The Midway Messenger joins The Woodford Sun

University of Kentucky journalism students, reporting for the Midway Messenger as part of a class assignment, interviewed Mayor Grayson Vandegrift and City Council members after a council meeting several years ago. (Photo by Al Cross) 

The Midway Messenger, a mostly online news outlet that recently began its 15th year, is moving into the hands of The Woodford Sun, the county's only newspaper. The transfer will occur Friday.

The Messenger debuted in January 2008 as a service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. Institute Director Al Cross, a professor in the School of Journalism and Media, created it as a laboratory for students in his community journalism courses, and as a project to provide more news coverage for Midway and serve as an example of online rural journalism.

During this school year, Cross entered UK's phased retirement program, at 75% of normal. He has stopped teaching, so students have not written for the Messenger since May 2021, but he has maintained its basic news coverage. As part of the handoff, the Sun has agreed to offer internships to students who would cover the Midway area.

"I am very happy to turn over the Messenger to the Sun," Cross said. "It's an independent, locally owned newspaper that is in close touch with its community, including Midway. I very much appreciate its willingness to help students, which was my fundamental motive for starting the Messenger."

Sun Publisher Ben Chandler said, "I want to thank Al Cross for trusting us with the Messenger. His work, and that of his students, made Midway a better place to live, work and play. We aim to, with his continued advice and support, continue the good work of the Messenger and in the process, improve the newspaper my family purchased in 1942."

The Sun was encouraged to accept the Messenger by the Midway Business Association’s favorable response to its request for advertising support. The Messenger has not run advertising, except in some of its twice-yearly print editions, for sponsors who paid for the printing and wanted to advertise. (The last print edition was in summer 2020, because the pandemic made distribution difficult.)

In its 14 years and three months of publication, the Messenger has published 1,733 articles, more than 10 per month. Its blog, where articles appear, has drawn more than 923,000 page views. The top four stories in the last year, all with more than 1,000 page views each, have been about the proposal for a recreational-vehicle resort just north of Midway. Many posts on its Facebook page have thousands of engagements.

"When I decided on a career in journalism, my only goal was to run a rural community newspaper," said Cross, who spent most of his career with the Louisville Courier Journal. "I thank the people of Midway for giving me the opportunity to be a community editor and publisher, and encourage them to continue supporting the Messenger and the Sun."