William S. Morris Iv

Will Morris became president of Morris Communications Co. in December 1996. He is the third generation of the Morris family to hold this position in the media business founded in 1945 by his grandfather, William S. Morris Jr., as Southeastern Newspapers Inc., in Augusta, Ga. His father, William S. Morris III, is chairman and chief executive officer of the company, which became Morris Communications in 1970.

In 2001, Morris was named president and chief executive officer of Morris Publishing Group, LLC, a newly formed subsidiary of the company that assumed the operations of the newspaper publishing division. In May of 2013, Morris became the CEO of Morris Venture Capital, a captive venture fund established to identify and nurture growing businesses.

On July 31, 2015 Morris was named chief executive officer of Morris Communications Company, LLC, succeeding his father as CEO. Morris has direct operational oversight of the company’s corporate operations and its business divisions.

Morris joined the company in 1990, and served in several positions, including general manager of The St. Augustine (Fla.) Record, general manager of Athens Magazine and publisher of the Athens Daily News and Athens Banner-Herald in Athens, Ga. In 1995, he returned to corporate headquarters as assistant to the president. Prior to 1990, Will worked for Gannett Outdoor Group in both San Diego and Phoenix, and for United Yellow Pages Inc., also in San Diego.

Active in his profession, Morris was a member of the board of directors of InsiderAdvantage.com and has served on the Associated Press Auditing Committee. He was formerly a member of the Board Committee on Industry Development of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) as well as the NAA Retail Council Board.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Emory University, Atlanta.