The Jeff Davis County Mountain Dispatch has not published a new online edition in nearly four weeks, continuing an irregular publication schedule after abandoning its printed newspaper.
The newspaper’s most recent PDF edition is dated Aug. 20. It was emailed to readers Aug. 24, four days after its cover date. As of Wednesday, Sept. 16, no subsequent edition had been posted to the newspaper’s website or distributed by email.
The publication’s online archive also reflects earlier gaps. Editions are listed for Aug. 6, Aug. 13 and Aug. 20, but the archive skips from July 23 to July 30 and then to Aug. 6. Before that, it lists editions dated July 9, June 25 and June 11, indicating several weeks in which no PDF newspaper was published.
The Mountain Dispatch previously distributed a printed newspaper serving Fort Davis, Valentine and the rest of Jeff Davis County. It later discontinued its print edition and moved to a digital-only format centered on downloadable PDF replicas of the newspaper.
The transition means the Dispatch no longer incurs the same printing and physical distribution demands, but it has nevertheless failed to produce its digital “paper” consistently.
The newspaper’s homepage continued to feature the Aug. 20 edition Wednesday morning, while its archive identified that issue as Vol. 42, No. 30. No announcement explaining the absence of newer editions or providing an updated publication schedule was prominently displayed on the site.
