Newspapers & Communications
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Several underground blogs and websites exist in the West Salem area. Currently one newspaper exists in town. Current publication located in West Salem is the Edwards County Times-Advocate operated by Publisher/Editor Erin E. Fenton.
The West Salem Advocate first started ion February 1, 1900. The founder of the Advocate, W.S. Baichley, published the paper until March 1940 when he retired at the age of 72. Upon his retirement, Baichley sold the business to H.F. Gerlach of Evansville, Illinois. In 1959 Joe Stoll purchased the paper from Gerlach. The paper remained in the same location, but in 1976 faced competition for readership for the first time. Harry Bradham had started a new publication called the Independent Times. With two newspapers in the small community, the competition was fierce and Stoll sold the Advocate to Harry Bradhan in 1984.
Harry Bradham continued to publish both the Times and Advocate for a period of time, but a merger was inevitable. In 1986 the Edwards County Times-Advocate hit the newsstands. Harry Bradham continued to publish the paper until his death in 2004, following a bout with cancer. The paper was sold by the Estate of Harry Bradham to Mike and Sybil Conley of Trenton, Illinois. For the first time since the paper's inception, it was not locally owned.
In August 2006, Erin (Bradham) Fenton, the niece of Harry Bradham purchased the paper from the Conley's making the paper once again locally owned.
Read more about this topic: West Salem, Illinois
Famous quotes containing the word newspapers:
“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)