I've freelanced for the Sun-Times before and never had an issue getting paid. Tribune Co. papers are the ones I had the most issues with. Although the one that never paid me for the last bit of work I did for them had paid me on time probably 30 other times, so I don't think it was done intentionally.
I did preview capsules of 30something high school football teams and several related assignments (short features, picked preseason all-area team, etc) for Friday Night Football magazine in Florida. Can't get a callback now after I got an e-mail weeks ago claiming not to have gotten the invoice I sent in June. Company is AE Engine out of St. Pete. Frustrating.
I know this feeling. I have two major Texas metros who never paid even after a couple of phone calls. I hold grudges. You screw me, I don't mess with you anymore. One of them once set up a deal with my sports editor, asking to send my story on a game I was covering, involving one of our main teams and one of theirs. SE told me to send the story to them, I told him I wasn't going to. I know he gets along with some of those guys and was just going to send it after I filed. I know their deadline (which at the time was over an hour earlier than ours), so I was sure not to file my story in until right on our deadline.