Joseph Bryan purchased The News Leader from Williams and died shortly thereafter. John Stewart Bryan succeeded his father as publisher of the Times-Dispatch and The News Leader.

In the following years, Richmond’s products and influence spread as railroad transportation became faster and more dependable. Deadlines for newspaper editions often were determined by the schedules of trains that carried the papers throughout the state.

In the peaceful years before World War I, when the city’s population was about 127,000, the newspapers changed hands twice.

Through the boom of the ’20s and the depression of the ’30s, the newspapers went their separate ways. John Stewart Bryan was publisher of The News Leader. The Times-Dispatch had a succession of publishers that included Charles P. Hasbrouck, Mark Etheridge and John Dana Wise.

OTHER KEY EVENTS:

1914

The Times-Dispatch was sold to three families.

1927

John Stewart Bryan purchased The Tampa Tribune in 1927 in partnership with Samuel Emory Thomason.

The News Leader and the competing Times-Dispatch formed Richmond Newspapers, Inc. The Bryan family owned 54 percent of the new company while the three families that had owned the Times-Dispatch held a 46 percent interest.

OTHER KEY EVENTS:

On August 30, WRNL radio station was founded by Richmond Newspapers, Inc.