Business News

Media General Holds Annual Meeting of Stockholders

Friday 29. April 2011 - Media General, Inc. (NYSE: MEG) shareholders today re-elected 10 directors to one-year terms. Walter E. Williams retired from the Board after serving as a director since 2001.

Media General directors re-elected to the Board are: J. Stewart Bryan III, chairman; Scott D. Anthony, O. Reid Ashe, Jr., Diana F. Cantor, Dennis J. FitzSimons, Marshall N. Morton, Thompson L. Rankin, Rodney A. Smolla, Carl S. Thigpen and Coleman Wortham III.
J. Stewart Bryan III, chairman, said. “Dr. Walter Williams is retiring from our Board after 11 years of yeoman service. During most of that time, he has been the chairman of our Audit Committee, and he also has served on our Board’s Executive Committee. But these do not come close to conveying all that Walter has brought to our Board discussions and to this company. He has a very sharp mind and a keen wit. We will miss those, his judgment and his leadership.”
Marshall N. Morton, president and chief executive officer, reported on the state of the company. “We entered 2011 in a strong position. Our plans build on sales successes we achieved last year and will expand in new markets this year. We are serving our customers in many new ways wherever they are and however they want information. There is no doubt we are an industry in transition, particularly as to the ways we package and deliver our products. At the same time, the transformation largely permits growth at lower cost and in ways that allow us to develop new revenue streams and new customer bases.”
Mr. Morton outlined a number of the initiatives the company has undertaken in digital media, including mobile. “We have a wide array of new products and technology that are emblematic of our fast-changing business. At the same time, we are still an information company. The big difference today is the number of multimedia packages we employ to reach our existing and new audiences,” Mr. Morton said.
“As of April 15, our full-year Broadcast revenue was pacing 2 percent ahead of last year, despite the absence of elections, Olympics and Super Bowl advertising. The underlying Broadcast television business is strong and the momentum is expected to continue. Our television stations have been successful lining up new business this year to help replace last year’s Political revenues. Big drivers of this effort are incentive programs aimed at volume advertisers and themed programming targeted to particular advertiser categories. We look for early spending on political campaigns and issues, especially in the latter part of this year,” he said.
Mr. Morton said, “Our newspapers are working to mitigate overall softness in the business with a variety of new programs. Overall, our newspapers are focused on new small and medium-size advertisers and more sophisticated selling approaches. We continue to drive new sales with innovative campaigns and special sections, and our newspapers are using more incentive programs for volume advertisers.”