James O’Shea

James O’Shea served as editor and executive vice president of the Los Angeles Times from November 2006 to January 2008. Previously O’Shea worked for the Chicago Tribune in many leadership roles, culminating in his position as managing editor (2001–2006). O’Shea joined the Chicago Tribune in 1979 from the Des Moines Register, where he had been a reporter, editor and Washington correspondent. In 1982 he joined the Tribune‘s Washington bureau, where he covered both national budget policy and national security. O’Shea helped the Chicago Tribune develop RedEye, originally a weekday, quick-read newspaper distributed free in the Chicago area and now also available online. He began his journalism career in 1968 as a U.S. Army correspondent, covering U.S. troops stationed in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. A graduate of the University of Missouri, O’Shea is the author of two books, The Daisy Chain, about the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s, and Dangerous Company, co-authored with Charles Madigan. At the Shorenstein Center, he examined conflicts between editors and owners of newspapers.