Joe Allbritton, who led media empire, dies

McLEAN, Va. -- Joe L. Allbritton, who became one of Washington's most influential men through a media conglomerate of newspapers and television stations and a financial empire that once included Riggs Bank, died Wednesday. He was 87.

He was suffering from heart ailments and died at a hospital in Houston, where he lived.

Allbritton's fortune was self-made, beginning with real estate trades and banking investments. By age 33, he was a millionaire.

His media holdings included eight television stations in seven markets, including WJLA, the ABC affiliate in Washington whose call letters bear his initials. In an era of corporate media ownership, WJLA stood out as a family-owned station.

He owned the Washington Star from 1974 to 1978 before he was forced to sell the venerable newspaper to Time Inc. to comply with federal regulations governing cross-ownership of media platforms; it folded a few years later.

But decades later Allbritton watched with pride as his son Robert founded one of the successes of the new media era, Politico, a must-read online and print publication for political junkies.

Allbritton was a fixture on the D.C. social circuit. He and his wife, Barbara, socialized with Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and their wives. -- AP