The following excerpt was sent out from Editor & Publisher:
The Weekly Recorder was printed in rural southwestern Pennsylvania for 135 years and changed forms and hands multiple times.
The community also changed — as the oil and gas industry moved into the rural landscape.
“Washington County, in my opinion, is the gem of Pennsylvania. There are so many great things this county has to offer. We sit on top of the Marcellus Shale. We’re a huge producer of oil and gas. The healthcare industry … and agriculture is unbelievable. … There’s so much to highlight within Washington County,” said The Weekly Recorder Editor William R. Smith. “The idea of featuring our county and our people is just outstanding.”
The new owners of The Weekly Recorder hope to highlight those areas and others with the resurrection of the newspaper. Penn West Media purchased the newspaper from DFM Publishing, and three lifelong residents who are active in their communities will lead it. Daryl W. Price and Matthew G. Uram will serve as the newspaper’s publishers. The first edition was published on April 23.
In the early days of The Weekly Recorder, the newspaper covered Claysville, a small town in Washington County, and its school district, McGuffey. In the 1970s, it changed format, taking an investigative bent on politics and crime. DFM Publishing purchased the publication in 2011 and added other topics to its coverage, including sports and arts and entertainment, and expanded its coverage area.
The Weekly Recorder will now cover the 67 municipalities and 15 school districts of Washington County. The county seat (Washington) is 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh and 31 miles west of Wheeling, West Virginia.
The new owners plan to focus on government, faith, business, energy, agriculture, sports and the outdoors. Price said they will find a “sweet spot” for their focus areas as they move forward but see gaps in coverage for local government meetings and the oil and gas industry.
They plan to initially distribute the 24- to 32-page weekly paper for free and have it easily accessible for readers to pick up at drop boxes around the county, or subscribers can pay a small postage fee to have it mailed. They will also have an online version.
Read more here.
