J. Stewart Bryan III, Media General chairman, has died
John Stewart Bryan III, who spent more than 50 years as the fourth and final generation of his family to work in the media business, died Saturday, Jan. 23.
Bryan, longtime chairman of Media General Inc. and former publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, suffered a fall at his home on Jan. 15 and had been hospitalized at Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital since then.
His death came at a time when Media General is in the middle of a sale. A bidding contest has emerged between Texas-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. and Iowa-based Meredith Corp. to merge with Media General.
Standing up to state and local governments and businesses trying to thwart the public's right to know was a hallmark of Bryan's career.
"If I have made any contribution, it has been being part of a newspaper that was trying to provide the right information for people to make up their own minds in the city of Richmond and central Virginia," Bryan said in an interview in October.
From 1978 to 2004, he served as publisher of The Times-Dispatch, the newspaper his great-grandfather acquired in 1887 and the one his father also served as publisher at for more than three decades.
Bryan, 77, took the reins of Media General in 1990 and grew the publicly traded company that his father had created in 1969 into a multimillion-dollar corporation that now only owns 71 television stations, including WRIC in Richmond. Media General exited the publishing business in 2012 when it sold its newspapers, including The Times-Dispatch, to a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
"We have kept an eye on government," Bryan said about the role that his newspapers and television stations have played. "I think the press has played an enormous role in the history of the United States. I have been a proud part of it."
Bryan served as Media General's board chairman since 1990 and was its CEO from 1990 to 2005. He had held a seat on the Richmond-based company's board since 1974.
Marshall N. Morton, Media General's former president and CEO, said Bryan believed media companies have an obligation to serve the public.
"It was fun working for a man who felt he had a duty to his company as opposed to someone who just worked for it," Morton said.
"He was so easy to work with that he drew people to him. People enjoyed the opportunity to bounce ideas off him. He created an atmosphere of collegiality. He stimulated a lot of fresh thinking. He was a great mentor."
Thomas A. Silvestri, president and publisher of The Times-Dispatch, said Bryan's death is a sad time for employees, retirees and readers of the newspaper.
"Mr. Bryan was an unabashedly strong supporter of the RTD and its journalists," said Silvestri, who succeeded Bryan as publisher in 2004. "Also, his personal connections to our diverse workforce, especially those employees who spent their entire careers at The Times-Dispatch, were deep. I've also lost a valued mentor whose lessons will never be forgotten and always appreciated."
The ever-so-genteel Southern gentleman known for his assortment of bow ties, Bryan said he felt he had been a newspaperman at heart his entire life.
"I did what I did because it was fun and it was unmitigated fun for the first 40 years, but the last 10 to 15 years, it is questionable about the fun portion," Bryan said in the October interview, noting that newspapers across the country have struggled in the past decade with declining advertising revenue brought on by the digital revolution, the recession and ensuing slow economy.
Survivors include his wife, Lisa-Margaret "Lissy" Stevenson Bryan; two daughters, Talbott Bryan Maxey and Anna Bryan Sullivan; and five grandchildren.
