Effective November 4, 2015, the Kanawha Reporter has merged with The Leader. The paper will continue to be a Wednesday publication.
“We are excited to be able to provide the subscribers of the Reporter with a bigger, stronger newspaper,” said Ryan Harvey, President and CEO of Mid-America Publishing. “Losing an identity in the community is never easy, however, we believe, after a lot of heavy consideration, that by merging the two papers into one, the positives far outweigh the negatives.”
One of the biggest positives, Harvey added, is the ability to serve the readers with one bigger and stronger publication. All subscriptions to The Reporter will continue as normal. For those who subscribed to both, the subscription will be extended for an equivalent amount of time.
“It’s our mission to provide the most in-depth coverage of Hancock County possible,” said Harvey. “By widening our breadth of coverage, we’ll be able to do just that. Our energies can be focused on the entire county for one publication rather than trying to produce two publications and making sure each one has unique news content. Plus, it allows readers to call one office to place an ad rather than trying to advertise in two.”
The Leader, based in Garner, will continue to have its satellite office in Britt. The post office box and Kanawha drop off location at Comm1 will continue for the foreseeable future.
“We believe this approach has served us well over the past several years,” Harvey said. “Our staffing levels will remain the same and our news room becomes even stronger as Rebecca Peter and Emilie Nelson will continue to provide the news coverage our readers expect.”
With this change, Mid-America Publishing, based in Hampton, has 22 weekly newspapers, eight weekly shoppers, a twice a month Hispanic publication, two advertising supplements, and two weekly political publications.