Former DirecTV Chief Eddy Hartenstein Named President and CEO of Tribune

CHICAGO: Tribune today announced its board of directors appointed Eddy Hartenstein as president and CEO, effective immediately. Hartenstein will be responsible for overseeing all of the company’s operations. He was previously a co-president of the company and a member of its executive council. The four-member executive council exercised the responsibilities of the president and CEO since last October. It’s been dissolved.

“The board feels strongly that it is in Tribune’s best interests to have one person providing strategic vision and day-to-day direction for the company and its employees as we prepare to emerge from the Chapter 11 process," said Sam Zell, Tribune’s chairman.

Hartenstein will continue to serve as publisher and chief executive officer of Los Angeles Times Communications, LLC, a position he has held since August, 2008. He will be assisted in these tasks by Kathy Thomson, appointed today to the newly created position of president and chief operating officer of The Times.

Going forward, the council’s other members will focus on their primary responsibilities: Don Liebentritt as chief restructuring officer, Nils Larsen as chief investment officer and chairman of Tribune Broadcasting, and Tony Hunter as president, publisher and CEO of Chicago Tribune Co., with oversight responsibility for Tribune’s six mid-market newspapers.

Tribune has multiple newspapers; cable and radio properties, and 23 TV stations.