By Derek Tyson
The Independent Herald

Buying a newspaper during a global pandemic shut down might sound crazy, but you just haven’t met our crew yet.

In neighboring McDowell County, we did something similar two years ago when The Welch News appeared to be on its way out the door but not out of the hearts of our residents. We bought our hometown newspaper in order to save it, and then we put our feet on the ground to provide local coverage of meetings, events, and community issues.

So despite life being turned upside down, we were not willing to watch another century old newspaper print its final edition. Now more than ever, we are not willing to leave area residents without an information source from their own local leaders and first responders.

We’re children of the southern coalfields just like most of our population, residing in McDowell County because its home and always has been. Having lost so much in our area, we’re incredibly protective of southern West Virginia and the residents here.

HD Media announced refunds for former subscribers in their last edition of The Independent Herald on April 1st, so we’re starting with a fresh, blank slate now. That doesn’t intimidate us in the slightest, it just means we get to build something from the ground up, piece by piece, into the newspaper that Wyoming County deserves.

Whether you sign up for our weekly print edition or visit our new website, we want to deliver news from a local perspective. By subscribing today, you say that local coverage is valuable to the community at large. That Wyoming County’s side of the story matters too.

Yesterday, we mailed out 280 newspapers from a provided “previously subscribed” list but we want to go much further than that. Today we launch the new website for The Independent Herald. We are looking for stores to partner with for local distribution so please let your stores know you’d like to see us on their shelves.

In the coming weeks, you’ll see more of us as we secure the physical office location, phone service and email accounts. Until that time, feel free to reach out to us on Facebook or give us a call at The Welch News, (304) 436-3144 ext. 21.

We are offering our first few editions for free – and we hope that as soon as you see that hometown, local news and events are our priority – we hope you’ll trust us with your subscription to help us save this Wyoming County century old newspaper.