Many of West Virginias 58 weekly newspapers are”crucial to their towns”but rarely recognized for their contributions, according to West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism Assistant Professor John Temple.

Temple profiled three of West Virginias weeklies �€the Ritchie Gazette (circulation 3,652), the Pocahontas Times (6,172) and the Hampshire Review (6,200) �€in an article published in the December 2002 American Journalism Review .

“Daily newspaper reporters and editors tend to look down on weekly newspapers, and I wanted to write a story that would give insight into the parallels and differences between those two sides of journalism,”said Temple, who started his teaching career at WVU last fall.

Temple said some of the states weeklies”contain every �€~weeklystereotype: dull leads, flagrant misspellings, meeting stories that read like transcripts�€�”But he described the Ritchie Gazette and Hampshire Review as”dynamic�€�news operations.”

But Temple said small newspapers are rarely recognized for their contributions to journalism and to their communities. And, as his article noted, many of the newspapers must toil in towns where advertising revenue is scarce and conflicts of interest are many.

“I profiled three weekly newspapers, and the people who worked at all three were genuinely committed and even excited about their jobs,”he said.