The Associated Press
and The Cincinnati Enquirer

SALT LAKE CITY - The former president and publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer will lead the agency that prints, distributes and sells advertising for the two competing Salt Lake City daily newspapers.

Harry Whipple, 56, was introduced to the staffs of the Deseret Morning News and the Salt Lake Tribune on Monday as the president and chief executive officer of the Newspaper Agency Corp.

"The directive I have from the board is to build both newspapers," he said of the drive to increase circulation and advertising revenue.

Whipple was publisher in Cincinnati for 11 years, retiring in May.

He said he hadn't been looking for another position in newspapers, but Tribune publisher William Dean Singleton called and was "persuasive."

The area is growing rapidly, and the agency is about to break ground on an $80 million, 320,000-square-foot building for the papers' printing presses, distribution equipment and the NAC sales staff.

Whipple will continue to serve as co-chairman of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

Whipple received the unanimous backing of NAC board members representing both newspapers.