Kenai Peninsula Online - About the Peninsula Clarion

   Morris Communications is a privately held media company with diversified holdings that include newspaper and magazine publishing, outdoor advertising, radio broadcasting, book publishing and distribution, computer services, and online services. Newspapers are the foundation and core business of the company owned by the Morris family since 1945. Today the Georgia-based enterprise reaches across the nation, has holdings in Europe and employs 6,000 people.Morris Communications Corporation traces its roots to a single newspaper in Augusta, Ga., and from that modest beginning has grown into one of the largest mid-sized media companies in the United States.

    A private, family-owned company, Morris Communications Corporation was established in 1970, descending from a corporate structure dating to the 1800s. It has diversified and grown, adding significantly to its status as a media leader with the purchase of its largest newspaper (in Jacksonville, Fla.) in 1983 and its purchase of Topeka, Kan.-based Stauffer Communications Inc., completed in 1995.
    Morris’ diversified holdings include 30 daily newspapers, nine nondaily newspapers, an outdoor advertising company, 27 radio stations and three radio networks, two book publishing and distribution companies (including one in London), 16 tourist publications (including two in London) with franchises of 11 others, 20 magazines and specialized publications, 19 free community papers, a direct marketing company, two commercial printing operations, an online services division and computer service operations. It also is involved in event marketing.
    William S. Morris III is chairman and chief executive officer, and William S. Morris IV is president.
    The Morris family became involved with The Augusta Chronicle in 1929 when 26-year-old William S. Morris Jr., father of today’s CEO, became its bookkeeper. Within a few years he was president of
the Chronicle Publishing Co. and publisher of the newspaper.
    In 1945 Morris and a friend purchased controlling interest in the newspaper, and in 1955 Morris and his wife purchased the remaining outstanding stock of the Chronicle, as well as the Augusta
Herald, the city’s afternoon newspaper. And thus began the growth.