The Harlan Daily Enterprise, serving Harlan County

Harlan County, Kentucky

Harlan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1819. As of 2000, the population was 33,200. Its county seat is Harlan...

, KY

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

, with a circulation of 6,000, was first published in 1901 as the Harlan Enterprise and began publishing in 1928 as the Harlan Daily Enterprise.

The newspaper is published five times a week, Tuesday

Tuesday

Tuesday is a day of the week occurring after Monday and before Wednesday.According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the second day of the week, although in some traditions it is the third....

 through Saturday

Saturday

Saturday is the day of the week following Friday and preceding Sunday.Saturday is the last day of the week on many calendars and in conventions that consider the week as beginning on Sunday, or the sixth day of the week according to international standard ISO 8601 which was first published in...

, except on major holiday

Holiday

A Holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observance is warranted. It is generally an official or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations...

s. Office hours are Monday

Monday

Monday is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. According to international standard ISO 8601 it is the first day of the work week. According to the Islamic and Hebrew calendars, Sunday is the first day of the week...

 through Friday

Friday

Friday is the day between Thursday and Saturday. In countries adopting Monday-first conventions as recommended by the international standard ISO 8601, it is the fifth day of the week. It is the sixth day in countries that adopt a Sunday-first convention as in Abrahamic tradition...

 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.

Purchased by Heartland Publications

Heartland Publications

Heartland Publications is a Connecticut-based owner of small to medium market newspapers. Heartland Publications LLC formed in May 2004 and started out by acquiring 24 publications from CNHI newspaper group. They currently own 48 paid circulation newspapers located in Georgia, Kentucky, North and...

, a Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

-based company

Company

A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...

 with a focus on community journalism

Community journalism

Community journalism is locally oriented, professional news coverage that typically focuses on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news....

, from the New York Times on November 20, 1990, the newspaper

Newspaper

A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...

 is named in honor of the city and county which it serves. Those entities were named for Silas Harlan who was killed in 1782 while leading the advance party at the Battle of Blue Lick, the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

. Harlan is a distant relative of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan.

History and demographics of Harlan County have presented both challenges and opportunities for the editorial staff of the newspaper as the coal-mining region it serves has been the site of labor disputes and a series of "boom and bust" cycles; a declining population since its highest level of 75,275 in the 1940 census down to 33,202 in the 2000 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

with an estimate that the 2009 population has declined to 30,783, a 7.3% decline while the rest of Kentucky has an estimated growth of 5.6%; significant welfare rolls with an estimated 29.3% of residents living below the poverty level; and clearly divided socio-economic classes.

In recent years the newspaper has received numerous awards from the Kentucky Press Association's Excellence in KY Newspapers competition.