FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 31, 2001

Cottingham Named General Manager of Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville Stations

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Media General’s Broadcast Division has named John Cottingham vice president and general manager of WSPA, WASV and WNEG, the company’s television stations in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville area.

“John is coming to us directly from one of the country’s best television stations, WIS-TV in Columbia, S.C.” said Jim Conschafter, a vice president in Media General’s Broadcast Division. “John came to Columbia in 1997 as general manager of WIS-TV, the flagship station of Cosmos Broadcasting Group.”

Cottingham joined Cosmos in 1985 as general sales manager of WTOL in Toledo, Ohio, and in 1994 he was named general manager of WFIE in Evansville, Ind. Cottingham’s vast experience includes seven years at the former WRET-TV (now WCNC) in Charlotte, N.C., where he worked as an account executive, local sales manager and general sales manager. He managed Group W’s Atlanta rep office for two years, and he was general sales manager of WGHP in High Point, N.C.

“John is a strong leader who understands the importance of being deeply involved in the community,” Conschafter said. “He has the experience and enthusiasm to take our stations to the next level in the Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville region.”

About Media General
Media General is an independent, publicly owned 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.