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2026 UPDATED: DUSKEY GIVES PASSIONATE PLEA TO SAVE CHRONICLE - Printed Newspapers Rapidly Closing |
| (04/01/2026) |
| COMMENT Bob Weaver 2026 The printed "free press" in the USA is fast fading, with county and state newspapers going out of business, or hanging on by a thread. Local radio and TV stations are also at risk. The nations multi-billion dollar mass media is owned by six corporations, each with their own slant. The historic TV news outlets are also firing employees and restructuring, fading. Some studies say that most people get their news on Facebook, which I'm yet to embrace. The fading longtime Calhoun Chronicle at onetime had a big circulation, was purchased a few years ago by Mountain Media, an outfit that purchased a bunch of fading weekly newspapers, likely printed by a out of state press. They survive from published legal ads funded mostly by county governments. While legal notices can be published free on-line, the WV Legislature has clung to an antiquated system for publishing costly legal notices in printed media, a system to help printed publications. Gaylen Duskey, who returned to Grantsville years ago, was removed from his minimum wage job as editor. Duskey has been an exceptional writer and journalist, first getting printers ink in his blood working for the Calhoun Chronicle as a teenager. (I got the ink in my blood working a summer job at the Grantsville News in 1956). Several years ago Duskey made a serious effort to revive the Clarion, Calhoun Hi's historical newspaper. It failed. In a recent story on the Ridgeview News, he wrote a story asking the Calhoun community to purchase the Chronicle. I was reminded about 30 years ago, essentially being broke after losing my retirement, a relative with some bucks told me to buy the Chronicle. I approached Carl Morris who said he would sell it to me, but he wouldn't. I am grateful I did not buy it. Duskey made an elegant case for what a community newspaper should be, saying the people of Calhoun County deserve it. With the population fading to 5,800, Calhoun Schools dropping enrollment from 1,700 in 1990 to about 800 in 2026 and Grantsville having only three retail outlets on two main street blocks, Duskey's passionate plea will likely fail. |
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