICAGO, June 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- tronc, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNC) is pleased to announce the Chicago Tribune has been honored as a winner at the 2018 Gerald Loeb Awards.

The Gerald Loeb Awards are among the highest honors in journalism, recognizing the work of journalists who focus on business, finance and the economy.

The Chicago Tribune’s Hal Dardick, with Jason Grotto and Sandhya Kambhampati of ProPublica Illinois, received the Loeb Award for Local Reporting for the series “The Tax Divide.”  The project, launched when Grotto was a Tribune reporter, exposed a broad pattern of errors in the property tax assessment system in Cook County, Ill.  The series demonstrated that assessment errors disadvantaged businesses and homeowners in lower-income communities.

Chicago Tribune Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Bruce Dold said the Loeb Award highlights the Tribune’s commitment to watchdog journalism.

“Controversy had swirled around the assessment system in Cook County for decades. Property owners in lower-income areas paid higher taxes than they should have, while property owners in wealthier areas gained advantages from the system,” Dold said.

The series has prompted state and local investigations into reform of the property tax assessment system.

To read the full series, go to  http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/watchdog/taxdivide/.

About tronc, Inc.
tronc, Inc. (NASDAQ:TRNC) is a media company rooted in award-winning journalism. Headquartered in Chicago, tronc operates newsrooms in ten markets with titles including the Chicago TribuneNew York Daily NewsThe Baltimore SunOrlando Sentinel, South Florida's Sun-Sentinel, Virginia’s Daily Press, and The Virginian-PilotThe Morning Call of Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, and the Hartford Courant. Our legacy of brands has earned a combined 60 Pulitzer Prizes and is committed to informing, inspiring and engaging local communities.

Our brands create and distribute content across our media portfolio, offering integrated marketing, media, and business services to consumers and advertisers, including digital solutions and advertising opportunities.

About the Gerald Loeb Awards
The Gerald Loeb Awards were established in 1957 by the late Gerald Loeb, a founding partner of E.F. Hutton. Loeb created the awards to encourage and support reporting on business and finance that would inform and protect the private investor and the general public. Journalists and media outlets nationwide submit entries to compete for the Loeb Awards, the most prestigious honor in business journalism. In 1973, Loeb appointed UCLA Anderson the steward of the G. and R. Loeb Foundation. The Dean of UCLA Anderson chairs the award's final judging committee of leading journalists, news executives and academics. The awards use a two-tier judging process comprising a preliminary round (in Los Angeles) and final round (in New York City). The awards banquet and celebration is held in New York City every June and is attended by many of the country's most influential journalists, editors, publishers, producers, and media personalities. The foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates primarily from sponsorship and private support.

Contact: Marisa Kollias
mkollias@tronc.com
312-222-3308