Century Year-Old Newspaper Closes in the Delta

By Kelsey Davis Betz
For Mississippi Today

Along with everything else we knew to be a part of normal, everyday life, Bolivar County citizens have now also lost their 104-year-old community newspaper, The Bolivar Commercial. The last issue of the paper ran Wednesday and the company has now permanently shut its doors.

“The virus, of course, is naturally the bad timing, but this has probably been coming for about five years now,” said Diane Makamson, who was publisher of the paper and had worked at the Bolivar Commercial for 42 years.

Birmingham-based company Walls Newspapers owns The Bolivar Commercial.

The Bolivar Commercial’s final edition highlights the newspaper’s nameplate through the years.

“It is a sad thing to have to announce, and it is something I’ve spent years and a great deal of money trying to avoid,” Lee Walls, president and CEO of Walls Newspapers said to The Bolivar Commercial. Walls added that he has personally covered the paper’s financial losses for many years.

Though the diminishing of newspapers always comes with societal consequences, the closure of The Bolivar Commercial coincides with a time when verified information is needed more than ever.

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