Is The Chicago Sun-Times Cutting Its Food Section?

In the latest round of changeups in the food journalism world, the Chicago Sun-Times has announced that it will be swapping out its Food section for a more advertiser-friendly TASTE. "Sun-Times Media will introduce TASTE on Wednesday March 13th, which replaces the Sun-Times' Food section," a company statement sent to The Daily Meal said. This change comes after some evolution in management and a refocus on branding the Sun-Times in the digital age.

Judging from the statement, TASTE is sort of a combination of food-related service content (recipes, wine reviews, shopping products, we imagine), as it reportedly will combine "new food-related content, such as a weekly Menu Planner and a DeVine Wine column, with new advertising opportunities to gain revenue for the company."

As Grub Street pointed out this morning, when we first got wind of the news, restaurant reviews will probably not be affected, as they were considered part of the Entertainment section.

TASTE, however, will be produced separately by Custom Media Solutions, meaning the content won't be produced by Sun-Times food writers. What this means for section editor Sue Ontiveros has yet to be seen (we've reached out for comment and will update when we hear back).

Update: According to a representative, Ontiveros will not be working on TASTE, but will be working on another project with the Sun-Times that has yet to be announced.