Ferro had been the majority owner of Chicago Sun-Times’ parent company Wrapports when, earlier this month, a company he led, Merrick Media, bought a 16.6 percent stake in Sun-Times’ rival Tribune Publishing for $44.4 million.
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Tribune Publishing said the new dual publisher-editor positions would “drive a content-first culture”.
Tribune Publishing Chairman Michael Ferro has donated his stake in the Chicago Sun-Times to a charitable trust.
The Tribune also acquired LA.com and said that Los Angeles Times’ Davan Maharaj would take on a dual editor and publish role to oversee the launch of the new content vertical.
As part of the companywide restructuring, the publishers of Tribune newspapers are leaving the company. It also straddles the line between business and journalism, a shift that Dold, a longtime journalist who most recently served as Tribune’s editorial page editor, said is already taking place.
The appointment comes as part of sweeping administrative changes at several Tribune-owned newspapers across the country, including the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, in which the position of publisher and editor-in-chief have been combined. Ferro stepped down from the board of Wrapports when he arrived at Tribune Publishing.
“We thank Denise for her leadership, which, in a very short period of time, has resulted in measurable improvements in Tribune Publishing’s digital traffic, engagement numbers, ad impression growth and a significant pivot in the Company¹s digital subscription approach that is already achieving record performance”, Dearborn said in a statement.
The company will also begin offering print subscribers free unlimited access to digital content by April, and announced the departure of Denise Warren, who headed Tribune Publishing’s digital operations.
Malcolm CasSelle has been named President of New Ventures to lead new technology initiatives to accelerate digital and commerce expansion.
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Editors will become publishers at The Times, the Union-Tribune in San Diego, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant, the Orlando Sentinel, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and the Daily Press in Virginia.
