When Dink NeSmith, longtime owner of Community Newspapers, heard that The Oglethorpe Echo was shutting its doors after 149 years in print, he quickly leapt into action. He worked with his friend Ralph Maxwell, whose father purchased The Echo in the 1950’s, to concoct a plan that would utilize NeSmith’s beloved University of Georgia to save the paper. Through a partnership with the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, journalism students would help power the newsroom while Grady Professor Andy Johnston would lead the project. A heartwarming win for a community newspaper that has served Oglethorpe County, just east of Athens, for nearly 150 years.
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