The Harlan Enterprise, a weekly

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

serving Harlan County, in the U.S. state of

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

, with a circulation of 6,000, was first published in 1901 as ''The Harlan Enterprise'' and began publishing in 1928 as ''The Harlan Daily Enterprise''. Now publishing on Wednesdays, it has reverted to its original name. Historically, it was a twice-weekly newspaper, on Wednesdays & Saturdays; however, it reverted to once weekly on Wednesdays, due to complications arisen from the COVID 19 Pandemic. Office hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. The newspaper is named in honor of the city and county which it serves. Those entities were named for Silas Harlan who was killed in 1782 while leading the advance party at the Battle of Blue Licks, the last major battle of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. Harlan is a distant relative of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan. History and demographics of Harlan County have presented both challenges and opportunities for the editorial staff of the newspaper as the coal-mining region it serves has been the site of labor disputes and a series of "boom and bust" cycles; a declining population since its highest level of 75,275 in the 1940 census down to 33,202 in the 2000

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

with an estimate that the 2009 population has declined to 30,783, a 7.3% decline while the rest of Kentucky has an estimated growth of 5.6%; significant welfare rolls with an estimated 29.3% of residents living below the poverty level; and clearly divided socioeconomic classes.

Ownership

''The Harlan Daily Enterprise'' was founded in 1901. It was locally owned until 1970, when it was sold to Worrell Newspapers of

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

The New York Times Company The New York Times Company is an American mass media company that publishes ''The New York Times''. Its headquarters are in Manhattan, New York City. History The company was founded by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones in New York City. T ...

acquired the ''Enterprise'' and seven other dailies from Worrell Newspapers in 1982. In 1990, the Times Company sold the ''Enterprise'' and the ''Middlesboro Daily News'' to American Publishing Company, later renamed Hollinger International. In 1998, the ''Enterprise'' was part of a 45-paper sale by Hollinger to

Community Newspaper Holdings CNHI, LLC (formerly Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc.) is an American publisher of newspapers and advertising-related publications throughout the United States. The company was formed in 1997 by Ralph Martin,

. In 2004, the ''Enterprise'' was part of a 22-paper sale by CNHI to

Heartland Publications Heartland Publications was a Connecticut-based owner of small to medium market newspapers, and started out by acquiring 24 publications from Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. located in Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennesse ...

. In 2012 Versa Capital Management merged Heartland,

Ohio Community Media Ohio Community Media was an American privately owned publisher of daily and weekly newspapers, primarily in the state of Ohio. It was headquartered in the Dayton suburb of Miamisburg, Ohio, and was owned by Philadelphia-based Versa Capital Managem ...

, former

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papers it had acquired, and

Impressions Media {{Infobox company , name = Impressions Media , logo = , type = Private , foundation = {{start date, 1939, as Wilkes-Barre Publishing Company , location = 15 North Main Street,Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 1 ...

into a new company, Civitas Media. Civitas Media sold the ''Enterprise'' and the ''Middlesboro Daily News'' to Boone Newspapers in 2017.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harlan Enterprise Newspapers published in Kentucky Harlan County, Kentucky Newspapers established in 1901 1901 establishments in Kentucky