The Messenger (Mount Airy, North Carolina)

The Messenger was an American newspaper published Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Mount Airy, North Carolina. It was delivered free to homes in the Surry County area.^[1]

The Messenger

Type	Newspaper
Format	Tabloid
Owner(s)	Surry Publishing Group, Inc.
Publisher	Michael Milligan
Editor	Rebel Good
Founded	July 9, 2007
Language	English
Headquarters	101 W. Lebanon St., Suite 101. Mount Airy, NC 27030  United States
Circulation	11,000 (Wednesdays and Fridays) 20,000 (Sundays)[1]
Website	surrymessenger.com

History

The Messenger began as a weekday broadsheet whose first edition was printed on July 9, 2007, after the purchase of The Mount Airy News and Elkin's The Tribune by Heartland Publications. Several staffers, including the publishers of both The News and The Tribune, left their respective newspapers to launch The Messenger as a community newspaper for the area. Combined, the publisher, Michael Milligan, and editor, Rebel Good, have more than 75 years of experience in community journalism and between them have published more than 10 newspapers and magazines.^[2]

In January 2009, the paper cut back production to three days per week and switched from broadsheet to tabloid format due to a tough economic market.^[1]

In July 2009, a lawsuit filed by Heartland against The Messenger's owners and principals was dismissed without prejudice in Surry Superior Court.

On January 3, 2010, the paper ceased publications with no notification in their last issue, and closed all its operations shortly thereafter. After the community learned that the paper had closed, it was eventually reported that there were several reasons for the closing, but the continuing recession was a primary factor in their decision.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. Mount Airy 'Messenger' Cuts Back to Publishing Three Times a Week, a January 2009 article from Editor & Publisher
2. New newspaper will create competition in Mount Airy (Winston-Salem Journal, accessed 12, July 2007)