Mountain Statesman
TypeThrice-weekly
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)News Media Corporation
PublisherNicki Skinner
Founded1870.[1]
Headquarters914 West Main St Grafton, Taylor County, WV 26354
Circulation1,710 (as of 2016)[2]
Websitemountainstatesman.com

The Mountain Statesman is a thrice-weekly newspaper serving the Grafton, West Virginia area.[3] Its 2016 circulation was 1,710.[4]

History

The Statesman began its life as the Grafton Sentinel, a publication that was only weeks old when editor and publisher James W. Holt took it over in 1870.[1] Holt, a 21 year old who had previously worked at the Preston County Journal, went through a series of partners but, aside from a short period of divestment from the paper in 1875, remained editor and publisher of the paper until 1893,[5] and returned to the management of the paper after a short tenure as the county's postmaster.[5]

As a staunchly Republican paper in a majority Democratic county, Holt's publication found surprising success. In 1903 Holt introduced the Daily Sentinel, an eight-page six column evening paper, to serve the growing city of Grafton.[1][6] Holt continued as publisher and editor until three years before his death, handing control of the paper to his son Howard H. Holt in 1915.[7][8] The younger son in turn passed it to his son, James F. Holt, on his death in 1936. James left the paper in 1948, selling it to Joseph Abey, a Pennsylvania publisher, after deciding to embark on a career in law.[8]

In 1946, at the age of just 20, Eldora Nuzum became editor of the Sentinel. At the time of her death, multiple local sources identified her as the first female editor of a daily newspaper in West Virginia.[9]

In the 1960s, the paper (and one of its reporters) were known for the Grafton Monster sighting.[10]

In 1975 the Sentinel ceased its daily publication schedule, changed its name to the Mountain Statesman, and moved to the three times a week schedule it uses today.[11]

It is owned by News Media Corporation, which bought the paper in the early 1970s.[12]

Resources

References

  1. 1 2 3 Men of West Virginia ... Biographical publishing Company. 1903.
  2. ↑ 2016 West Virginia Press Association Newspaper Directory (PDF). West Virginia Press Association. 2016.
  3. ↑ "Newspapers Currently Received in the West Virginia Archives and History Library" (PDF). West Virginia Division of Culture and History. State of West Virginia. December 2016.
  4. ↑ 2016 West Virginia Press Association Newspaper Directory (PDF). West Virginia Press Association. 2016.
  5. 1 2 Murphy, Robert E. (1905). Progressive West Virginians. Wheeling News. p. 291. James W. Holt Grafton Sentinel Kingwood.
  6. ↑ "Items". The Weekly Register. 25 March 1903.
  7. ↑ "James W. Holt Dies". The Fairmont West Virginian. 16 January 1918.
  8. 1 2 "Reading Man Buys Grafton Sentinel". Cumberland Evening Times. 17 November 1948.
  9. ↑ Associated Press (24 August 2004). "Longtime editor dies at 78 Nuzum was first woman to serve as editor for daily W.Va. newspaper". Charleston Daily Mail.
  10. ↑ Coleman, Loren (2001-12-01). Mothman and Other Curious Encounters. Cosimo, Inc. ISBN 9781616406110.
  11. ↑ Taylor County. Arcadia Publishing. 2000. ISBN 9780738505886.
  12. ↑ "Fire damages Grafton newspaper office office". Charleston Gazette. 5 September 2000.
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