Multimedia (media company)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Multimedia, Inc. is a now-defunct media company that owned 10 daily newspapers, three weekly newspapers, two radio stations, five television stations, and a cable television system division. The company was headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina.
It also owned TV syndicator Multimedia Entertainment (formerly Avco Embassy Television, which is now owned by NBC Universal Television).
Multimedia was founded in 1968, when the News-Piedmont Company of Greenville merged with Southern Broadcasting Corporation. The new company was comprised of four newspapers (two morning, two afternoon), three television stations and six radio stations. The company's biggest purchase came in 1976, when it bought WLWT in Cincinnati--and with it, the distribution rights to The Phil Donahue Show.
The company was involved in one of the more unusual media transactions in history. In 1983, it sold its flagship television station, WFBC-TV in Greenville (now WYFF) and WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Pulitzer, Inc. In return, Multimedia received Pulitzer's former flagship television station, KSD-TV in St. Louis (now KSDK). Multimedia used its new purchase as the testing ground for a new show hosted by Sally Jessy Raphaël.
Multimedia was acquired by Gannett in 1995.
In January 2000 the cable television division, which included systems in Kansas, Oklahoma and North Carolina was sold to Cox Communications in 2000. The North Carolina systems were resold to Suddenlink Communications in 2006.
