FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, Feb. 1, 2001

Media General Board Elects James Zimmerman Corporate Vice President

RICHMOND, Va. — The Board of Directors of Media General has elected James A. Zimmerman a corporate vice president. Zimmerman has been president of Media General's Broadcast Division since 1996.

"Media General has realigned its organizational structure as part of its strategy to roll out our convergence business model in all of our markets," said J. Stewart Bryan III, chairman and chief executive officer. "We launched our new Interactive Media Division on Jan. 1., and we are relocating our Broadcast Division from Tampa to Richmond in the third quarter of this year. This will enable our three operating divisions — Publishing, Broadcast and Interactive Media — to work together more effectively."

Media General's reorganization also has included the sale of its Cable Division in October 1999 and the divestiture of its Newsprint Division in August 2000.

The company's other divisions are led by H. Graham Woodlief, president of the Publishing Division and corporate vice president, and Neal F. Fondren, president of the Interactive Media Division and corporate vice president. Woodlief has been with the company since 1962, and Fondren joined the company on Jan. 5.

Zimmerman started with Media General in 1975 as director of internal audit. He moved to Tampa in 1976 as comptroller of WFLA-TV, where he was promoted to president and general manager in 1990. Zimmerman became president of the Broadcast Division in 1996.

"Our three division presidents have the experience and leadership needed to transform our company into a fully converged media enterprise," Bryan said. "Each division will learn from the others. They will share resources — including technology, information and ideas."

About Media General
Media General is an independent, publicly owned communications company situated primarily in the Southeast with interests in newspapers, television, interactive media, and diversified information services. Media General's publishing assets include The Tampa Tribune, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Winston-Salem Journal, and 22 other daily newspapers in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina, as well as nearly 100 weeklies and other periodicals and a 20 percent interest in The Denver Post. Media General's 26 network-affiliated television stations reach more than 30 percent of the television households in the Southeast, and nearly 8 percent of those in the United States.