Georgia TV Exec Named Publisher of the 'Hartford Courant'

By: Stephen D. Carver, vice president and general manager of WATL-TV in Atlanta, will become president and publisher of the Hartford Courant, the newspaper announced in Thursday's editions.

Carver replaces Jack W. Davis Jr., 59, who will remain as publisher and CEO until the end of the year. Carver becomes the Courant's president July 10.

Tribune recently agreed to a $180 million deal to sell WATL-TV to Gannett Co. Bob Gremillion, vice president of publishing for Tribune, said executives offered Carver the Hartford job to keep him in the company.

Davis, 59, said he may return to his New Orleans home to join Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

"I think having Steve Carver aboard with his background and accomplishments gives us a chance to grow the company on the revenue side which will prevent us, if we're successful, from having to make more cuts that newspapers around the country are having to make," said Davis, who led the Courant for six years.

The Courant has cut its newsroom staff to 275 employees, down 70 positions since July 2003. Tribune stock fell earlier this year to a six-year low, triggered by weak earnings and job losses.

Carver joined Tribune in 1998 as vice president and general manager of WGN-AM, a Chicago talk radio station. He become regional vice president for Tribune television, overseeing stations in Indiana and Michigan.

"I'm very excited about this opportunity," Carver said. "And I'm coming in with a belief that there are even better days ahead for the Courant than what it's had, and it's had some very good days, and I'm looking forward to being a part of that."

Davis, who was Tribune's vice president for planning at the newspaper publishing unit before being appointed the Courant's publisher in 2000, owns a home in New Orleans. He moved there shortly after graduating from Harvard and co-founded a weekly newspaper before becoming an editor at The Times-Picayune. He was also an editor at the Chicago Tribune and worked at the Daily Press in Hampton Roads, Va.

"I have spent all of my non-newspaper time in the past year thinking about post-Katrina New Orleans and how to fix it," Davis said. "It's one of the main places I'm looking right now, how to participate meaningfully in rebuilding the city. There's been no progress in the city planning its neighborhoods and that's where they could use some help I think."