About The Mountaineer Publishing Company

Haywood County’s first newspaper, The Waynesville News, was established on Jan. 16, 1884, by owner and publisher W.S. Hemby. It was only four pages and printed on a six column format. A copy of the first edition is on display in The Enterprise Mountaineer conference room. The Waynesville News was sold to J.P. Herren in 1887 and lasted only a few months.

In 1886, The Daily News was published by the News Publishing Company. There is no record of when it ceased but it is believed to have lasted less than two years.

The next paper to appear was the Waynesville Courier, the first ancestor of The Enterprise Mountaineer. It began publishing on Feb. 8, 1888. A copy of the first edition is stored in the Duke Archives. Frank Vaneil was the Courier editor in 1888. He was followed in 1889 by P.S. Ray. Around 1890 Jesse Daniel Boone and Z.V. Rogers took over and by 1891, Boone was probably the sole owner.

In 1912, Briggs sold the paper to R.B. Wilson and Harry Hall. Hall sold his half to Wilson in 1914 and left to take over the Haywood enterprise, a competing paper. Financial strain caused the Enterprise to fold in 1915.

The Courier soon felt the crunch of poor economic times and was sold at public auction two years later to previous owner Jesse Daniel Boone for $1,400. boone had started another paper in 1913, The Carolina Mountaineer. It was the first time Mountaineer was used in the name of a Haywood County paper.

After purchasing the Courier at auction in 1917, Boone consolidated the two weeklies into The Carolina Mountaineer and Waynesville Courier. In 1925, Boone sold the now profitable paper to W.A. Band. Band changed the name to the Waynesville Mountaineer later that year.

In 1930, the paper moved from its old office on Church Street to the building on Main Street owned by the law firm of Morgan and Ward. The newspaper office was on the first floor, which is now the advertising and composing departments, and the press was in the basement. The lawyers occupied the second floor where our news department is today. Band sold the Waynesville Mountaineer to Wilbur T. Betts and Thomas M. Seawell later that year.

By the middle of 1931, Betts had moved away and Seawell was running the paper alone. It began to fall on shaky financial ground. Two employees, W. Curtis Russ, the business manager and ad salesman, and Paul D. Deaton, a linotype operator, leased the paper from Betts for one year to see if they could make it profitable. They assumed control of the paper on Nov. 5, 1931, and purchased it from Betts and Seawell on July 1, 1932.

In 1933, Deaton sold his interest in the paper to Marion T. (Buster) Bridges. the partnership of Russ and Bridges lasted until 1979. It was the longest tenure of any editor and publisher. In 1925, “Waynesville” was dropped form the name to coincide with the opening of an office in Canton and to reflect more county-wide news coverage.

In 1979 the Daniels family, owners of the News and Observer in Raleigh, purchased the Mountaineer, along with The Enterprise in Canton and The News-Record in Marshall and Mountaineer Publishing Company Inc. was formed. Jack Andrews was named publisher of The Mountaineer. In 1980, Ken Wilson, previously publisher of the Mount Olive Tribune, an N&O subsidiary, was hired as publisher.

In 1990, Adelaide Daniels Key, daughter of Jonathan Daniels, long time editor of the News and Observer, purchased The Mountaineer Publishing Company from the family chain. Her son, Jonathan, was hired in 1991 as General Manger. In 1994, The Enterprise was merged with The Mountaineer to create The Enterprise Mountaineer. In 1996 The News Record was sold.

Jonathan Key was named publisher of The Enterprise Mountaineer on Jan. 1, 2000.

In February 2002, Jonathan Key purchased the Mountaineer
Publishing Company, Inc.