Business, Media and Culture 2019
Mississippi's Top 50 Most Influential
While big media newspapers are tanking around the country, Wyatt Emmerich is quietly growing community newspapers statewide. From that perch he’s been a staple of media accountability researching and editorializing on topics such as cronyism. He was one of the loudest media voices on the Kemper Power Plant.
Wyatt Emmerich is publisher of the Northside Sun, a suburban weekly newspaper that covers North Jackson. The Northside Sun, with 10,000 subscribers, is one of the largest weekly newspapers in Mississippi. Wyatt Emmerich is also president of the Emmerich Newspapers, which consists of three daily newspapers in McComb, Greenville and Greenwood and 21 weekly publications scattered throughout the state. He has won dozens of awards for his writing and his publications both locally and nationally.
Wyatt was born in McComb, Mississippi, where his grandfather, the late Oliver Emmerich, was the publisher of the Enterprise-Journal for 50 years. His father, the late John Emmerich, was the publisher of the Greenwood Commonwealth for 20 years. Wyatt was graduated from Greenwood High School in 1976 and was graduated from Harvard College in 1980 where he was editor of the university paper, The Harvard Crimson. Wyatt also has a masters degree in business from UCLA. He has been a reporter for the Greenwood Commonwealth, Cocoa Today in Florida, the Dallas Times Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He worked on Wall Street with Merrill Lynch as an investment banker to the newspaper industry. Prior to that he was a senior analyst for strategic planning at the New York Times Company.
He has been a Rotarian for 25 years and is former president of the Rotary Club of North Jackson. He is president of the Jackson-based Clean Water for Malawi, which has drilled or repaired over 400 water wells in Africa, bringing fresh water to over 250,000 villagers. He has served as vice president of the River Hills Tennis Club. He as served on several other boards including the Salvation Army and the Metro Crime Commission, where he was co-chairman.