Romenesko

SeekingAlpha.com
Tribune Publishing president Scott Smith tells analysts: "On Los Angeles, the transition from Jeff Johnson as publisher to David Hiller is going very smoothly. We reached a point with Jeff where the differences were such that we just needed to make a change, and David is absolutely the best executive to step into that situation. He is doing a great job getting out with customers in the community, visiting with the whole array of employees, and is very quickly getting up to speed on the Los Angeles market and leading that team forward. So I would say that has gone very, very smoothly in a situation where we preferred not to make a change, but it was clearly necessary for us to move forward together." (The transcript says CEO Dennis FitzSimon's made this comment, but Tribune communications veep Gary Weitman says Smith was the speaker.)