Belo to Establish Endowment in Honor of France A. Cordova

DALLAS, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Belo Corp. (NYSE: BLC) announced today that it plans to establish a $50,000 endowment to support the Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture founded by Howard H "Tim" Hays in 1966. The gift is made in honor of France A. Cordova, Ph.D., who served as a member of the Company's Board of Directors from 2003 to 2007.

Dr. Cordova resigned from the Belo Board in July 2007 due to increased time and schedule constraints in her new role as President of Purdue University. Dr. Cordova served as chancellor of the University of California, Riverside (UCR) from 2003 to 2007.

"We greatly regret that France's new position at Purdue occasioned her resignation from the Board of Directors," said Robert W. Decherd, Belo's chairman and chief executive officer. "France made numerous contributions to our Company during her tenure as a director, and her impact on UCR and the Riverside community has been profound. The Board of Directors and Management Committee of Belo are establishing this endowment as a way of recognizing France's many contributions to UCR and Riverside, as well as to note the importance of the Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture Series in an ever-changing media environment."

The Hays Press-Enterprise Lecture Series was initiated by Tim Hays, publisher and editor of The Press-Enterprise for more than four decades, in cooperation with UCR. The Lecture Series has long been recognized as an important forum for bringing national attention to relevant media issues. Since its founding in 1966, the Lecture has been delivered 39 times by leading journalists and commentators, a list of whom can be found below. Belo acquired The Press-Enterprise from the Hays family in 1996 and has invested heavily in the newspaper since then.

About Belo

Belo Corp. is one of the nation's largest media companies with a diversified group of market-leading television, newspaper, cable and interactive media assets. A Fortune 1000 company with 7,000 employees and $1.6 billion in annual revenues, Belo operates in some of America's most dynamic markets in Texas, the Northwest, the Southwest, the Mid-Atlantic and Rhode Island. Belo owns 20 television stations, six of which are in the 15 largest U.S. broadcast markets. The Company also owns or operates six cable news stations and manages one television station through a local marketing agreement. Belo's daily newspapers are The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal, The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) and the Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, TX). The Company also publishes specialty publications targeting young adults, and the fast-growing Hispanic market, including Quick and Al Dia in Dallas/Fort Worth, and El D and La Prensa in Riverside. Belo operates more than 30 Web sites associated with its operating companies. Additional information is available at http://www.belo.com or by contacting Paul Fry, vice president/Investor Relations & Corporate Communications, at 214-977-6835.

    Hays Press-Enterprise Lectures, 1966-2006
    2006     Karen Elliott House, senior vice president, Dow Jones & Company
    2004     Tom Curley, president and chief executive officer, The Associated
             Press
    2002     Gail Collins, editorial page editor, The New York Times
    2001     Bill Kovach, chairman, Committee of Concerned Journalists
    2000     Clarence Page, columnist, Chicago Tribune
    1999     Gregory Favre, vice president, news, The McClatchy Company
    1998     Tom Winship, former editor, The Boston Globe
    1997     Benjamin C. Bradlee, vice president at-large, The Washington Post
    1996     Gene Roberts, managing editor, The New York Times
    1995     William F. Woo, editor, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    1994     Tom Johnson, president, Cable News Network
    1993     C. Shelby Coffey III, editor and executive vice president, Los
             Angeles Times
    1992     Geneva Overholser, editor, The Des Moines Register
    1991     David Broder, political correspondent and columnist, The
             Washington Post
    1990     Everette E. Dennis, executive director, the Gannett Center for
             Media Studies
    1989     James K. Batten, president/chief executive officer, Knight Ridder
             Inc.
    1988     C.K. McClatchy, editor and chairman, McClatchy Newspapers
    1987     Vermont Royster, editor emeritus, The Wall Street Journal
    1986     Donald Trelford, editor, The Observer of London
    1985     Louis D. Boccardi, president/general manager, The Associated
             Press
    1984     Donald E. Graham, publisher, The Washington Post
    1983     Eugene C. Patterson, editor and president, St. Petersberg Times
    1982     Cushrow R. Irani, managing director, The Statesman newspapers
    1981     Richard S. Salant, vice chairman, NBC
    1980     Norman E. Isaacs, chairman, National News Council
    1979     John Hughes, editor, The Christian Science Monitor
    1978     George F. Will, syndicated columnist
    1977     Richard C. Wald, president, NBC News
    1976     Warren H. Phillips, president, Dow Jones & Company
    1975     James Reston, columnist, The New York Times
    1974     Eli Able, dean, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
    1973     Katherine Graham, president, The Washington Post Company
    1972     Tom Wicker, associate editor and columnist, The New York Times
    1971     Howard K. Smith, ABC News commentator
    1970     Osborn Elliott, editor-in-chief, Newsweek
    1969     Dennis Hamilton, editor-in-chief and chief executive, Times
             Newspapers Limited, London
    1968     Wes Gallagher, general manager, The Associated Press
    1967     John B. Oakes, editorial page editor, The New York Times
    1966     Louis M. Lyons, retired curator, Nieman Foundation of Harvard
             University