Months after the last newspaper closed in a declining coal community in West Virginia, residents say they are already experiencing challenges getting and sharing information.
Missy Nester owner of the The Welch News sits in front of the now closed office on Wednesday, May 31, 2023, in Welch, W.Va. In March, the weekly publication in McDowell County one of the poorest counties America became another one of the quarter of all U.S. newspapers that have shuttered since 2005, a crisis Nester called"terrifying for democracy" and one that disproportionately impacts rural America.
Local crises, like the desperately needed upgrade of water and sewer systems, are going unreported. And there is no one to keep disinformation in check, like when the newspaper published a series of stories that dispelled the rumors of election tampering at local precincts during last year’s May primaries.
Sarah Hall, the first Black prosecutor elected in McDowell County in the 1980s, said it’s tragic when any community loses its newspaper. But for communities like hers, it’s detrimental. For Nester and her staff of three, the grief of closing the paper has felt impossible to confront after years of sacrifices, both financial and personal. Nester took out a loan and scraped together all the money she could in 2018 to save it, the crumbling building with a caving roof, cracked walls and a 1966 Goss printing press in the basement.
Today, 80% of the 17,850 remaining residents are white, still making it one of West Virginia's most diverse counties. It's also the poorest, with some of the lowest graduation and life expectancy rates in the nation. A third of all McDowell County residents live in poverty. The per capita income is $15,474.
Dickerson, who delivered the paper when she was growing up, said losing the paper was like “losing a family member.” The paper was a vital platform for residents to tell their story from their perspective — a lifeline for a community that’s often been misrepresented and misunderstood. Without the paper and its journalist asking questions, residents are going to find it harder to stay informed about things that matter locally, Nester said.One of the major stories the paper was following for years is the work of the McDowell Public Service District, which focuses on upgrading systems in coal communities with aging infrastructure.
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