After nearly 62 years in publication, the Royalty family announced the end publication for The Sentinel, the family-owned and operated newspaper in Radcliff.
In an article printed Thursday in the newspaper, editor and publisher Marlene Royalty Lawson said it was a decision that did not come easily, but one that was made nearly a year ago when her late brother, Ralph, was diagnosed with stage four cancer.
“In our family, we’ve always done a lot of ‘suggesting’ and not a lot of ‘telling’ or demanding,’ ” she said. “While sitting with Ralph in the hospital, and later at his bedside at home, he suggested to me that we should discontinue the paper. He suggested to me that we should spend less time making a living and more time making a life. He suggested that we should concentrate on our own life stories rather than telling the stories of others, which — as persons with printer’s ink running through our veins — we had always done.”
The family patriarch, James H. Royalty, died in February of 2021.
Royalty Printing, the newspaper’s parent company, will continue to do commercial printing.
Most subscribers are being mailed a refund check for the time they have remaining on their accounts, according to The Sentinel. Cash will be returned to those with subscription expiration dates which fall between Feb. 2023 and Aug. 2023. Cash refunds may be obtained from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Tuesday and Wednesday in January and Jan 14 at 1558 Hill Street in Radcliff.