Former 'Daily Messenger' Publisher George Ewing Sr. Dies at 87

By: Small-town newspaper publisher George Ewing Sr., who owned the Daily Messenger in Canandaigua for 47 years, has died in his adopted hometown in western New York. He was 87.

Ewing, a New York City native, bought the newspaper from the Waterbury family in 1959. He often wrote all the editorials himself and his hands-on style and business acumen came with a generosity of spirit and a sense of humor that endeared him to employees. His family says he died Wednesday.

With his son George Ewing Jr., who succeeded him as publisher in 1992, the Ewing family bought nine suburban weeklies serving Rochester's suburbs in 1996 and added a 10th in 1999. They sold the daily newspaper and its stable of weeklies to GateHouse Media Inc. in 2006 for an undisclosed price.