Matt Walsh

Notable work and positions

Observer Media Group — Founder and Chief Executive Officer (1995– )
Business Observer — Founding Editor (1997)
Former editor, Florida Trend Magazine; former business desk editor, Miami Herald

Biography

Matt Walsh is founder and CEO of Observer Media Group, a family-owned community and business media company based in Sarasota, Florida. He and his wife, Lisa Walsh, met at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, began their newspaper careers together at the Topeka Capital-Journal, and later worked at the Daily Register in Brookings, South Dakota. Walsh went on to hold newspaper leadership roles in Florida, including as an editor on the business desk at the Miami Herald in the early 1980s and as editor of Florida Trend Magazine in St. Petersburg. In March 1995, Walsh, his wife, her parents David and Ruth Beliles, and a small group of investors purchased the Longboat Observer from founders Ralph and Claire Hunter. Walsh launched the Business Observer in Sarasota in 1997, later expanding it to Tampa in 2001 and Fort Myers-Naples in 2005. Observer Media Group has since grown into a multimedia company publishing seven newspapers, four websites, and several magazines across Florida, with more than 100 employees. In 2019, Walsh was inducted into the Florida Newspaper Hall of Fame by the Florida Press Association. The company is now led in part by his daughter Emily Walsh, who serves as president and publisher of several of its publications, representing the fourth generation of the family in the newspaper business.