Double Duty   

John Cherwa, the Chicago Tribune’s assistant managing editor for sports, takes on two new jobs, one at Tribune Co., the other at the Orlando Sentinel.

John Cherwa gets two new hats to wear: sports coordinator for the Tribune Co. and sports projects editor for the company's Orlando Sentinel. A former top sports editor at the Sentinel, Cherwa, 46, spent 15 years at the Los Angeles Times before going to the Chicago Tribune, where he rose to assistant managing editor for sports. He says the coordinator's job is to spread out reporting resources rather than having several papers send reporters to the same game. At the same time, he says, "You have to maintain all the franchises. You have to make sure that the games that are most important" to readers in a particular city get tailored for them. "It's going to be awhile before we really figure out how this works." His projects job takes Cherwa back to his roots. He grew up in Orlando, his mother lives nearby – and he'll get his hands on reporting again. "Being a department head...a lot of times takes you away from doing daily journalism," he says. "That's what's so exciting about being in Orlando...I just roll up my sleeves and try to get great journalism in the paper."