NEW YORK, NY February 26, 2009 —The publisher emeritus of the New York Amsterdam News has died. The Harlem newspaper announced that Wilbert Tatum died Wednesday evening at a hospital in Croatia, where he was vacationing with his wife Susan. Tatum, who was diabetic, died after multiple organ shutdown, according to his daughter Elinor Tatum, who assumed her father's role as publisher and editor-in-chief of the Amsterdam News in 1997.

Mayor Bloomberg said Tatum "covered issues of concern to African-Americans in ways that other media outlets did not," and called his death "a big loss for a paper that has been influencing and reflecting City politics for over 100 years."

Wilbert Tatum was 76 years old.