R.I.P.: Media General Chairman John Stewart Bryan

John Stewart Bryan III

John Stewart Bryan III, Chairman of the Board of Media General, Inc., died in Richmond, VA yesterday.  Bryan was 77 years old. His death resulted from complications related to neck injuries sustained in a fall on January 15, 2016.

During Mr. Bryan’s more than 50-year career in the local media business, he worked as a newspaper journalist, served as Publisher of four newspapers, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond News Leader, The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times, and rose to become Chairman, President and Chief Executive of Media General. Mr. Bryan believed strongly in a free press and was proud to call himself a “newspaperman.” He often said he “enjoyed almost every day” that he spent working in the media business.

Mr. Bryan was born in Richmond on May 4, 1938. He served on active duty as an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1960 to 1962, and went to law school at the University of Virginia for one year (1962-63).

He was elected to the board of directors of Media General in 1974, vice chairman and executive vice president in 1985, and chairman, president and chief executive in July 1990. In 2005 he relinquished his duties as publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and as chief executive of Media General, and continued to serve as chairman of the board.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Bryan held summer jobs in the mailing room and circulation departments of The Richmond News Leader from 1954-1957. He went to work full-time as an ad salesman for The Burlington (VT) Free Press in 1963, and as a reporter for The Tampa (FL) Times in 1965, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1967. He covered sessions of the Florida and Virginia legislatures in 1967 and 1968. He returned to Florida as vice president of The Tribune Co. in Tampa in 1968, became executive vice president in 1971 and was named publisher of The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Times in 1976. He moved to Richmond in 1978 as president and publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Richmond News Leader. Those two newspapers merged in 1992.

Media General entered the television business in 1955 when it launched WFLA-TV in Tampa, Florida, as an NBC affiliate, and the company also had radio stations in Richmond and Tampa. Richmond Newspapers, Inc. became a public company in 1966 and the company changed its name to Media General in 1969. After that, the company grew for many years through acquisition of newspapers and television stations, principally in the Southeast. Media General was an early pioneer of the digital media business and in 1994 The Tampa Tribune launched an Internet online service called Tampa Bay Online. In 2012, Media General implemented an historic transformation of its business when it sold the vast majority of its newspapers to World Media Enterprises, Inc., a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. Following the sale, the company has focused on local broadcast television and digital media. In 2013, Media General combined with Young Broadcasting and increased its number of stations from 18 to 31. In 2014, Media General combined with LIN Media and increased its number of stations from 32 to 71.