Paul Neely
Paul Neely is the former publisher of The Chattanooga Times. He holds a Master of Science in Journalism and a Master of Business Administration, both from Columbia. He earned his undergraduate degree from Williams College in 1968. Neely has worked at papers in Riverside, CA, Louisville, KY and St. Petersburg, FL. He and his reporting partner in Riverside were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting in 1973. In 1982 he was President of the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. He became Managing Editor of The Chattanooga Times in 1983. In 1992, he was named publisher, the first person outside the Ochs/Sulzberger family to hold that title since Adolph S. Ochs bought the paper in 1878. Neely is currently engaged in various civic and educational activities. For more than a decade, he has served on the Board of Visitors of Columbia Journalism School. When that Board was more formally reconstituted in 2014, he became its Chair and served in that role until 2019. He is Co-Chair of the School’s portion of the Columbia Commitment capital campaign and has longstanding involvement with its advancement and strategic planning. In 2015 he received the Founder’s Award for service to the School.