Founded in 1886, The Winchester Star is a daily newspaper based in Winchester, Virginia covering the Shenandoah Valley area. The current Managing Editor is Maria Hileman. In March of 2018, The Winchester Star was bought by Ogden Newspapers, Inc, which is well-known to produce papers with right leaning editorial bias. In fact, since 1992, Ogden Newspapers, Inc has donated $408 thousand dollars to political parties, 93% of which went to Republicans.

Funded by / Ownership

The Winchester Star was owned by the Byrd Family since 1897, however in March of 2018 the paper was bought by The Ogden Newspapers, Inc., which publishes numerous small market newspapers around the eastern half of the USA. The paper is funded through both advertising and subscription fees.

Analysis / Bias

In review, The Winchester Star reports local news through reporters and utilizes minimal loaded words such as this: If shutdown drags on, region may suffer economic hit. National news is syndicated via the least biased Associated Press. Editorially, the Winchester Star typically endorses Republican candidates, however in 2016 they endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. The Opinion page has a section called “Our View” that presumably reflects the editorial positions of the newspaper. The stories in this section consistently lean right with headlines such as this: Trump a one-termer, by choice?. Further, Ogden Newspapers Inc., has faced scrutiny for directing its newspapers to endorse Republican candidates.

A factual search reveals that they have not failed a fact check.

Overall, we rate the Winchester Star Right-Center biased based on editorial positions that consistently lean right and High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing. (D. Van Zandt 12/27/2018)

Source: https://www.winchesterstar.com