From The Archives: Roy McDonald & The Chattanooga News Free Press
Chattanooga (WDEF) – On August 13th, the Tennessee Journalism Hall of Fame inducts its 3rd class.
The list includes three people with ties to Chattanooga.. Times editor John Popham, former WDEF TV personality & legislature correspondent Dru Smith, and the founder of the Free Press, Roy McDonald.
McDonald had the largest impact on his hometown.
He started as a paperboy and later became the owner (after a detour in the grocery business).
In 1990, we sat down the "Mr. Roy" to discuss his career in the Newspaper business.
He would die less than 2 months after this interview.
We have five parts to the interview, in which he talks about the history of the paper, how he got into it, and his philosophy that eventually won him the local newspaper war.
(Click on the links to the left for each of the stories)
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