Tribune Publishing now prints all 14 Chronicle Media, LLC publications, and delivers Chronicle products into the eight-county Chicago area. Photo — Roy Carlson

Tribune Publishing, parent company of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and other iconic media brands, has reached a printing and distribution agreement with Chronicle Media, LLC.

All 13 countywide Chronicle Media, LLC print and digital newspapers in Illinois, and the FreeShopper, are now being printed at Tribune Publishing’s Freedom Center production facility in Chicago. Retail delivery for Chronicle’s nine Chicago area publications is also now being fulfilled by the Tribune.

Newspapers included in the distribution agreement include the Cook County Chronicle, Suburban Chronicle, the Chicago FreeShopper, Lake County Chronicle, Kendall Chronicle, DuPage Chronicle, McHenry Chronicle, DeKalb Journal, and Winnebago Chronicle.

Chronicle Media, LLC is a start-up media company developed by former Sun-Times Media managers John Blais and Andrew Morys. In November 2014, shortly after launching several Chicago-area newspapers, the company merged with the Legal Record publishing company owned by Brandon Bressner, which published seven “News-Bulletin” weeklies across Illinois. In August 2015, the company acquired the FreeShopper, a Chicago advertising publication that has been continuously published since the 1970s.

“This partnership with the Tribune is an important step in Chronicle Media’s growth strategy, as it enables us to increase our consumer reach exponentially,” said John Blais, Chronicle’s publisher and president. “Chronicle newspapers are now available to readers in thousands of locations throughout every ZIP code in our eight-county Chicago area market. This helps us achieve our objective of having evenly spread distribution throughout the counties we serve. City and suburban readers from all walks of life can easily find our free newspapers in the neighborhoods where they live.”

Tribune’s Publishing’s Freedom Center is the largest newspaper web-offset operation in North America. The facility prints a wide variety of major and local newspaper titles, including the Chicago Tribune, Pioneer Press Newspapers, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Chicago Sun-Times, and many other publications.

Newsstand at Adams St. and Clark St. in Chicago. Photo — Cook County Chronicle

“We’re excited because we have been going after commercial work. We want to keep our presses running, and our inserters running,” said Roy Carlson, Tribune Publishing Preprint Logistics and Inventory Manager. “The Chronicle titles are a complex run, but we’re trying to find a way to make them as efficient as possible.”

Taking advantage of the Tribune Publishing distribution network places Chronicle publications in more than 2,300 locations for the eight Chicagoland publications, Carlson said. “We can get [the Chronicle and FreeShopper papers] to a bunch of outlets where they weren’t before,” he said.

“Our circulation growth and this increase in retail locations will also create awareness of our award-winning responsive website and digital products, where readers can find daily updated news and public notices covering Illinois and all of the counties and communities we serve,” said Blais. “Furthermore, we now have the availability to customize targeted display-advertising campaigns for customers throughout Chicagoland.”

Lists of all Chronicle Media, LLC retail outlets can be found on the website’s Find a Copy page.

— Tribune Co., Chronicle Media, LLC reach production agreement —