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The Full Story

The Monitor has been informing northern Greenville County since 1970 and was founded by Larry Atkins as a single sheet publication after the daily newspaper in the area basically ignored the achievements of the Slater-Marietta High School basketball team.  Within weeks Atkins gained full page advertising from a Marietta business man and experienced great growth across Greenville County, SC.

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Through the years Atkins changed the name of the publication from Community News to The Mountain Monitor, The UpState Monitor and Travelers Rest Monitor but no matter the name, his brand or theme was always, "Seek the truth and report it."  That included many battles for the citizens of northern Greenville County from the exposure and ousting of a corrupt county sheriff, exposing corporate espionage, expressing the great need for a northern Greenville County hospital, and defending the defenseless when they had no where to turn for help. Atkins was a bulldog journalist.

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In the late 1970's Roger Jewell joined Atkins and became the sports editor.  In the mid 1990's Jewell's duties expanded to covering crime in addition to municipal and county government.  Jewell quickly delved in to a Freedom of Information battle against Travelers Rest city government and police during a period when a "Bully Cop" preyed upon town and county citizens.  At the same time he provided consistent reporting on a missing person's case.  It was during this time period that an arsonist attempted to burn down the Monitor's office in Marrietta,SC.  Those journalism tasks earned Jewell the Society of Professional Journalists' National Sunshine Award during the SPJ's national meeting in Tampa, Florida.  After earning the national recognition, Jewell was promoted to Managing Editor of The Monitor.  More awards were earned from the South Carolina Press Association which included the SCPA's Public Service Award,  two Sports Columnist Awards, and the first ever Assertive Journalism Award.  In 2012 Jewell became owner, publisher and editor of the Monitor.

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In more recent years The Monitor has incorporated electronic journalism with the birth of www.travelersrestmonitor.net.   Our brand and reputation remains the same as it did in 1970, "Seek the truth and report it.

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