The Herald-Dispatch

Providing corporate oversight of HD Media LLC is a board of managers. The board includes Doug Reynolds, a Huntington area businessman and a former state delegate; Charleston attorney Marvin Masters; Charleston area businessman Douglas V. Skaff; and Clayton Fitzsimmons. HD Media owns several newspapers in West Virginia, including The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, the Charleston Gazette-Mail, the Wayne County News, the Putnam Herald, the Williamson Daily News, the Logan Banner and the Coal Valley News in Boone County. The Herald-Dispatch celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2009. The Herald-Dispatch's roots go back to 1871 when O.G. Chase arrived in the Huntington area on a riverboat. Supplied with printing equipment, he eventually acquired a lot on Second Avenue between Eighth and Ninth streets, where he maintained an office for more than a year. Known as The Independent, Chase's publication merged in 1875 with the Cabell Press, and the new publication was called the Weekly Advertiser. When it later became a daily paper, the name was condensed to The Advertiser. A rival daily, The Huntington Herald, was launched in 1890 by the Republican Party and was later sold to an Ohio law firm. A prominent printer, Col. Joseph Harvey Long, arrived in Huntington in 1893 with the sole intention of purchasing The Huntington Herald. With $100 down and a balance of $1,700, he accomplished his goal. Long published The Huntington Herald for 18 months, sold it and purchased The Advertiser. The acquisition marked the beginning of the modern-day era in the history of The Herald-Dispatch. By 1902, Long had moved The Advertiser from its Ninth Street location to Fourth Avenue. At about the same time, Floyd S. Chapman, a future several-term mayor of Huntington, became the city editor of The Advertiser. Shortly thereafter, he resigned to take charge of the newsroom at The Herald. In 1904, he left The Herald to begin his own newspaper, The Huntington Dispatch. History had shown that the Huntington area would support two newspapers, but ...