The Press and Standard 4.17

The Press and Standard began publication in 1877 as a weekly newspaper owned by the Wightman Smoak family. In December, 1992, the publication was purchased by Smith Newspapers, of Ft. Payne, Ala. Soon afterward, The Press and Standard began publishing twice a week. All during its history, The Press and Standard has won numerous state and national awards, and has often been awarded the General Excellence award, signifying it as the best overall semi-weekly newspaper in South Carolina.

The Press and Standard serves Walterboro, Colleton County, a rural, coastal county between Charleston County and Beaufort County. The Press is committed to offering relevant local news and information to the residents of Colleton County. We seek to provide you with quality and timely news, and with interactivity online. Interstate 95, connecting Maine to Florida, divides Colleton County into eastern and western portions. The east contains most of Walterboro, the largest community in Colleton County, and a big part of the Ashepoo, Combahee and South Edisto (ACE) Basin, which is one of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the east coast of the United States. The ACE Basin consists of approximately 350,000 acres of diverse habitats including pine and hardwood uplands, forested wetlands, fresh, brackish and salt water tidal marshes, barrier islands and beaches. The basin's unique estuarine system, the largest of its type in the state, provides invaluable habitat for a rich diversity of finfish and shellfish resources. The basin hosts a wealth of wildlife resources, including such endangered and threatened species as bald eagles, woodstorks, ospreys, loggerhead sea turtles and shortnose sturgeon, and offers a variety of recreational uses. West of I-95, Colleton County is more rural, with thousands of undisturbed acres of land.