Tribune Publishing Chief to Retire

Tribune Co., owner of the Los Angeles Times, announced Wednesday that Jack Fuller, president of the company’s publishing group, would retire and step down from the board of directors at the end of the year.

Fuller, 58, helped lead Tribune’s acquisition and integration of Times Mirror Co. publications in 2000, said Dennis J. FitzSimons, chairman and chief executive of Tribune. Fuller also was instrumental in recruiting Baltimore Sun Editor John S. Carroll to become editor of The Times.

Fuller published a book on news values and six novels while working at Tribune, and he intends to return to the keyboard full time after he retires.

“My first love was writing; it’s what brought me into the business,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to make writing books my first job early enough [in my career] that I had the energy to do some substantial work.”

Fuller said his departure was not related to Tribune’s troubles. Two of the Chicago-based company’s newspapers, Newsday on Long Island in New York and Spanish language daily Hoy in New York, are under investigation for inflating circulation figures. In addition, Tribune has missed Wall Street’s earnings expectations three times this year, in part because of an advertising downturn, and its stock is off 18% since January. It was unchanged Wednesday at $42.35.

“It’s been a rough year,” Fuller said, “but our business fundamentals are very strong.”

Fuller started as a copy boy at the Chicago Tribune when he was 16 and later served as a Tribune reporter in Chicago and Washington. As editor of the newspaper’s editorial page, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1986. He became editor of the Tribune in 1989 and later was appointed its publisher and chief executive.

The newspaper business attracted him, Fuller said, because he found that it was a way “for a fairly shy, introspective person like myself to engage in the life of the community. I was enjoying myself writing and also doing some good -- or trying to.”

Donald Graham, chairman and CEO of Washington Post Co., said Fuller “has been as good as the American newspaper business has had to offer in my time and is fit to compare with the best.”

Scott Smith, 54, president and publisher of the Chicago Tribune, has been named chief operating officer of the publishing group and will take over Fuller’s position in January. David Hiller, 51, senior vice president of the publishing group, will succeed Smith at the Chicago Tribune.