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Jun. 10--After less than a year in her job, Deanna Shoss, the head of the League of Chicago Theatres, announced her resignation Friday.
And the league, a member-service and lobbying group that runs the Hot Tix program for about 170 Chicago theaters, said it is getting out of the theater publication business because it loses money. According to Roche Schulfer, president of the league's board of directors and executive director of Chicago's Goodman Theatre, the league's "Chicagoplays" program book has been progressively accumulating significant debt over its two years of operation.
Shoss said the current debt was about $400,000. The league's annual budget, including some pass-through revenue, is about $5.6 million.
As a result, the league has decided to pay down the debt by selling its list of advertising clients to two arts-program publishers who already operate in the Chicago market--the New York-based Playbill Media Inc. and the Milwaukee-based Marcus Promotions, which publishes a program wrap under the Footlights brand.
"We really couldn't make a go of it without subsidy," Schulfer said. "We probably went further with it than we should."
League members had prized the chance to get custom-designed programs at little or no cost to themselves. Chicagoplays was started under the leadership of Marj Halperin, the league's former executive director.
Playbill will now serve the big Chicago theaters, with Footlights, which offers a lower-cost product, taking over the smaller groups.
Playbill Senior Vice President Clifford S. Tinder said Playbill plans to open a Chicago office that will help sell advertising and create more editorial content tailored specifically to this market.
"I'm estimating we'll add about 20 more venues," Tinder said. "We already were considering increasing our presence in Chicago before this opportunity came up."
Playbill, long famed for its Broadway programs, publishes programs for Broadway in Chicago and the Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire, along with a small group of other Chicago clients. Footlights works with many small non-profit groups, including many of the theaters and arts venues on the North Shore.
The league's Chicagoplays operation was started after Stagebill, the previously dominant player, pulled out of the Chicago market after its sale to Playbill in 2002.
Shoss, who came to the league in July from a job as director of promotions for the city's Department of Aviation, said Friday that her departure was a "personal decision" not directly related to the debt surrounding the program operation.
"The job has been a little different than I anticipated," she said, noting that her strengths and interests reside mainly in promotion and marketing. "I plan to spend some more time with my family and then look for the next opportunity."
cjones5@tribune.com
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Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune
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