Columnist John Kass EXITS The Chicago Tribune

John Kass (Chicago Tribune photo)

After 38-years, conservative columnist John Kass, exited The Chicago Tribune Friday.

Chicago Media Watcher Robert Feder reports the 64-year-old Kass is the latest to opt for a voluntary buyout offered by Alden Global Capital, the New York-based hedge fund known for severe cost-cutting at newsrooms across the country.

According to the Chicago Tribune Guild roughly a quarter of all newsroom staffers — including columnists Eric Zorn and Heidi Stevens — applied for buyouts this week.

“You readers are the reason I’ve been able to do this for so long,” Kass wrote in his farewell column. “You’ve stood by me. You’ve had my back. And as subscribers, you’ve fed my family and helped pay our bills. I owe you everything.

He promptly unveiled his new venue — an independent blog site at johnkassnews.com. “Instead of reading me in the newspaper, you can read me here. Free. Until I figure out the next move,” he wrote.

Kass joined the Tribune in 1983 and was promoted to columnist after the death of Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko in 1997.

Last summer Kass’s column was moved off Page 2 and relegated to an op-ed page labeled “Tribune Voices” after the Chicago Tribune Guild accused him of invoking anti-Semitic tropes in a column about billionaire George Soros.

Calling himself a victim of “cancel culture,” Kass said at the time: “I will not apologize for writing about Soros. . . . I will not soil my name by groveling to anyone in this or any other newsroom.”