The Harlan Enterprise, a weekly

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, 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 p ...

serving Harlan County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

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 ...

, 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 Battle of Blue Licks, fought on August 19, 1782, was one of the last battles of the American Revolutionary War. The battle occurred ten months after Lord Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, which had effectively ended the war in the east. ...

, 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 in ...

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.

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. ...

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 Sun-Times Media Group (formerly Hollinger International) is a Chicago-based newspaper publisher. History Sun-Times Media Group was founded in 1986 under the name ''American Publishing Company'', as a holding company for Hollinger Inc.'s Americ ...

. In 1998, the ''Enterprise'' was part of a 45-paper sale by Hollinger to Community Newspaper Holdings. In 2004, the ''Enterprise'' was part of a 22-paper sale by CNHI to Heartland Publications. In 2012 Versa Capital Management merged Heartland,

Ohio Community Media Ohio Community Media was an American privately owned publisher of daily newspaper, daily and weekly newspapers, primarily in the state of Ohio. It was headquartered in the Dayton, Ohio, Dayton suburb of Miamisburg, Ohio, and was owned by Philadelp ...

, former Freedom papers it had acquired, and Impressions Media into a new company,

Civitas Media Civitas Media, LLC was a Davidson, North Carolina-based publisher of community newspapers covering 11 Midwestern, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern states. The company was formed in 2012 via the merger of Heartland Publications, Impressions Media, O ...

. 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