Times West Virginian
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. |
| Publisher | Andy Knicley |
| Editor | Misty Poe |
| Headquarters | 300 Quincy Street Fairmont, West Virginia 26554  United States |
| Circulation | 11,506 daily[1] |
| Website | timeswv.com |
The Times West Virginian is seven-day morning daily newspaper based in Fairmont, West Virginia, and also covering the city of Bridgeport, West Virginia, and surrounding communities in Marion, Monongalia, Taylor and Wetzel counties, West Virginia. It is owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.[2]
Awards
The Times West Virginian was named Newspaper of the Year by its parent company in 2006. Judges said it was "packed full of local stories with and about ordinary people," offering a strong sense of community. The Times competed against a host of other papers owned by CNHI.[3]
Also in 2006, the paper won second place in the general excellence category of the West Virginia Press Association's Better Newspaper's Contest. The paper was beaten by the Inter-Mountain, a daily in Elkins.[4]
Corridor Magazine
In February of 2006, the Times West Virginian launched Corridor Magazine, a regional travel magazine focusing on Monongalia, Harrison, Taylor and Marion counties in West Virginia. The magazine was edited by Hope Stephen, also the paper's managing editor. One of its early senior contributing writers, Mary Wade Burnside, later became a full time staffer at the paper and then was promoted to Corridor's editor in May 2006, after Stephan left the paper.
Corridor is published under the name of Impact Publishing and Marketing.
Federal Labor Investigation
The paper was investigated by the Department of Labor for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act. Justin McLaughlin, a former reporter who left the paper in June 2006, filed a complaint in the fall of 2006 alleging the paper owed him thousands of dollars in overtime pay. McLaughlin said the paper told its employees that it would not pay for unapproved overtime and that he was routinely forced to work more than 40 hours a week. As of May 2007, the investigation remained open.
Noted Reporters
John Veasey
In 2006, John Veasey, a reporter and editor with the paper since 1960, won Veasey, was given the Adam R. Kelly Premier Journalist Award, the West Virginia Press Associations' highest honor.[5]
The award was established in 1991 in memory of the late Adam R. Kelly, who was the owner and editor of the Tyler Star News in Sistersville. Kelly was known nationally for his outstanding service to newspapers.
Justin McLaughlin (aka Justin McLachlan)
McLaughlin left the paper abruptly in June 2006, after a tenure of reporting that exposed the reasons behind the catastrophic failure of a Marion County vacuum sewer system--a failure that left residents in the Greater Marion PSD living with raw sewage in their yards for years. He also wrote a series of reports that exposed abuse in the state's juvenile justice system, reporting that he continued on his personal blog after leaving the paper.
A popular reporter, in that period, McLaughlin earned a 1st place columnist award from the West Virginia Press Association. His series on the failed sewer system also won a public service award from the WVPA and resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement after five-years of litigation.[5] He currently writes the Campus Buzz column for the The Dominion Post (Morgantown), bylined as McLachlan instead of McLaughlin.
In the fall of 2006, he filed a complaint with the Federal Department of Labor, alleging overtime violations at the Times West Virginian.
External links
References
- ^ CNHI-CAN Circulation, figures for an undetermined date, accessed January 17, 2007.
- ^ Times West Virginian: About Us, accessed January 20, 2007.
- ^ Community Newspaper Holdings, Best of CNHI, accessed May 27, 2007.
- ^ Better Newspaper's Contest, accessed May 27, 2007.
- ^ a b Times WV state’s ‘Newspaper of the Year’, accessed May 28, 2007.