Morris Communications, headquartered in

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Geor ...

, is a privately held media company with diversified holdings that include magazine publishing, outdoor advertising, book publishing and distribution, visitor publications, and online services. Morris Communications is the parent company to Morris Media Network. Morris Media Network consists of city magazines and special interest magazines including travel. Morris brands include Alaska Magazine,

American Angler ''American Angler'' is a magazine dedicated to the subject of fly fishing, with an emphasis on cold water fisheries, published six times a year. It bills itself as a "how to, where to" magazine focusing on technical fly-fishing informational art ...

Skirt! ''Skirt!'' is a monthly women's magazine published in Charleston, South Carolina. It was founded in 1994. History ''skirt!'' was founded in 1994 by Nikki Hardin, a freelance writer living off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina. Longing to ...

, The Milepost, Western Horseman, and the

Where Where may refer to: * Where?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * where (command), a shell command * Where (SQL), a database language clause * Where.com, a provider of location-based applications via mobile phones * ''Where'' (magazine), a serie ...

series for travelers. Morris Communications is separate from

Morris Multimedia Morris may refer to: Places Australia *St Morris, South Australia, place in South Australia Canada * Morris Township, Ontario, now part of the municipality of Morris-Turnberry * Rural Municipality of Morris, Manitoba ** Morris, Mani ...

, which was founded by Charles H. Morris, a member of the same family that founded Morris Communications.

History

William S. Morris Jr. began working in the media industry in 1929 when he got a job as a bookkeeper at The '' Augusta Chronicle''. He and his wife bought stock in the paper in 1945 and founded Southeastern Newspapers, Inc. They bought the remaining shares of the ''Chronicle'' in 1955 and expanded with the purchase of the ''Augusta Herald''. Their son William S. "Billy" Morris III joined the company in 1956. Additional newspapers in Georgia were added in the coming years. Billy was appointed President of the company in 1966, and the name was changed to Morris Communications Corp. in 1970. The company continued to expand, adding interests radio and television as well as newspapers in Alaska, Florida, and Texas. The company purchased Florida Publishing Co., owners of '' The Florida Times-Union'' and ''

The St. Augustine Record ''The St. Augustine Record'' is a daily morning newspaper published in St. Augustine, Florida. The newspaper was founded in 1894 and is owned by Gannett as of November 2019. During the 1920s the Record Company, as it was then named, publishe ...

'', on January 1, 1983. The company expanded into outdoor advertising in 1985 with the purchase of Naegele Outdoor Advertising, which they renamed Fairway Outdoor Advertising in 1991. In 1995, they expanded into Kansas by acquiring Stauffer Communications, which had a portfolio of newspapers and TV and radio stations. They added

travel guide A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

s starting with the acquisition of Best Read Guide Franchise Corp in 1997, and added ''Guest Informant'' in 2001. They acquired ''The London Guide and the be IN series'' from the publishers NBC in London. They then expanded with the takeover of ''

'' in 2004. Another subsidiary, Morris Publications Ltd. UK, was created in 1998, when Cadogan Guides of London was purchased. They acquired ''London This Week'', renaming it the ''London Planner''. Morris Publishing Group (MPG) was formed in 2001 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Morris Communications to handle the newspaper side of the corporation. MPG published twelve

daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

s, eleven non-daily papers, and numerous free community newspapers in the US. In 2017, the MPG division and its portfolio of newspapers was sold to GateHouse Media for $120M. Included in the sale were Augusta Chronicle,

Savannah Morning News The ''Savannah Morning News'' is a daily newspaper in Savannah, Georgia. It is published by Gannett. The motto of the paper is "Light of the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry". The paper serves Savannah, its metropolitan area, and parts of Sou ...

, Athens Banner-Herald, Florida Times-Union,

St. Augustine Record ''The St. Augustine Record'' is a daily morning newspaper published in St. Augustine, Florida. The newspaper was founded in 1894 and is owned by Gannett as of November 2019. During the 1920s the Record Company, as it was then named, publishe ...

, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Amarillo Globe-News,

Topeka Capital-Journal ''The Topeka Capital-Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Topeka, Kansas, owned by Gannett. History The paper was formed following numerous name changes and mergers, including the merger of ''The Topeka Daily Capital'' and ''The Topeka State Jo ...

, Log Cabin Democrat, Juneau Empire, and Peninsula Clarion.

Challenges

With the decline of the newspaper industry, Morris Communications cut employee wages in 2009 to prevent further layoffs. In 2010, Morris Publishing Group filed a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization with $415 million in debt. On May 18, 2015, Morris announced that it had sold its 36 radio stations to Alpha Media. On October 14, 2015, it was revealed that Morris Communications Company VP of audience sent a company-wide email to maintain specific editorial positions to make a political point. This has put the organization into question relating to its ethics. Further issues arose with Morris Communications' failure to respond for comment. In 2004, Morris unsuccessfully brought suit against

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

, alleging that PGA Tour violated section 2 of the Sherman Act, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 2, by monopolizing the markets for (1) the publication of compiled real-time golf scores on the Internet, and (2) the sale, or syndication of those scores. In addition, Morris alleged that PGA Tour further violated section 2 of the Sherman Act by refusing to deal with Morris. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of PGA Tour because it found, ''inter alia'', that PGA Tour had a valid business justification for its actions.

References

External links

* {{Morris Communications Companies based in Augusta, Georgia Mass media companies of the United States Mass media in Augusta, Georgia 1945 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) American companies established in 1945