Oral History Interviews

Interview: Charles Meredith

Date of Interview: August 11, 2008
Place of Interview: Quakertown, Pennsylvania
Interviewer: Ford Risley

Biographical Summary
Charles M. Meredith III was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1935. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1957 with a bachelor’s degree in business. He worked for the Reading Eagle for a year before joining the staff of the Quakertown Free Press, which had been owned by his family since 1912. He held a variety of posts at the Free Press until he succeeded his father as publisher in 1969. He served on the board of directors of American Newspapers Publishers Association and as chairman of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publisher Association. He sold the Free Press to the Times Mirror Co. in 1996.

Interview Highlights
Meredith speaks about his family; about the family’s ownership of the Quakertown Free Press; about attending the University of Pennsylvania; about his career at the Free Press and the journalism the newspaper practiced; about his involvement with the American Newspapers Publishers Association and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publisher Association; about the changes in journalism, including family ownership of newspapers; and about the sale of the Free Press to the Times Mirror Co.

Complete Interview Charles Meredith III