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Building an Information Empire
A Q & A with Jack Fuller

By MOLLY SINCLAIR McCARTNEY
Special to Poynter.org

Jack Fuller, the president of the media empire that owns The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and other information properties, doesn’t believe in the wall that traditionally has existed between advertising and news. He says this is an old model for newspapers.

But Fuller, 53, does think that it is the editor who should make the final decision about editorial comment.

FURTHER READING Jack Fuller President Tribune Company "Key to Times Mirror Merger: Ads," a 6/11 story, discusses the structure of the combined companies Tribune announces on 4/24/00 the appointment of a new publisher and editor for Los Angeles Times Tribune Company announcement on 3/13/00 of its merger with The Times Mirror Company Tribune Company website Tribune story of Fuller meeting with Los Angeles Times staff Short biography of Jack Fuller

This is a sensitive issue, especially at the Los Angeles Times, that dates back to 1995 when former cereal company executive Mark Willes was appointed Times Mirror CEO. As soon as Willes took over, he declared that he was going to remove the cherished wall, setting off a heated controversy that raged throughout the news industry. Willis was dismissed this spring after the Tribune Company purchased Times Mirror and acquired the L.A. Times. But questions continue about whether the new ownership will restore the wall.

In an interview with Poynter.org, Fuller explained his thinking this way: "It isn’t that you build walls and protect the delicate ears of the editors from what they can’t handle. It is to make the decision rules very clear." Under Tribune rules, he said, "If there is some debate over what is to be said in editorial comment, then debate is good. But in the end the editor decides."

Fuller, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his Tribune editorials before moving into the executive suite, talked about a range of other issues, including the future role of the Chandler family in the management of the Los Angeles Times, his philosophy on the merging of the Washington bureaus of the Times and Tribune, and the important role that newspapers play in providing local and national leadership.

What was the fundamental logic behind your purchase of the Times Mirror Company? Why did you want it? Why did you want the Los Angeles Times?

Having a presence in the top three markets in the country -- Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York -- makes all the sense in the world. Having that puts us into as strong a position as we could think of as we head into an environment where there is consolidation all around us and a change in the way the information environment operates. We thought that getting bigger in this way gave us a far better opportunity to master our fate in the newspaper business than either company could do on its own.

Were there also journalistic reasons for your wanting Times Mirror?

Of course. Ever since I became editor of the Chicago Tribune in the late 1980s, when the online world was just beginning, I’ve been consumed with trying to figure out how to get the great newspapers we had in our company through this period of transition. There is a commercial reason for this. I am responsible to the shareholders to protect their investment and give them an appropriate return. But I also have this belief that communities need great newspapers in order to function properly. There is no other institution that provides the kind of quality information and depth and leadership, both locally and nationally, that newspapers do.

At the Tribune Company, we have experimented with various approaches in trying to build a culture of change and in trying to get people -- whether they be journalists or business people -- to recognize the need to adapt to a changing situation.

In that context, the commercial necessity and the journalistic necessity are similar. You can’t keep funding these journalistic enterprises unless you compete effectively. When we thought of Times Mirror and (Tribune Company), we thought they would be much stronger and more likely to succeed over time if they were together than if they were separate. Together they have a spine of a national network to build a much stronger position in the interactive world and to capitalize on national advertising. You can’t separate the commercial from the journalistic because one sustains the other.

Why did you dump Times CEO Mark Willes?

I am not going to talk about that. I am very uncomfortable with that question.

Did Willes know the sale of the Times Mirror was coming?

He has said publicly that it was after the family decided to sell that he learned of it.

Are you going to attempt to reinvent the Los Angeles Times in light of all the controversy over the Mark Willes leadership?

Well, first of all, it won’t be for me to do. There is a publisher, *John Puerner, and an editor, *John Carroll, now in Los Angeles and they are first rate, so the leadership of the Los Angeles Times will be from Los Angeles with really good people.

