Legendary Chicago News Service to shut down

Chicago's legendary City News Service is shutting down at the end of the year. It started in 1890 when Chicago newspapers agreed to save money by sharing the responsibility of covering overnight police news. Since then, it has been considered one of the country's premier training grounds for reporters of hard news. The famous dictim "When your mother says she loves you, check it out" comes from one of the service's editors, Arnold Dornfeld.

The City News Service was taken over by the Chicago Tribune in 1999. The paper says since then it has been subsidizing its competitors because those who subscribed could put Tribune stories on their own web sites. Beginning January 1, the service will be converted to a 24 hour news desk that only serves the Tribune's websites.

The Tribune is publishing reminisces from the service's alumni.