Bristol Herald Courier

Infobox Newspaper
name =


caption = The September 27, 2006 front page
of "The Bristol Herald Courier".
type = Daily newspaper
format = Broadsheet
foundation = 1865
ceased publication =
price = 50 cents
(Monday-Saturday)
one dollar and 25 cents (Sunday)
owners = Media General
publisher = Carl Esposito
editor = J. Todd Foster
language =
political = Independent
circulation =
headquarters = 320 Morrison Blvd
Bristol, VA 24201
United States
ISSN = 1552-2458
website = [http://www.tricities.com/ www.tricities.com]

The Bristol Herald Courier is a 39,000 circulation daily newspaper owned by Richmond, Virginia-based Media General, Inc. The newspaper is located in Bristol, Virginia, a small city located in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee.

The Herald Courier is in what the media industry calls a converged newsroom, meaning its online ( [http://www.tricities.com www.tricities.com] ) print (Herald Courier) and broadcast (WJHL-Johnson City) operations work together closely. Herald Courier reporters are trained to occasionally deliver webcasts of Bristol news, conduct TV "talk-backs" with WJHL and gather audio for daily stories. News Channel 11 reporters often have bylined stories that appear in the Herald Courier news pages. Both operations provide content for TriCities.com, a subsidiary of Media General's Interactive Media Department.

History

The beginning of the present Bristol Herald Courier came in 1865. That was the year John Slack founded the Bristol News, a publication which continued until after the turn of the century. In 1870, Slack launched the Bristol Courier, a weekly which became Bristol's first daily paper in 1888.George L. Carter, founder of the Clinchfield Railroad, moved to Bristol in 1903 and founded the Bristol Herald. When Carter left Bristol in1907 the Herald was combined with the Courier and became the Bristol Herald Courier.

On October 16, 1949, T. Eugene Worrell and a number of the city's leading businessmen, launched the Bristol Virginia-Tennessean, first published in direct competition with the Herald Courier and the evening News Bulletin. After many months of intense rivalry, the Herald Courier and Virginia-Tennessean joined in a printing agreement allowing both to carry on competitively in news and editorial fields while enjoying economies afforded by joint operations. In 1986, after 36 years of home deliveries, the Bristol Virginia-Tennessean succumbed to the trend of dying afternoon newspapers and was combined with the morning editions of the Bristol Herald Courier. The combined morning publication with three editions covered and circulated in nine Southwest Virginia counties, Upper East Tennessee and the City of Bristol.

January 1, 1998 marked the sale of the Bristol Herald Courier to Media General.

Newsroom staff

The Bristol Herald Courier is located at 320 Bob Morrison Blvd in Bristol, VA. The BHC is a dominant news source for the Tri-Cities region alongside the Johnson City (TN) Press and the Kingsport (TN) Times News. The news staff covers a nine-county area in southwest Virginia including Russell, Scott and Tazewell counties. As of October 30, 2007 this was the newsroom staff of the Bristol Herald Courier.

Editors

*J. Todd Foster
Managing Editor
*Susan Cameron
City Editor
*Mark Hicks
Assistant City Editor
*Jan Patrick
Features Editor
*Sam Jackson
Sports Editor
*Andrea Hopkins
Opinion Page Editor
*Nik Brown
Online Production Coordinator
*Nicki Mayo
Online Production Coordinator
*Brian Reese
Copy Desk Chief
*Mike Fox
Copy Editor
*Keith O'Dell
Copy Editor
*Jerry Shell
Copy Editor
*Guy Kramer

Reporters

*David McGee
Reporter
*Gary B. Gray
Reporter
*Daniel Gilbert
Reporter
*Amy Hunter
Reporter
*Debra McCown
Reporter
*Kathy Still
Reporter
*George McLean
Reporter
*Jennifer Estep
Features Writer
*Joe Tennis
Features Writer
*Tim Hayes
Sports Writer
*Allen Gregory
Sports Writer
*Bucky Dent
Sports Writer
*Brian T. Smith
Sports Writer

Photography

*David Crigger
Chief Photographer
*Andre Teague
Photographer
*Earl Neikirk
Photographer
*Bill McKee
Pre-Press Tech