Newspaper Exec, Weather Channel Founder Frank Batten Dies

Frank Batten, who built a communications empire that spanned newspapers and cable television and created The Weather Channel, has died. He was 82. Batten was the retired chairman of privately held Landmark Communications and a former chairman of the board of The Associated Press.

AP
Published: September 10, 2009

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NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Frank Batten, who built a communications empire that spanned newspapers and cable television and created The Weather Channel, has died. He was 82.

Batten was the retired chairman of privately held Landmark Communications and a former chairman of the board of The Associated Press.

Landmark vice chairman Richard F. Barry III says Batten died early Thursday in Norfolk, Va., after a prolonged illness.

The visionary executive earned a reputation for spotting media trends and was in the forefront of development of cable television in the 1960s.

He developed The Weather Channel, based in Atlanta, in the 1980s while other media leaders scoffed. In 2008, Landmark sold the channel to NBC Universal and two private equity firms for $3.5 billion.