Jay Smith President Cox Newspapers, Inc. Chairman Center Advisory Board

Jay Smith, president of Cox Newspapers, Inc., is responsible for overseeing 18 daily newspapers, 30 non-daily newspapers and shoppers, as well as the company's interest in Val-Pak Direct Marketing Systems, Inc. (the nation's leader in cooperative direct mail advertising) and the Trader Publishing Company (producers of a national network of auto, truck, boating, employment and real estate advertising magazines).

Smith joined Cox in 1971 as a reporter at the Dayton (OH) Daily News, where he also worked as assistant city editor, assistant managing editor and business manager. He spent seven years as publisher of the Atlanta newspapers, and also has headed the Austin (TX) American-Statesman. Smith has been in the newspaper business since the age of 17 when he began his career as a reporter for The Cincinnati (OH) Post and worked on the national copy desk of the Wall Street Journal during the summer while in college.

Active in civic and professional organizations, Smith has chaired the board of United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta and has directed a number of fund-raising drives for nonprofit organizations, including a successful $37-million capital campaign for the Metro Atlanta Salvation Army, whose advisory board he has chaired. He is also a member of the Army's National Advisory Board. He chairs the board of Camp Twin Lakes (a summer camp for children with special needs) and serves on the boards of the Newspaper Association of America and the American Press Institute.

A native of Cincinnati, Smith is a 1971 graduate of the Ohio State University School of Journalism, where he has chaired the advisory committee of the OSU Journalism School. He earned an M.A. in public administration from the University of Dayton in 1975. Smith and his wife Susan (also an Ohio State graduate) have four children and reside in Atlanta.