SELMER, Tenn. — McNairy County’s oldest business has closed its doors.
Independent Appeal Publisher Janet Rail announced in an emotional personal column and reader tribute story that the Dec. 28th edition would be the weekly newspaper’s final farewell.
Started by Col. J.W. Purviance as the McNairy County Independent on June 27, 1902, the closure brings a sad end to the newspaper serving McNairy County for 121 years.
“I have decided to close the paper as hard as that is to do,” wrote Rail, who bought the newspaper in 2000 from her now late father, William J. “Bill” Rail and her 90-year-old mother, Betty Rail. “My mom needs me and I have accepted an offer to work on a project that may bring the energy and excitement we need in McNairy County.”
McNairy County has fallen on hard economic times in recent years, especially with the closing of McNairy Regional Hospital.
“I believe I can serve in another capacity and offer more to the people who have supported my family all these years,” wrote Rail, whose family owned the newspaper for 43 years after buying it in 1976.
Bill Rail was the former owner of the Mt. Pleasant (Tenn.) Record in his middle Tennessee hometown. He was a linotype operator by trade and for many years also operated a printing business in Selmer at the newspaper office on Second Street.
At one point in the 1990s, the Independent Appeal was one of the largest weekly newspapers in the state with a circulation of over 7,400.
The closing of the newspaper leaves the county with one weekly print product, the McNairy County News, owned and published by Melanie King, a former advertising representative for the Independent Appeal and Daily Corinthian.
Another longtime county print product, the Community News, also ceased publication several years ago upon the retirement of publisher Billy Wagoner, also McNairy County historian.
Janet Rail thanked readers, contributors and advertisers in her farewell story and promised paid subscriber reimbursements for those who ask.
“We recorded our history and tried to do it well,” wrote Rail, a McNairy Central High School and Freed-Hardeman University graduate. “I truly thank my parents for putting their faith in me and mom for supporting me in my endeavor. I hate we will not be there for you every week. I pray you understand and I value your friendship.”
The final edition had a large headline at the top of the final front page: “Thank you for 120 great years.”
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