James Keeley

Who was James Keeley?

James Keeley was an American newspaper editor and publisher. He served as managing editor of the Chicago Tribune from 1898 to 1914.

Keeley was born in London, England, and came to the United States at age 16. His career in the newspaper business started as a correspondent for the Kansas City Times. He also worked at a number of other papers and by the late 1880s was at the Chicago Tribune, rising to the positions of managing editor and general manager from 1898 to 1914.

After the deadly Iroquois Theatre fire in 1903, Keeley famously listed all the victims on the front page of the paper, leaving the story of what happened to the inside of the paper, believing that readers wanted to see the names of the dead first. He was also known for lobbying for a "sane Fourth" of July to stop fireworks deaths, and for tracking down fugitive Chicago bank president Paul O. Stensland.

In 1914, Keeley bought two papers, the Chicago Record Herald and Chicago Inter Ocean, and named the combined paper the Chicago Herald. The Herald was bought by William Randolph Hearst's Chicago Examiner in 1918, and named the Chicago Herald and Examiner. Keeley also did war reporting from Europe during World War I.