Chicago Tribune’s Editor Will Resign; Replacement Named

Chicago Tribune Editor James D. Squires announced that he will resign, effective Jan. 1, and Executive Editor Jack Fuller was named as his replacement.

“My decision was made for two reasons--to ease and expedite the transition to a new era of newspaper leadership, begun this time last year with the appointment of a new president--and to placate my own restless heart,” Squires, 46, said in a statement.

Squires referred to the appointment last year of Tribune President John W. Madigan. Personal differences between Squires and Madigan were well known among Tribune employees. Squires himself had described the relationship as “oil and water.”

“The famous editor William Allen White once said there are three things that no one can do to the entire satisfaction of anyone else: poke the fire, make love and edit a newspaper.

“He was certainly correct about editing the newspaper, a job I have held on two Tribune Co. newspapers for the last 13 years. But I loved every minute of it.”

Squires was named editor of the Tribune in 1981. Previously he was editor of the Orlando Sentinel and chief of the Tribune’s Washington bureau.

His tenure at the Tribune has been marked by often surprising changes in staff assignments, including a recent switch of the newspaper’s legal reporter to the Notre Dame football beat.

Fuller, a lawyer and novelist, joined the Tribune in 1973. He has served in a variety of positions, including Washington correspondent and editorial writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for editorial writing and has been executive editor since 1987.