Staff and all operations of The Journal are relocating to the offices of its sister newspaper, The Cedartown Standard, located at 213 Main St., Cedartown. Phone numbers and email addresses will not change, and will continue to operate normally.
The change will provide significant cost savings and is necessary to maintain the newspaper’s profitability in an economic climate that continues to be challenging for newspapers, said Lowell Vickers, editor and publisher.
“We are making this move after much consideration,” Vickers said. “Among the options we have looked at as a company, this provides the least disruption for our Rockmart readers.
“I live in Rockmart and other Journal staff live in Polk County a short drive from the city. We will continue to provide the community coverage that our readers have come to expect. Agnes Hagin and Melody Dareing will be here daily, writing stories that can only be seen in The Rockmart Journal and online at www.thepolkfishwrap.com.”
Vickers, who also manages the Cedartown paper, said the lack of a physical location in Rockmart is not expected to be the inconvenience that it would have been even five years ago. Most reader submissions, including such things as engagement notices, letters to the editor and church announcements, mostly arrive via email now, he said. Similarly, most payments are made through electronic transactions.
“Readers may still use the U.S. Post Office to deliver handwritten items if they wish,” Vickers noted. “Our new mailing address is The Rockmart Journal, P.O. Box 308, Cedartown, GA 30125.”
Readers may call 770-684-7811 to renew subscriptions or report missed papers, and to start delivery of their newspaper. Subscriptions may also be handled online at the newspaper’s website, at www.thepolkfishwrap.com. Click on the “subscribe” button at the top right of the page to get started.
Readers may also submit classified ads online through the website.
Advertising representive Ladonna Mears will be in Rockmart every day making ad sales calls. She may be contacted at 770-684-7811.
Most importantly, Vickers said, is that The Rockmart Journal will continue to be published every Wednesday. Staff will be based out of the Cedartown office, but will spend much of their work days in Rockmart, taking photographs and conducting interviews with local residents while reporting on events of interest.
“It is important to us that we continue to provide the same quality of service that The Rockmart Journal has become known for in its more than seven decades of operation,” Vickers said.
The Rockmart Journal, distributed to 3,400 households each Wednesday, is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Rockmart.
The first issue of The Rockmart Journal was published in July, 1930 and was located on East Elm Street in a building that later housed the Economy Ice Cream Co. Fred Fitzgerald founded the newspaper along with his father-in-law, A. N. Johnson, of Piedmont, Ala. He continued as publisher until 1939, when he was succeeded by H.F. Beall and later Cecil D. Franklin, who acquired the newspaper in the early 1940s.
Later, E.C. Sanders became a silent partner in 1946 and acquired remaining interest from Hirman Brown, Cartersville. Sanders became publisher in 1948 and relocated the business to South Marble Street. The Rockmart Journal was acquired by News Publishing Company in 1980 and was relocated to a house, now a vacant lot, on South Piedmont Avenue.
In 1998, the newspaper was moved into a modern building at 238 S. Piedmont Ave. The editor at that time was the late Aubrey "Orbie" Thaxton.
there is not a lot of differences in the two.
Planning on cancelling one.