Postnet.com. Jan. 8,
2001 | 2:04 p.m.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- The Tribune Co. is opening a bureau in Cuba
this week, making it the third U.S. media organization to have permanent offices
in the island nation.
It joins The Associated Press and CNN as the only U.S. media permanently
operating in Havana. About 150 reporters from other nations are based there.
The Dallas Morning News also plans to operate a bureau in the country -- its
reporter arrives this week -- but its office will not yet open because of delays
in getting final approval from the U.S. and Cuban government, Foreign Editor
Kerry Gunnels said.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which is based in Fort Lauderdale, and the
Chicago Tribune, which are both owned by the Tribune Co., will jointly operate
the company's bureau.
Reporters from the company's nine other papers, including the Los Angeles
Times, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun, will sometimes visit the bureau.
Earl Maucker, the Sun-Sentinel's editor, said the Tribune Co.'s bureau is
the result of 10 years of negotiations with the Castro government and is another
step in his paper's coverage Latin America and the Caribbean.
``The Sun-Sentinel is poised to continue to develop a more sophisticated
presence in all of Latin America and this is merely one more piece of that
growth,'' he said.
Burl Osborne, publisher of The Dallas Morning News, which is owned by Belo
Corp., said in September when the bureau openings were announced that having a
reporter permanently in Cuba would help his paper bring ``insight and
understanding of Latin America to Texas and throughout the United States.''
AP-CS-01-08-01 1454EST | 