The Moundsville Daily Echo, a small, independent daily newspaper in northern West Virginia, has stopped publication after 133 years. Publisher Charlie M. Walton said this week he was "exploring options." Walton told the AP the newspaper published its last edition last Thursday and he locked the doors Friday afternoon. Walton said he and two part-timers were the only employees at the newspaper and his efforts to expand the staff were unsuccessful.
"We simply cannot get anybody to work there," Walton said. "I've been advertising for years for people. I don't get any resumes. It's just been a disaster to find anybody to even work part time." A note on the newspaper's door reads "The Echo Is Permanently Closed Due To Lack of Help," WTRF reports. The Daily Echo, published weekdays, was delivered by mail and had no website. Unusually, it regularly published obituaries on the front page. It was founded in October 1891 by James Davis Shaw. His son, Craig Shaw, took over in 1917 and grandson Sam Shaw followed in 1951. For more than 40 years, Sam Shaw was the publisher, editor, and chief reporter who collected the day's news by bicycle.
After Shaw's death in 1995, his longtime assistants Charlie L. Walton and Marion Walton published the Echo for the next two decades before handing over control to Charlie M. Walton, their son. Moundsville, population 7,800, is located along the Ohio River about 68 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. WTRF reports that former residents all over the country subscribed to the Echo by mail to keep up with hometown news. (More West Virginia stories.)
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