page_title: Morris Communications
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Morris Communications / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Florida Times-Union Headquarters Building, Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
context_page_description: Morris Communications, headquartered in Augusta, Georgia, is a privately held media company with diversified holdings that include magazine publishing, outdoor advertising, book publishing and distribution, visitor publications, and online services. Today, the Georgia-based enterprise reaches across the nation, has holdings in Europe, and employs 6,000 people.
  Morris is also the publisher of The Milepost, a travel guide covering Alaska and northwestern Canada.
  Morris Communications is separate from Morris Multimedia, which was founded by Charles H. Morris, a member of the same family that founded Morris Communications. Morris Communications is also the parent company to Morris Media Network. Morris Media Network consists of city magazines and special interest magazines including travel. Underneath the Morris umbrella is also CitySpin, and event marketing and ticket platform.
context_section_description: 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, 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 1995, they expanded into Kansas by acquiring Stauffer Communications, which had a portfolio of newspapers and TV and radio stations. They added travel guides starting with the acquisition of Best Read Guide Franchise Corp. in 1997, and added Guest Informant in 2001 the acquired The London Guide and the be IN seriesfrom the publishers NBC in London, making it the largest visitor publication co. worldwide, they then expanded in 2003 with the take over of Where in 2004. Morris Visitor Publications has since grown to become the company's second-largest division. Another subsidiary, Morris Publications Ltd. UK, was created in 1998, when Cadogan Guides of London was purchased. They also 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 publishes 12 daily, 11 non-daily, and numerous free community newspapers in the United States. MPG sold 14 daily newspapers and 3 non-daily newspapers to GateHouse Media in 2017.
  In November 2019, the company announced that Craig S. Mitchell, treasurer and chief financial officer, has now been named president and CEO. Mitchell will continue as company treasurer in addition to being the new CEO.
caption: The Florida Times-Union Building located in Jacksonville, Florida
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ExifOffset": "78", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2232", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1673", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}