USA Today Founder, Al Neuharth, Dies

Used new technology to revolutionize an industry

Allen H. Neuharth, the newspaper visionary and former Gannett chairman who founded USA TODAY, helped create a museum dedicated to news and became one of the industry's most influential and sometimes controversial figures, died Friday at his home in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He was 89.

"As a journalist, I had a wonderful window on the world" Neuharth wrote in "Plain Talk," a final column he said should be published in USA TODAY after his death. "For nearly 50 years as a reporter and editor, I tried to tell stories accurately and fairly, without opinion."

It was fitting that Neuharth would try to have the last word, even on the topic of his own passing. The longtime newspaperman, media executive and columnist died after sustaining injuries in a fall at his home.