Locals mourn shutdown of century-old newspaper in US town

MONTHS after Missy Nester ended The Welch News’ 100-year run, she can barely stand to walk through the office doors of the newspaper her mother taught her to read with growing up in West Virginia’s southern coalfields. It’s too painful.

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END OF AN ERA

The Welch News owner and publisher’s desk is covered with unpaid bills and her own paychecks — a year’s worth — she never cashed. Phones that used to ring throughout the day are silent. Tables covered with typewriters, awards and a century’s worth of other long abandoned artifacts are reminders that her beloved paper has become an artifact, too.