Wilson County Advocate
Wilson County Advocate was a weekly newspaper in Lebanon, Tennessee, USA. Its circulation area covered all of Wilson County (located in Middle Tennessee) and its main focus was on county government and the city governments of Lebanon, Mt. Juliet, and Watertown, Tennessee.
The circulation varied from 5,000 to 15,000.
The Wilson County Advocate was founded in 1991 by Henry Clay Barry, Ernest Chandler, and Donald Gillette. Realizing the need for an alternative source of news that was not beholden to local political figures, The Newspaper specialized in exposes, inside information, satire, and hyperbole. The first issue hit the newsstands on June 19, 1991.
The paper's only print competitors were The Lebanon Democrat, which considered itself the definitive source of news for Lebanon and Wilson County and the Wilson World, a "good news" limited run weekly. Several feuds erupted between the Wilson County Advocate and the Lebanon Democrat during the history of the paper due to the upstart Wilson County Advocate's disdain for the traditional newspaper; however, there was never any serious competition between the two.
There were never more than four writers at The Wilson County Advocate. Ernest Chandler wrote the majority of the exposés under his own name and three pseudonyms, Henry Clay Barry wrote editorials and commentary under his own name, Don Gillette wrote news articles under three pseudonyms, commentary and editorials under his own name and was also the newspaper's resident political humorist, a character known as Jimmy Joe Meeker, M.Ph.D. Alan Barry wrote under his own name and "Bruce Dunn". The paper's guest editor, Jack Bowers, contributed an article almost every week after the first few months of operation.
Eventually, to take the burden off the other writers, Stephen Marks was hired as the only "real" reporter on the paper's staff.
The Wilson County Advocate never made a profit. The paper started with a very sound core of advertisers but as soon as it began stepping on toes (which was almost immediately), the would-be politicians started making phone calls and vandalizing the newspaper boxes, so in less than a year all advertising revenue was gone. After that, the newspaper paid for printing costs solely through subscription revenues.
Ernest Chandler served as Editor from 1991 through 1992. Don Gillette served as Editor in Chief from 1992 through 1994 and left that position in January of that year. The Wilson County Advocate ceased publishing in March, 1994.