Top execs quit at Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times

From Newsday.com


The editor of the Chicago Tribune and the publisher of the Los Angeles Times announced their resignations yesterday as their newspapers and the economically strapped Tribune Co. chain faced staff and space cuts.


Ann Marie Lipinski, editor of the Chicago Tribune since 2001, said she would be leaving the paper effective Thursday. Last week, Lipinski said the paper would be the latest in a line of Tribune newspapers to make significant reductions in newsroom staff, as well as cutting pages.


Gerould W. Kern, corporate Tribune Publishing's vice president of editorial since 2003, was named to replace Lipinski.


In Los Angeles, publisher David Hiller resigned, becoming the third publisher to come and go at the paper since Tribune bought it in 2000. During Hiller's time as publisher, two successive editors of the paper left and there was considerable debate over staffing cuts. Just this month, further cuts in staff and news pages - called the largest in the paper's history - were announced. Tribune officials said Hiller's successor would be named by summer's end.


Chicago-based Tribune was bought in December by a group led by real estate billionaire Sam Zell and it went from being a public to a private company. Tribune owns 23 television stations and several other newspapers, including Newsday.


Because of the struggle of newspapers to retain their advertising revenue and the general economic downturn, Tribune has sold some assets to generate income for paying down its debt. As part of that, Tribune has a pending agreement to sell Newsday to Cablevision for $650 million, a deal expected to close this summer.