Tribune’s Greg Burns joins Allstate

Greg Burns

Greg Burns

Veteran business reporter and columnist Greg Burns, who worked for two Chicago newspapers and Business Week magazine, is stepping down as a member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board.

Burns announced this week he’s leaving to join Allstate Corp., where he will manage the Northbrook-based insurance company’s financial communications.

“At my first newspaper job in South Carolina, one reporter would bid the copy desk goodnight with a sarcastic 'Write if you get work,' " he told friends on Facebook. “Well, after 30 years as a journalist and 17-plus at the Chicago Tribune, I've finally got 'work.' " He starts his new job March 2.

Bruce Dold, editorial page editor for the Tribune, said he plans to name a replacement for Burns on the editorial board.

Burns joined the Tribune in 1997 and served as a staff writer, business editor and business columnist before he was named to the editorial board in 2010. During his tenure as associate managing editor/business, he directed the business staff's coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the collapse of Enron and Andersen, and the dot-com bubble.

A graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Burns previously worked as a business reporter and columnist for the Sun-Times and as senior correspondent in the Chicago bureau of Business Week. He began his career at the Anderson Independent-Mail in Anderson, South Carolina.