Lenfest, owner of Inquirer's parent company, drops interim tag in title, becomes publisher

The owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer's parent company has dropped the interim tag in his title and has become publisher.

H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest confirmed Tuesday that he made the title permanent as Interstate General Media looks to recruit a senior executive to lead day-to-day operations.

Lenfest and the late Lewis Katz bought out their partners in an $88 million auction in May. Katz died in a plane crash shortly after.

Lenfest became the sole owner after Katz's son sold his $16 million stake in the company, which also operates the Philadelphia Daily News and Philly.com.

The company also announced this week that Eric Ulken will become executive director of digital strategy for the newspapers' individual websites and Philly.com. He is currently director of product management at Seattletimes.com.