With its newspaper division almost entirely out the door, Media General is taking its five-region organizational chart and paring it down to two, under two newly-elected corporate VPs.
James R. Conschafter and John R. Cottingham are the new VPs. A third, John A. Schauss, is retiring and two others, Marilyn Hammond and Dan Bradley, will be staying on with MG in as-yet unannounced positions.
Conschafter will have nine of the group’s 18 network affiliated stations, oriented to the northeast portion of the group’s geographical footprint, and Cottingham will take the southwestern nine.
Both will report to president/CEO Marshall N. Morton, who stated, “With our June 25 sale of newspapers, Media General is focusing all of its resources on its broadcast television group. We are delighted that our two most experienced broadcast executives will lead our television operations. I thank John Schauss for his many contributions to Media General and wish John and his wife, Joan, all the best in retirement. We are committed to increasing broadcast cash flow and EBITDA margins. One component of margin improvement will be the alignment of our corporate structure with our new business focus. The streamlining of our market structure and operations is a key first step in that process.”
The Conschafter group will consist of:
* WNCT-TV Greenville NC
* WNCN-TV Raleigh NC
* WCMH-TV Columbus OH
* WJAR-TV Providence RI
* WSPA-TV Spartanburg/Greenville SC
* WYCW-TV Asheville NC
* WBTW-TV Florence/Myrtle Beach SC
* WSLS-TV Roanoke VA
* WJHL-TV Johnson City TN
The Cottingham group will consist of:
* WVTM-TV Mobile AL/Pensacola FL
* WKRG-TV Birmingham AL
* WFLA-TV Tampa FL
* WJBF-TV Augusta GA
* WRBL-TV Columbus GA
* WSAV-TV Savannah GA
* WJTV-TV Jackson MS
* WHLT-TV Hattiesburg MS
* WCBD-TV Charleston SC
