The former Tribune Co. chairman Dennis FitzSimons, on Monday closed on the sale of his house on exclusive Woodley Road outside Winnetka. The 13-room home on a little more than an acre sold for $2.478 million, about 78 percent of the $3.15 million that FitzSimons and his wife, Ann, paid for the home in November 2003. The couple listed the house in February 2010, initially asking $3.1 million; they later lowered that to $2.775 million. I could not reach FitzSimons for comment.

Built in 1950, the Cape Cod-style house has five bedrooms and four full and two partial bathrooms. Photos that accompany the listing show formal living and dining rooms with deep crown moldings and other millwork, a family room with a vaulted ceiling, and a sitting room screened on three sides and looking out over the big rear yard. The listing agent for the sale was Gayle Dunn of Jean Wright Realty; she declined to comment.

FitzSimons spent 25 years at Tribune Co. before stepping down after helping to engineer its 2007 sale to Sam Zell and an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. He started as sales manager at WGN-TV and became Tribune’s CEO in 2003—the year he bought the Woodley Road house—and its chairman in 2004. He is currently chairman of the McCormick Foundation, a charity formerly known as the McCormick Tribune Foundation, and a member of the board of Media General, which owns newspapers and broadcast stations. Last June, BlockShopper Chicago reported that FitzSimons and his wife had paid $2.625 million for a three-bedroom condo at 800 North Michigan Avenue.

UPDATE: Dennis Rodkin has since heard from Mr. FitzSimons, and he declined to comment.

Photograph: Chicago Tribune