Feder: Eric Zorn adds his name to Chicago Tribune's 'tremendous loss of talent'

Eric Zorn, a mainstay of the Chicago Tribune for more than 40 years and one of its most prominent progressive columnists, just became the latest to join the exodus of top talent from the newspaper.

"I've decided to put in for the latest buyout offer, one that will have me leaving at the end of next week," Zorn, 63, announced in his weekly email newsletter Wednesday.

"My sense is that I'm not in the long-term plans of our new owners and that I should see the offer not as a shove out the door but as a launching pad for new adventures, new projects and new beginnings of all sorts," Zorn wrote.

A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and graduate of the University of Michigan, Zorn joined the Tribune as a reporting intern in 1980. After five years as a feature writer and radio columnist, he became a full-time news columnist in 1986. In 2003 he launched "Change of Subject," the Tribune's first blog.

Get the full report, and more Chicago media news, at robertfeder.com.