James Hoge
James Hoge

James Hoge, who was editor of the Chicago Sun-Times and New York Daily News, died on Sept. 19. He was 87.

He became one of the youngest editors at a major daily newspaper, when he was named the Sun-Times’ city editor at age 29. He rose to editor-in-chief at 33 and publisher at 44.

The Sun-Times won six Pulitzers Prizes under Hoge’s leadership. He also okayed running Seymour Hersh’s account of the My Lai massacre, the murder of civilians by US soldiers in Vietnam.

Hoge left Chicago in 1984 after a group that he led to buy the Sun-Times was outbid by Rupert Murdoch.

Returning to his hometown of New York, Hoge become editor and publisher of the struggling Daily News and exited in 1991 after the paper was bought by Robert Maxwell.

Hoge then left the rough and tough tabloid world for the editor slot at the more sedate Foreign Affairs magazine.

During his 18 years at the bi-monthly, Hoge doubled its circulation to more than 160K and launched Spanish, Japanese and Russian language editions.

He went on to chair Human Rights Watch and the International Center for Journalists.

At his death, Hoge was a senior advisor at Teneo.