So long, and thanks for all the fish

Dear readers,

I joined the Chicago Tribune in 1998 with the hope of bringing some of the immediacy, personality and utility of radio news to the Web. Thanks to many talented journalists, we did just that with Daywatch, which launched in March 1999 as a continually updated Web page — a blog (almost) before that word existed, and in many ways a precursor of today’s Chicago Breaking News Center.

As the rest of chicagotribune.com itself began to take on more of those characteristics, Daywatch was reborn nine years ago this week as a daily, e-mailed news briefing.

Since then, tens of thousands of you have made Daywatch and chicagotribune.com part of your daily routine. You have told us so with your clicks, and I can’t overstate how rewarding that has been.

For a journalist in the Internet age, your attention has been a priceless gift — one I will cherish as I leave Daywatch to become news and public affairs director at the Tribune’s sibling radio station, WGN Radio 720.

I leave Daywatch in the hands of my great chicagotribune.com colleagues. I will continue to read it faithfully, and I hope you will, too.

But this is not goodbye. I’ll be working closely with the Tribune staff as we move to reinvent radio news for the 21st Century. Please tune in often. If you do, I think you’ll hear much of what you’ve come to like about Daywatch.

Again, thank you all.

Charlie

P.S.In this era of iPods, iPhones, BlackBerrys and other increasingly smart and entertaining devices, radio faces many of the same challenges that have rocked the rest of the media world. We know you have many options for getting information, and only two ears and 24 hours in a day. So I ask your help again: Please use this form to tell us what it would take to get you to go out of your way to tune in to an AM (or Internet) radio newscast. And what now makes you tune out from radio news?

P.P.S. Follow WGN Radio News on Twitter: http://twitter.com/WGNRadioNews
P.P.P.S. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Meyerson
P.P.P.P.S. My e-mail remains the same: meyerson@gmail.com