July 16, 2025
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People first: Retiring Shaw Media CEO reflects on legacy

Shaw Media CEO Tom Shaw, will retire toward the end of May, and says the company's success over the years is a direct reflection of putting employees first. “A big part of what I’ve accomplished, if there’s a legacy, is that: for Shaw to be legendary because of the commitment to the excellence of our people," he said. (Alex T)

Shaw Media CEO Tom Shaw, will retire toward the end of May, and says the company's success over the years is a direct reflection of putting employees first. “A big part of what I’ve accomplished, if there’s a legacy, is that: for Shaw to be legendary because of the commitment to the excellence of our people," he said. (Alex T)

Shaw Media CEO Tom Shaw, will retire toward the end of May, and says the company's success over the years is a direct reflection of putting employees first. “A big part of what I’ve accomplished, if there’s a legacy, is that: for Shaw to be legendary because of the commitment to the excellence of our people," he said. (Alex T)

Shaw Media CEO Tom Shaw, who will retire toward the end of May, sits between portraits of his late great-great grandfather, Benjamin Flower Shaw, the company's founder, and his late great-grandfather, Eustace Shaw, during an interview Thursday at Sauk Valley Media. Shaw says the company's success over the years is a direct reflection of putting employees first. “A big part of what I’ve accomplished, if there’s a legacy, is that: for Shaw to be legendary because of the commitment to the excellence of our people," he said. (Alex T)

Shaw Media CEO Tom Shaw is close to retirement. (Alex T)

Then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan speaks with Tom Shaw (middle) and his brother, Ben, in 1975 in Chicago. Tom's grandfather, Ben Shaw, was so impressed with the president that he suggested an editorial urging him to run for president. (Submitted)

Tom Shaw takes a photo of fellow Dixonites, all of them sporting white cowboy hats with "I'm from Dixon, Illinois" written on the purple band, during Ronald Reagan's 1981 inauguration in Washington, D.C. (Submitted)

Shaw (second from right in top photo and far right in bottom photo) and friends went on three 5-day horseback rides through the mountains of Durango, Colorado, in the early-1980s. Among notable celebrities he met was John Denver. (Submitted)

Tom and Tammy Shaw exit their former Dixon house during the wedding of their son, Ben. (Submitted)

Tom Shaw and two of his sons, J. Tom and Ben, in the old Shaw Media corporate office around 2010. J. Tom is the general manager of the company's Suburban group, and Ben, the company's former chief digital officer, is now global advisory director of World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers in Germany. (Submitted)

The majority of the Shaw family have their portrait taken last summer along the lakefront in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. (Submitted)

Tom Shaw

John Rung

Sam Fisher publisher