The buyout offer rapidly thinning the staff of the Chicago Sun-Times has swept up another high-profile writer: movie columnist Richard Roeper.
The longtime newsroom fixture posted a statement on social media saying Friday will be his last day with the paper, but he does not expect to stop covering the entertainment world.
“I’m excited for the next chapter in my career, as I have no plans of retiring or even slowing down,” Roeper wrote Wednesday. “I will continue to review films and TV series every Friday on ‘Windy City Weekend’ on ABC-7 Chicago, and I’ll keep recording new episodes of ‘The Richard Roeper Show’ podcast every week. I also intend to continue writing reviews regularly.”
The Chicago native has worked at the Sun-Times for 37 years, first as an editorial assistant and news reporter and later as a general-interest columnist. He succeeded the late Roger Ebert as the paper’s film reviewer in 2013.
From 2000 to 2008, Roeper and Ebert were on-air colleagues on the syndicated TV show “Ebert & Roeper,” where Roeper took the seat of the Chicago Tribune’s Gene Siskel, who died in 1999.
The Sun-Times has made no announcement about a replacement movie columnist.