Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> March 3, 2002
ROBERT W. DECHERD is Chairman of the Board, President and Chief
Executive Officer of Belo Corporation. He has worked for Belo since his
graduation in 1973 from Harvard College, where he was President of The
Harvard Crimson. Mr. Decherd began his career with Belo at The Dallas
Morning News. He was appointed assistant to the executive editor of The
Morning News in 1976 and in 1978 became Belo's first corporate staff
executive. Beginning in 1979, Mr. Decherd served successively as Vice
President, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the
company. He was named Belo's President and Chief Operating Officer in
1985 and became Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1987. In leading
Belo's evolution as a publicly held company in the 1980s, Mr. Decherd
created the foundation for one of the largest media companies in the
United States. With the $1.8 billion acquisition of The Providence
Journal Company in 1997, Belo emerged as one of America's premier news-
gathering and advertising sales organizations. Today, Belo owns four
daily newspapers, 18 television stations, and six local cable news
channels. It also manages two television stations through local
marketing agreements. Belo is a Fortune 1000 company with 8,000
employees and $1.4 billion in 2001 revenues. Profile
company today?
Mr. Decherd: We are a mid-cap television broadcasting/ newspaper
publishing company that has extended