There are a couple of areas where we are going to have to look, however. I have been skeptical of their circulation strategy and whether it made sense. Mark Willes had a goal to increase circulation by half a million. And Kathryn Downing had said that the goal over a longer period of time could be for an increase of one million. That is very hard to do. Most people I know in the business didn’t believe that was possible. And a number of very expensive projects were implemented to start delivering on that goal. We have a different view of circulation. Our view is that you want to make sure you are spending your money to get the newspaper to people who are going to read it. And whom advertisers will get results from.

What about the Willes goal to take down the wall between advertising and news?

I was asked that question at the first meetings I had in Los Angeles. I was asked if we were going to bring back the wall. I said I didn’t like that metaphor. How can you be in favor of walls or any other kind of impediments to communication? So I am not in favor of building walls.

We operate by a simple rule in our companies. If there is some debate over what is to be said in editorial comment, that debate is good. But in the end, the editor decides. It isn’t that you build walls and protect the delicate ears of the editors from what they can’t handle. It is to make the decision rules very clear. You are not asking the ad director to be the editor, but you want business people to understand something about journalism. That is a much better model for an effective newspaper in my view than the old model or metaphor of church and state. I don’t like these metaphors.

You announced the choice of John Carroll as the new Editor for the Los Angeles Times very quickly after the Tribune announced its purchase of Times-Mirror. Was that part of the plan you had before you closed the deal?

No. I had read about the situation in Los Angeles, but I wasn’t close to it. So I didn’t have a game plan that was waiting to be executed. I have known John Carroll for years and admired him. We were on the Pulitzer board together. But I didn’t have a checklist. You would have to be crazy to walk into a situation where you had been a distant observer and think you knew everything you needed to do.

Will the Chandler family have any role in the Times?

Under the merger agreement the Chandler family will be entitled to nominate three directors to the Tribune Company board of directors. These three directors in turn will be able to designate 40 percent of the members of the Los Angeles Times board. Tribune will be entitled to designate the other 60 per cent.

The Chandler family designees on the Los Angeles Times board will have the right to approve the appointment of a publisher, which may not be unreasonably withheld. The Chandler family designees will also have the right to approve the sale, transfer or other disposition of the Los Angeles Times, though this will not be required if the sale is of substantially all of the Tribune publishing group or as a result of a change of control of Tribune Company or as required by governmental or regulatory authorities.

The Los Angeles Times subsidiary board will meet periodically and discuss with the publisher issues of common concern. However, except for the approval rights by the Chandler family designees I just described, management responsibility for the Los Angeles Times will reside in the publisher and Tribune Company. And Tribune has the sole authority to remove a publisher.

So, how were you able to make Puerner publisher since you are supposed to have family approval of a publisher? Did you run this by some of the family in the absence of a board?

John Puerner was appointed publisher effective upon Tribune’s taking control of the Times Mirror Board after the successful completion of the tender offer. His appointment was made with the support of the Chandler family.

What personal role did you play in the Tribune’s acquisition of Times Mirror? It has been said that you heard through a mutual friend that the Chandlers were unhappy with what was happening at the Los Angeles Times and might be interested in selling. The story is that you then took steps to pursue -- through that mutual friend -- the possibility of the Tribune purchase of Times-Mirror and that this eventually led to your purchase. Is that what happened?

I am not comfortable talking about that. It is not for me to tell that story.

At present, the Chicago Tribune has a Washington bureau and the Los Angeles Times has an even bigger Washington bureau. Are you going to merge those bureaus?

I don’t believe in a wire service kind of bureau where the people in it don’t have an individual newspaper relationship. But we do have a strong multi-media component in our strategy, which includes television, radio, online, and print -- any way we can put out information. And that is a very good reason to put people and functions together physically. We do that with Tribune reporters in Washington now. They may report to different papers but they work in the same place and they have access to the same broadcast facility. I am inclined to put people together but not take their identity away from their individual newspaper. I’ve made no secret of this. But this is not something you do quickly or willy nilly. You don’t do it just to do it. You do it when it makes sense to do.

*Editor’s Note: Fuller fired Times publisher Kathryn Downing in April and replaced her with Puerner, who had been publisher of the Orlando Sentinel, a Tribune newspaper. Fuller fired Times editor Michael Parks at the same time and replaced him with Carroll, who had been editor of the Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror newspaper.