Charleston Newspaper Editor Mitch Pugh Named Editor of Chicago Tribune

From a story on postandcourier.com by Glenn Smith headlined “Post and Courier’s Mitch Pugh named executive editor of Chicago Tribune”:

Mitch Pugh, who guided The Post and Courier to a Pulitzer Prize and a statewide presence in South Carolina, is leaving Charleston to lead the newsroom of the Chicago Tribune….

Pugh worked at newspapers in Illinois, Colorado, Missouri and Iowa before arriving in Charleston. While here, he guided South Carolina’s largest newspaper through a period of growth and statewide expansion. He significantly grew digital subscriptions and fostered a culture of investigative journalism that held public officials and institutions accountable.

Pugh led the paper to a 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for “Till death do us part,” a five-part series that examined South Carolina’s grim toll from domestic violence. During his tenure, the paper has been a Pulitzer finalist on four other occasions, most recently last year for its climate change series Rising Waters.

The Post and Courier has earned numerous other honors under Pugh, including a James Beard Award for food coverage, a Gerald Loeb Award for business writing and a George Polk Award for coverage of issues of statewide significance….

In Chicago, Pugh will oversee a newsroom of about 150 journalists at the Tribune, a 174-year-old institution that remains the largest news organization in the Midwest. Pugh, an Illinois native, was selected because of “his significant journalistic achievements, leadership skills and experience driving digital subscriber growth,” Par Ridder, general manager of the Chicago Tribune, said in a statement….

A Wyoming native, Phillips has been the managing editor at The Post and Courier for three and a half years. Before moving to Charleston, she worked for Lee Enterprises, serving as the executive editor at papers in Idaho, Illinois and most recently at the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa….

Glenn Smith is editor of the Watchdog and Public Service team and helped write the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation, “Till Death Do Us Part.”