Fayette papers to merge
May 5—OAK HILL — Beginning with the Thursday, May 12 edition, the two community weekly newspapers serving Fayette County will merge.
After a run of over 82 years, the May 5 edition of The Montgomery Herald is the final paper to be published in the city.
The Montgomery Herald's premiere edition was published on Friday, Aug. 9, 1940.
Also on that day, according to the website takemeback.to, "The U.S. president was Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat), the UK Prime Minister was Winston Churchill (Conservative), Pope Pius XII was leading the Catholic Church. Famous people born on this day include Beverlee McKinsey and Volker Hauff. Foreign Correspondent, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was one of the most viewed movie released in 1940."
In Montgomery, R.E. Bailey was appointed to fill a vacant seat on Montgomery City Council left by the death of C.E. Catlett, national defense courses were offered at New River State, the city and the Works Project Administration were working together to construct the city pool and an incinerator, President E.F. Applestine and Secretary F.R. Clark of the Montgomery Rotary Club attended a meeting of Rotary executives in Charleston, a 37-year-old Montgomery woman was sentenced to 12 month in the Fayette County Jail for cruelty to a young female who was housed in her home as a state ward, the Fayette County Board of Education announced new hires and New River State received $200,000 to build a new industrial arts building.
The Herald was founded by Luther S. Montgomery after the closing of the earlier paper, The Montgomery News. Montgomery passed away in 1943 and the paper was published infrequently after his death until it was sold to J.K. Holliday in December 1944.
The Herald and The Fayette Tribune of Oak Hill are among newspapers owned by CNHI LLC, a leading provider of local news and information, offering a wide array of print and digital products in 22 states. Other West Virginia papers owned by the company are The Register-Herald of Beckley, Bluefield Daily Telegraph of Bluefield, Times West Virginian of Fairmont and Princeton Times of Princeton.
The merger of the two Fayette County papers will lead to a larger print product which will serve all of Fayette County, from Montgomery to Meadow Bridge and from Gauley Bridge to Mount Hope.
The Fayette Tribune will be published on Thursday of each week and will provide some old favorites, such as a dedicated education page, as well as new features, including puzzles, a history section and entertainment news.
Terri Hale, CNHI's West Virginia general manager, is looking forward to the transition.
"We are really excited to be bringing The Montgomery Herald and The Fayette Tribune together to have a larger, more informative product for our community. We hope our readers will enjoy it and if they feel like we're missing something, reach out to us and let the editor know," she said early this week.
"(Editor) Cheryl (Keenan) has worked really hard to bring back some old favorites and we're going to have some new, exciting features such as a puzzle page."
Later this year, The Fayette Tribune will celebrate its 125th year of service to the readers of Fayette County.
For more, pick up a copy of next week's edition of The Fayette Tribune, or email Gary Stafford in the circulation department at gstafford@register-herald.com, Debbie Maxwell for advertising at dmaxwell@register-herald.com or Keenan at ckeenan@register-herald.com.
Email ckeenan@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @Fayette_Cheryl
