Times West Virginian

The Times West Virginian is an award-winning, community-focused multimedia company in Fairmont, West Virginia. It serves Marion, Monongalia, Taylor and Harrison counties with newspapers, shoppers, magazines and websites.

The Times West Virginian newspaper can trace its roots to the Vedette, a weekly newspaper first published on June 27, 1866. The Vedette was purchased in 1868 by the Rev. Josiah Dillon, who changed the name of the newspaper to the West Virginian. For the next 36 years, the West Virginian was published each week, and then began daily publication in 1904.

The Fairmont Times was started in the fall of 1900 by Gen. C.L. Smith and O.S. McKinney. By 1926 the Republican West Virginian and the Democratic Fairmont Times were both housed in the same building in downtown Fairmont and using the same printing press.

Eventually both newspapers became owned by the Fairmont Newspaper Publishing Co. The liberal Fairmont Times was published each morning, and the conservative West Virginian was an afternoon newspaper. Each newspaper had similar stories and features, but they each remained separate.

In 1976 the two newspapers merged and the Times West Virginian became the daily newspaper of record.

In 1999, the newspaper was purchased by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., based in Montgomery, Alabama.