Lamar Advertising Company, one of North America’s major outdoor advertising businesses, has been in the advertising industry since 1902.
They have billboards in over 100,000 locations across North America, including zoos and airports. So, who is the owner of Lamar Advertising Company?
What exactly is the Lamar Advertising Company?
Lamar Advertising Company is a company that specializes in outdoor advertising in the United States.
Its present headquarters are in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Lamar owns or operates about 150 billboards in the United States, particularly in major cities such as Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, Orlando, and Philadelphia. In addition, the corporation owns advertising media in 18 countries, including Canada, England, France, and Switzerland.
What services does Lamar Advertising Company provide?
Lamar offers a diverse selection of billboards and signage, ranging from classic billboards to cutting-edge digital LED displays. Lamar has invested over 11 million dollars on high-tech LED signage in non-traditional venues such as stadiums, rest stops, and retail stores during the last few years. These include adverts spotted on milk cartons at the grocery store, at petrol stations, and on shopping center seats.

Today, Lamar offers a wide range of billboard and signage alternatives to advertising, while smaller, more targeted businesses like Clear Channel provide comparable services.
Lamar Advertising Company has grown with the changes in order to provide new products and technology to its clients. According to Lamar’s website, they have been a “leader in digital technology since its start” and have contributed to the development of the rapidly changing business.
Lamar provides LED and LCDs, as well as novel features like as video capabilities, flexible copy, changing messages fast, changing graphics every few seconds, and drawing power from solar panels. This signs can be purchased or rented by advertising.
Who is the owner of Lamar Advertising Company?
J.P. Millner is the president of Lamar Advertising Company, which he took over after his father, Eddy Lamar, died in 1988.
Since 1997, J.P. Millner has led the company’s growth into digital billboards and electronic media.
Who founded the Lamar Advertising Company?

Claud “Tex” Lamar created the Lamar Advertising Firm as a billboard company in Beaumont, Texas, in 1902. Tex started the business with only $50 and six signs.
Since Tex Lamar founded the firm in 1902, Lamar Advertising Company has promoted on billboards. His first board was an advertising for the local hardware shop, which paid him ten dollars per month in rent.
When the rent on his new sign was increased, Tex concluded that renting an advertisement was more profitable than creating signs or metal advertisements. He began renting out board space to local businesses. Because the contracts were not long-term and had no fixed boundaries, Lamar Advertising expanded their services.
Lamar Advertising’s net worth
Lamar’s fourth-quarter 2019 net revenues fell 7.4 percent to $462 million, but operating income grew to 141 million dollars from 138 million last year ($6 more).
In 2020, net income per diluted share was 1.08, while this figure increased to 102 Million/Diluted. Shares matched with December 31st endings were transacted over two days, Monday and Tuesday, with remarkable success reaching us here at Lamar Automotive Systems Incorporated.
Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $207.9 million, a 3% decline from the previous year’s figure of 215.6 million.
Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2020 was $207.9 million, a 3% decline from the same period the prior year.
Due to growing expenditures and reduced revenue that fell short of projections, the company’s adjusted net income was $637 thousand dollars less than what they predicted in their 2019 budget.
Who are Lamar Advertising’s rivals?
There are several sorts of outdoor advertising firms to choose from.
The following are Lamar’s main rivals:
- OUTFRONT Media Inc. (OUT): Outfront Media is a New York Stock Exchange-listed firm that owns, operates, and rents digital billboards in over 100 US locations.
- Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. (CCO): Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. owns billboard advertising space in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, and Peru and has over 2,000 offices in over 50 countries.
- Trinity Mirror (TNI): Trinity Mirror is a British publishing and media firm that owns the publications The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror. It also provides marketing services to other businesses and organizations, and its affiliate Highway Locater Ltd. operates digital billboard advertising space in the United Kingdom and Europe.
- Titan Outdoor (TWO): Titan Outdoor is a publicly traded company that operates billboards in the United States, Europe, and Australia, as well as provides advertising space to other businesses and organizations through its subsidiaries Titan Media LLC, Titan Media International Ltd., and Millenium Outdoors Ltd.
- Regency Outdoor Advertising Inc. (RAIL): Regency Outdoor Advertising Inc. is a publicly traded company that owns and leases digital billboards across the United States, Canada, and South America and provides advertising space to other businesses through its subsidiaries Regency Media LLC, Regency Real Estate Holdings LLC, and Regency Digital Interactive LLC.
- Outdoor Advertising Group of America (OAAA): The OAAA is a non-profit trade association in the United States that promotes for the commercial advertising sector. The organization collaborates with advertisers, media businesses, and outdoor advertising firms to promote the benefits of outdoor advertising at the national, state, and local levels.
Lamar Advertising Company’s History

Development from 1902 to 1958
James O. Lamar and Joseph R. Lamar founded “The Sabine Pass Beacon”, a weekly that still exists today as the West Beaumont Journal, in 1902. They broadened their newspaper interests by joining the newspaper delivery industry and developing new routes.
They purchased an existing manufacturing company and utilized it to launch an outdoor advertising firm to better service their increasing advertising customer base. Soon after, they bought their first billboard and established Lamar Advertising Company.
Lamar’s continuing success enabled the firm to expand its operations to other Gulf Coast communities. Lamar had evolved into one of Louisiana’s major outdoor advertising enterprises by 1930, with over 50 workers and yearly net earnings of $250,000.
After developing “skyscraper” billboards by installing some of America’s first six sheets along highways in New Orleans and Baton Rouge in the 1930s, Joe Lamar’s Lamar Advertising Company began to grow tremendously. The firm ended the decade with over 100 workers and yearly sales approaching $1 million.
As World War II took shape across Europe in the early 1940s, Lamar’s outdoor advertising business flourished as a result of defense-related contracts to create billboards and posters to increase awareness for the war.
By the conclusion of the decade, Lamar Advertising had grown to become one of America’s premier outdoor advertising agencies, with significant expansion into new areas.
Lamar Advertising saw significant expansion in the 1950s, with annual revenues approaching $10 million.
Joe Lamar extended operations into smaller locations such as Waco and Lake Charles, in addition to their new markets in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Joe’s son, James “Jimmy” H. Lamar, began to take over the family business in the 1960s. Lamar Advertising Company had approximately 500 outdoor advertising faces in five states by 1965.
1958-1989: New Expansion and New Directions
Lamar has grown to over 1,300 people and businesses throughout the southern United States by 1980. Shortly after Jimmy was appointed CEO in 1981, he launched a massive expansion into a number of new cities, including New York City and Chicago. He also expanded Lamar’s transportation section by negotiating for it to grow into mass transit and, subsequently, “wayfinding” for airports and major campuses.
1989-2022: Additional Expansion and New Looks
Lamar Advertising Company moved into new locations such as Las Vegas and Seattle in the 1990s and began erecting more interstate billboards to attract more customers. In addition, the corporation built a new shop to oversee activities in the fast expanding “digital sign” market.
Joe Lamar died in 2001 at the age of 95. During his 49-year employment, he was recognized as an innovator and one of the company’s most innovative executives. Lamar had evolved into the largest outdoor advertising firm in the United States at the time, with annual revenues of $800 million.
Now ranked third among Billboard’s Top 50 Outdoor Companies
Lamar Advertising Company is placed third on Billboard’s Top 50 Outdoor Firms and is one of the major outdoor advertising companies in Canada, Australia, Europe, and New Zealand. Lamar continues to broaden its market base by expanding into new business sectors beyond than traditional outdoor, such as transportation and digital.