Thomas Silvestri

On Jan. 1, 2005, Mr. Silvestri became president and publisher of The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Media General’s second largest newspaper. Earlier he was a vice president for Media General and then a senior vice president after serving for 2½ years in the pioneering role as director of news synergy and Newsbank editor at the Richmond-based company. He then was promoted to president of Media General Inc.’s community newspapers and was responsible for 20 daily newspapers and more than 25 weeklies in five Southeastern states -- Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and northern Florida -- as well as Virginia Business, a statewide magazine. A journalist for more than 25 years, Mr. Silvestri is a former deputy managing editor of the Times-Dispatch, where he moved through a series of front-line editing and management positions, helped create three news departments and several stand-alone sections, and launched a training program that attracted national attention for its breadth and reality-based approach. While he was the senior editor for business news, the paper’s business section was judged best in the state by the Virginia Press Association and one of the best sections in the country by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Before joining The Times-Dispatch, he was a reporter and editor for the Gannett Westchester (N.Y.) Newspapers. He is an advisor to the Virginia Press Association where he helped create the Virginia Writers’ Workshop. He is a past president of the Virginia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has a master’s degree in business administration from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he is past president of the Business School’s alumni board, and a bachelor of arts in literature and communications (minor in accounting) from Pace University in New York, where he was the editor of the student newspaper, new morning. Mr. Silvestri has attended two API seminars: Business and Economic Coverage (1990) and Strategic Leadership: Making Radical Change Happen (2006). He is a member of the API Board of Directors.