Wilbert A. Tatum | Harlem publisher, 76

Wilbert A. Tatum, retired publisher of the Amsterdam News, the Harlem-based newspaper that has covered New York City's black community for a century, has died.

Mr. Tatum died Wednesday during a trip to Croatia, the newspaper said. Nayaba Arinde, an editor at the weekly paper, confirmed Mr. Tatum's death. She said he had been ill recently but did not know the cause of his death in a hospital in Dubrovnik, where he was traveling with his wife, Susan.

A member of a group that purchased the Amsterdam News in 1971, Mr. Tatum rose to become board chairman and editor-in-chief, took majority control of the paper in 1982 and bought out the last investor in July 1996. In December 1997 he retired as publisher and editor-in-chief, replaced by his daughter, Elinor Ruth Tatum. He remained board chairman and publisher emeritus.

In 1993, he was briefly named publisher and editor of the New York Post during a chaotic staff revolt against a new owner, Abe Hirschfeld, and a threat of bankruptcy.

In 1996, a Manhattan jury ruled that Mr. Tatum had diverted more than $1 million from the Amsterdam News for his personal use. - AP