During a 38-year career as an executive at Tribune Media Services — now known as Tribune Content Agency — Walter Mahoney took great pride in promoting and encouraging both the talent that his agency managed, as well as working to mentor employees of his organization.
During Mahoney’s career, Tribune Media Services had hundreds of local newspaper clients around the country who purchased syndicated content — from editorial cartoonists and comics to advice columnists, the daily Jumble game and crossword puzzles.
“Walter was a mentor to me,” said Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Jack Ohman, whose work has been syndicated for decades by the Tribune Content Agency and before that by Tribune Media Services. “He was always very encouraging to me, and he’s somebody who literally constructed my career. He got me into 392 papers in four days at age 20, and that made me the second most-read cartoonist in America.”
Mahoney, 74. died at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Hinsdale Hospital on Nov. 20 after being struck by a car on Ogden Avenue in Western Springs while out on a walk, said his daughter, Kathryn. He had been a Western Springs resident since 1991.
Born in 1951 in Richmond, Virginia, Mahoney grew up in Richmond and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia. In 1974, what then was known as the Chicago Tribune Syndicate — later Tribune Media Services — hired Mahoney. He worked in sales in several locations, including Cincinnati, New York City and Orlando, Florida, where by the early 1990s he had become vice president of sales.
Mahoney worked intently to develop Ohman’s career as an editorial cartoonist. Ohman said Mahoney gave him his “sea legs.”
“Every step of the way through my career, Walter was there, helping me and supporting me,” he said.
Mahoney also championed the 1994 launch of Ohman’s comic strip, “Mixed Media,” placing it in 100 newspapers in its first week.
In 1991, Mahoney moved from Winter Springs, Florida, to Western Springs, as he shifted to working in Tribune Media Services’ Chicago headquarters office.
“He had a great way with people. He really did do a lot for people, and he did a lot of things that I had never known about (until after he died),” said Sheila Donohue, his longtime assistant. “He was a seriously great man who cared about everybody. He was like a mentor to me.”
Wayne Lown, Tribune Content Agency’s general manager, called Mahoney “people first, and employee first.”
“He really supported people and their path to success,” Lown said. “He would always have everyone’s backs and definitely stuck his neck out to make sure that everyone could be successful whatever they were in charge of.”
Mahoney oversaw Tribune Media Services’ features syndicate under the title of vice president for domestic syndication, and then he helped form an associated news service through a partnership with the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain. He continued developing that news service after Knight-Ridder was sold to the McClatchy newspaper chain in 2006, and in 2011, as a senior vice president, he began overseeing both the partnership with McClatchy and the agency’s features like comic strips, puzzles and columnists.
The organization was renamed Tribune Content Agency in 2014, shortly after Mahoney retired. Today, Tribune Content Agency fully controls both the features syndicate and the news service.
“He certainly knew every single (newspaper) publisher in the country by name, and they all respected him,” Lown said. “This was an era when you would travel to go see newspapers, shake hands and walk the newsroom. He knew everybody.”
Former Tribune advice columnist Amy Dickinson, whose “Ask Amy” advice column was syndicated by Tribune Media Services and later by Tribune Content Agency, worked closely with Mahoney.
“Walter, I thought, had the perfect disposition and temperament to do what he did, which was to take the hard work and creative talent of writers and artists in the Tribune syndication universe further out into the world, convincing other news outlets to publish our work,” Dickinson said. “I knew he was out there on the road advocating for my work and I — along with many others — would not have had a career without the work he did on our behalf. I am so grateful to him. He was a true mensch, and will be missed by many.”
After retiring from Tribune Media Services in 2012, Mahoney enjoyed tutoring high school students enrolled in a GED program and playing in the Western Springs Village Club’s golf league. He also enjoyed going on daily walks and playing with his grandchildren.
One of Mahoney’s most rewarding pursuits during retirement was volunteering as a docent at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie.
“He had a fascination with history — with World War II along with the Civil War,” Kathryn Mahoney said. “Volunteering at the Holocaust Museum aligned with a passion of his about understanding more and being able to help others learn about it.”
Mahoney’s wife of 41 years, Magda, died in 2024. In addition to his daughter, Mahoney is survived by another daughter, Sara Bordens; two grandchildren; a sister, Ann Mahoney Altherr; and a brother, Elliott Mahoney Jr.
Services were held.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
