The Mountain Conservative
No agenda. No apologies. Real news for Eastern Kentucky.
EST. 2025·SERVING LAWRENCE, MARTIN, JOHNSON & FLOYD COUNTIES
NO SPIN. NO AGENDA. LAUNCHING SOON.
A newspaper built for right here.
Government accountability and the history of Eastern Kentucky — reported straight, without an agenda. We’re building the newsroom these four counties don’t have: independent, thorough, and answerable only to the people who read it.
Where we cover
Four counties, one newsroom. If it happens at your courthouse, your school board, or your kitchen table, we want to know about it.
Lawrence
Martin
Johnson
Floyd
Our focus
Local government should be easy to watch and hard to hide from. That means a reporter in the room for the fiscal court meeting, a records request when something doesn’t add up, and a plain-English explanation of what was actually decided — the kind of coverage small towns used to be able to count on.
We won’t pretend to a neutrality we don’t have, but we’ll always tell you when you’re reading opinion instead of news. Sources will be named. And this region’s history gets the same care as its politics — both are part of the record here.
Real journalism doesn’t happen in Frankfort or Washington — it happens at the courthouse, the school board meeting, and the kitchen table down the road.
Views from our counties
Tell us what only the elders know
Every holler has a history the history books never bothered with.
The store that used to sit on the corner. The flood everyone still talks about. The family that built the first road up the ridge with their own hands. If you know a piece of this region’s history, we want to help you record it before it’s lost.
- A memory, a photograph, or an old newspaper clipping
- The names and place involved, as best you know them
- Your own connection to the story, if you’d like to share it
Now hiring
Freelance writers & stringers, wanted.
We’re looking for people who already know these counties — who can sit through a three-hour fiscal court meeting, request the right records, and write it up straight. No journalism degree required, just the follow-through to see a story through.
- County government and public meeting coverage
- Community history and human-interest pieces
- Photography from around the region