West Virginia newspaper, the Moundsville Daily Echo, halts operations after 133 years

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MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — The Moundsville Daily Echo, a small, independent daily newspaper in northern West Virginia, has stopped publication after 133 years and publisher Charlie M. Walton said Tuesday he was "exploring options.”

Walton told The Associated Press by telephone that the newspaper published its last edition Thursday and he locked the doors Friday afternoon.

Walton said he and two part-timers were the only employees at the newspaper and his efforts to expand the staff were unsuccessful.

“We simply cannot get anybody to work there,” Walton said. “I’ve been advertising for years for people. I don’t get any resumes. It’s just been a disaster to find anybody to even work part time.”

The closing was first reported by WTRF-TV.

The Daily Echo, published weekdays, was delivered by mail and had no website. It was founded in October 1891 by James Davis Shaw. His son, Craig Shaw, took over in 1917 and grandson Sam Shaw followed in 1951. For more than 40 years, Sam Shaw was the publisher, editor and chief reporter who collected the days’ news by bicycle.

After Shaw’s death in 1995, his longtime assistants Charlie L. Walton and Marion Walton published the Echo for the next two decades before handing over control to Charlie M. Walton, their son.

Moundsville, population 7,800, is located along the Ohio River about 68 miles (109 kilometers) southwest of Pittsburgh.