Tribune Names Dennis FitzSimons President
and Chief Operating Officer
Jack Fuller elected to
company's Board of Directors
CHICAGO, July 24, 2001 -- Dennis
J. FitzSimons, executive vice president of Tribune Company,
has been elected Tribune president and chief operating officer
by the company's board of directors. The appointment is effective
immediately.
John W. Madigan, who had held the president's
title and who continues as Tribune's chairman and chief executive
officer, made the announcement following today's meeting of
the board. Madigan also announced that Jack W. Fuller, president
of Tribune Publishing, has been elected to the company's board
of directors, expanding the board to 13 members.
"Dennis has demonstrated superb leadership
in guiding our company-wide strategies in publishing, broadcasting
and interactive," said Madigan. "While his roots
are in the broadcasting business, Dennis has rapidly acquired
a thorough understanding of Tribune's newspaper and interactive
operations, giving him a perspective that is vital in today's
multimedia environment. This promotion is a natural extension
of his current role."
"The board has placed its confidence in
me and I am looking forward to the challenges ahead,"
said FitzSimons. "What makes Tribune an outstanding media
company is great people, great journalism and great media
franchises. I am honored to be part of it."
Under FitzSimons' leadership, Tribune Television
has become the nation's fourth-largest station group, growing
from six television stations in 1992 to 22 stations today.
He was instrumental in the development of The WB Network,
in which Tribune owns a 25 percent interest.
FitzSimons, 51, joined Chicago's WGN-TV as
sales director in 1982. In 1984, he was appointed vice president
and general manager of Tribune's New Orleans station, WGNO-TV.
FitzSimons moved back to Chicago in 1985 to serve as Tribune
Broadcasting vice president/operations and in 1987 was appointed
WGN-TV's vice president/general manager.
He started in the media industry at Grey Advertising
in New York, and then served as director of sales and marketing
for WVIT-TV in Hartford, Conn. Prior to that position, FitzSimons
was director of advertising sales at Viacom International
and New York sales manager for TeleRep, Inc. FitzSimons holds
a bachelor's degree from Fordham University.
"Another key element of today's board
meeting was the election of Jack Fuller as a director,"
said Madigan. "Jack led Tribune Publishing through the
largest acquisition in newspaper history and the successful
integration of the Times Mirror newspapers into our company.
Jack has always been a strong voice for our commitment to
journalistic excellence, and he has enabled us to both improve
the quality of our journalism and the financial performance
of all of our newspapers."
Fuller, 54, is the author of seven books, including
"News Values: Ideas for an Information Age." He
has been with Tribune Company for nearly 30 years, beginning
as a general assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune in
1973. He left the newspaper to serve in 1975-76 as a special
assistant to the U.S. Attorney General, rejoining the paper
in 1977 as a Washington correspondent. Fuller returned to
Chicago in 1978 as an editorial writer and served as editorial
page editor from 1981 to 1987. He won the Pulitzer Prize in
1986 for editorial writing and was named executive editor
of the paper in 1989.
Fuller was named publisher and chief executive
officer of the Chicago Tribune in 1994. He became president
and CEO of Tribune Publishing Company in 1997. Fuller holds
a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University
and a law degree from Yale Law School.
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TRIBUNE (NYSE:
TRB) is one of the country's premier media companies,
operating businesses in broadcasting, publishing and on the
Internet. It reaches more than 80 percent of U.S. households,
and is the only media company with television stations, newspapers
and Web sites in the nation's top three markets. Tribune media
span 23 major-market television stations, including national
superstation WGN-TV; 12 market-leading daily newspapers, including
the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsday; and news
and information Web sites in 18 of the nation's top 30 markets. |
