It was 25 years ago that a young journalist named J. Todd Foster joined the Chattanooga Free Press as a reporter.
He did such a good job in Chattanooga that he was lured away, in 1989, to other journalistic endeavors. They included the Portland Oregonian, the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal and People magazine, before Mr. Foster became the editor of the Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier. Under his leadership there, his paper won a highly regarded Pulitzer Prize for its reporting.
Mr. Foster recently said he long had a “secret” ambition: It was to return someday as editor of the Chattanooga newspaper.
Now Mr. Foster’s ambition has been fulfilled.
Walter E. Hussman Jr., chairman of Little Rock, Ark.-based WEHCO Media, which owns the Chattanooga Times Free Press and other newspapers, has named Mr. Foster to become executive editor of the Times Free Press.