New weekly newspaper begins July 3
McDuffie County readers soon will be able to take a look in The Mirror.
The McDuffie Mirror launches July 3 as a weekly newspaper covering McDuffie County, and Thomson and Dearing. The newspaper will be managed by Joyce Beverly, the publisher of The News & Farmer in Louisville, Ga.
"I believe you'll like what you see in The Mirror. I believe it will be something you haven't had before," she said.
Beverly said she has long been interested in operating a community newspaper in Thomson. The financial backing of Morris Communications Co. LLC, which acquired The News & Farmer last year, is helping that happen.
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"The Thomson community is a beautiful community. Our goal is to publish a newspaper that facilitates their sense of community and who they are," Beverly said. "We want to help them build their community."
The newspaper will be published Thursdays and will have a press run of 4,000 copies. The paper's business office is in downtown Thomson at 128 Jackson St., in the Magnolia Center office complex. The office will be open for business Monday.
Annual subscriptions will cost $25. Single copies will be 50 cents each in businesses and newspaper racks throughout McDuffie County. For a limited time, the newspaper will be distributed with The Augusta Chronicle to McDuffie County subscribers. The Chronicle also is owned by Morris Communications, as is The Columbia County News-Times.
The McDuffie Mirror will employ about a half-dozen full-time employees and many more contributors, all of whom will be local, Beverly said.
"The readers are going to be seeing names they already know, people they have met before," she said.
One of those employees will be Elwood Hamilton, who covers McDuffie County for The Chronicle and The News-Times.
The launch of The Mirror also means some changes are coming to The News-Times. The Thomson and McDuffie County content readers are used to seeing in The News-Times will shift to The Mirror starting July 3. The Sunday edition of The News-Times will continue to be delivered to Augusta Chronicle subscribers in McDuffie County.