William S. Morris III

Notable work and positions

Morris Communications Company, LLC - Founder and Chairman; former Chief Executive Officer
The Augusta Chronicle - Publisher (50 years)

Biography

William S. "Billy" Morris III joined the family newspaper business in 1956, a few days before his 22nd birthday, as assistant to the president of the company his father, William S. Morris Jr., had built around The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle. He became publisher of the Augusta Chronicle and president of the corporation a decade later, and in 1970 established Morris Communications Corporation, which supplanted the earlier Southeastern Newspapers Corp. Under his leadership the company diversified from newspaper publishing into magazines, book publishing, radio and television broadcasting, outdoor advertising and online services, growing to include the Florida Times-Union and papers in Georgia, Texas, Kansas and Alaska. Morris served as president of the Newspaper Association of America and on the board of directors of the Associated Press. He remained publisher of the Augusta Chronicle for 50 years and, in 2015, passed daily leadership of Morris Communications to his son, William S. Morris IV, while remaining chairman. He established the Morris Museum of Art and the William S. Morris Chair of Newspaper Strategy and Management at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism in memory of his parents.