William J. Keating Returning to Paper

William J. Keating, president and chief executive of the Detroit Newspaper Agency, is returning to Cincinnati as chairman and publisher of the Cincinnati Enquirer. It was one of several newspaper publishing shifts announced Wednesday by Gannett Co. and Knight-Ridder Inc.

Keating, who also serves as chairman of the Associated Press, will be succeeded in Detroit by Joseph M. Ungaro, Gannett said. Ungaro is a Gannett vice president and president and publisher of its Westchester Rockland (N.Y.) Newspapers.

Knight-Ridder announced that Robert J. Hall, publisher and chairman of the Detroit Free Press, would assume the same duties at Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., the company that publishes the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

Named to replace Hall was Neal Shine, former senior managing editor of the Free Press who retired last June. Shine has continued to write a column in the newspaper and was teaching at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich.

Keating, 62, moved to Detroit from Cincinnati but had retained his post as chairman of the Enquirer.

The Detroit Newspaper Agency is responsible for sales, business and production operations for the Detroit News, owned by Gannett, and the Detroit Free Press, owned by Knight-Ridder. The two papers are under a joint operating agreement that was upheld by the Supreme Court in November.

Keating was named to his Detroit Newspaper Agency post in 1986. Previously, he was publisher and president of the Enquirer in Cincinnati and a regional president of Gannett from 1979 to 1984. Before that he was president and CEO of the paper from 1974 to 1979.

As publisher in Cincinnati, he replaces John Zanotti, who recently resigned to become publisher of the Arizona Republic and Phoenix Gazette.