Michael Ferro Jr., a Chicago entrepreneur and the biggest shareholder in the newspaper publisher Tronc, has stepped down as the company’s chairman, Tronc announced Monday. The move came just weeks after Ferro helped negotiate the sale of Tronc’s crown jewel, the Los Angeles Times.

Justin Dearborn, the company’s chief executive, will replace Ferro as chairman.

Ferro will remain an investor in Tronc. But his decision to step down as chairman follows a period of intense public scrutiny.

Dissatisfaction at the Los Angeles Times spilled into public view early this year, with some employees at the paper fearing that Tronc and Ferro were making hires to try to form a separate unit that would sidestep a newsroom that had recently unionized.

Ross Levinsohn, who had been consulting for Tronc before becoming the publisher of the Times, was also placed on leave after National Public Radio reported that he had been accused of sexual harassment at two previous jobs.

After an investigation that Tronc said found no wrongdoing, Levinsohn was reinstated as chief executive of a newly formed division called Tribune Interactive.

In early February, Ferro orchestrated the sale of the Los Angeles Times to Patrick Soon-Shiong, a billionaire doctor in Los Angeles, for $500 million.

The deal, which is expected to close soon, also included the Times’ sibling paper, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and smaller publications in the California News Group.

“Michael retires having created considerable shareholder value for the company in just two years as chairman of the board,” Dearborn said in a statement.

A spokesman for Ferro, Dennis Culloton, said Ferro was “burned out” by his high profile and wanted to “go out on a win.”

An audacious businessman and former owner of The Chicago Sun-Times, Ferro became Tronc’s nonexecutive chairman in early 2016 after his fund, Merrick Ventures, invested $44 million in the company.

Almost immediately, he began to transform Tronc, the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and other newspapers.

During a lengthy takeover battle with Gannett, the publisher of USA Today, Ferro changed the company’s name from Tribune Publishing to Tronc, for Tribune online content, a move that was met with ridicule on the internet. He also introduced a technology-driven approach to journalism that included the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.