Frank Batten

Who was Frank Batten?

Frank Batten was a co-founder of the first nationwide, 24-hour cable weather channel, The Weather Channel. His media company, Landmark Media Enterprises, owns nine daily newspapers, more than 50 weekly newspapers, television stations in Las Vegas and Nashville, and a national chain of classified advertising publications.

Batten assumed leadership in 1954 of two newspapers, The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star in Norfolk, Virginia, parlaying those papers into a media conglomerate by acquiring other newspapers, radio stations, and television stations and establishing a cable outlet as well as the national cable weather channel. Until 2008, the company, Landmark Communications, now Landmark Media Enterprises, was one of the country’s largest privately held media companies.

Batten sold TeleCable in 1995 to TCI for $1 billion and the Weather Channel in 2008 to NBC Universal and two private equity firms for nearly $3.5 billion.

Batten served as chairman of the Associated Press from 1982 to 1987.