FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001

Media General's WFLA-TV Wins Kudos for Journalism

TAMPA, Fla. — The Project for Excellence in Journalism, a Washington-based initiative to study the quality of local television news, has recognized WFLA-TV for providing the best TV journalism in the Tampa Bay region.

This year's study, which will be published in the upcoming issue of Columbia Journalism Review, rates Tampa as one of the two best markets nationally for high-quality television journalism.

"It's exciting to be called the best of the best by the Project for Excellence in Journalism," said WFLA News Director Forrest Carr, who credits his predecessor, Dan Bradley, for setting a higher standard of journalism at the station.

"Dan was the first TV news manager I ever heard speak of the value of substance vs. sensationalism, of detail vs. shorter stories, of relevance and meaning vs. flash and trash," Carr said. "He urged us to turn toward enterprise stories of substance and to focus on them in such a way as to provide context, meaning and relevance for our viewers."

Carr replaced Bradley as WFLA's news director several months after Bradley was promoted to vice president of news for Media General's Broadcast Division in November 2000.

"The fact that the Project for Excellence study took place in February, at a time when we were between news directors, shows how deeply engrained these values have become in the culture of our newsroom," Carr said. "It is a testament to the leadership, skill and passion of the journalists who work here."

WFLA is the top-rated station in Tampa and in the entire state of Florida. In the past two years, it has attracted national attention for its pioneering efforts to enhance news coverage by collaborating with The Tampa Tribune and Tampa Bay Online. Media Week recently placed WFLA on its list of "10 stations that do it right."

About Media General
Media General (NYSE: MEG) is an independent communications company situated primarily in the Southeast with interests in newspapers, television stations, interactive media and diversified information services. The company'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 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. The company's extensive interactive media offerings include more than 50 online enterprises. Media General also has a 33 percent interest in SP Newsprint Co., which operates newsprint mills in Dublin, Ga., and Newberg, Ore.