Appalachia Today™ is a website devoted to news, travel, events, culture, and history in the Appalachian Mountains.

 

The site was founded in 2025 by Casey Nicholson of Greeneville, Tennessee.
 

The mission of Appalachia Today™ is threefold:

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1) To promote Appalachian community development in the 21st Century by reporting on news, events, and travel in the Appalachian region;

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2) To connect the contemporary Appalachian region with its rich history and culture; and, 

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3) To connect the area traditionally understood as "Appalachia" (the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, including coal country in the west and the Blue Ridge Mountains in the east) with the broader mountain community that stretches from the Appalachian regions of the Deep South to the mountains of New England and the Canadian Appalachians.

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Contact Information

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Casey Nicholson, Founding Editor and Site Administrator of Appalachia Today:

editor@AppalachiaToday.com

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Business Model & Advertising Inquiries

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Appalachia Today™ is a free-to-view publication owned and operated by Casey Nicholson of Greeneville, Tennessee.  The ambition is for Appalachia Today to always remain a free-to-view, free-to-read site, with little to no banner advertisements.  To this end, the site relies on gratuities and patronage for its business model. Here, gratuities refer to small contributions of $1 to $5 from readers who enjoy a certain story, with patronage reserved for monthly and annual "subscribers" who wish to support the site on a larger scale, or, in the case of monthly payments, to support the site on an ongoing and continuous basis.  Patrons give money in exchange for the value associated with the site's articles and services, even though there is no paywall required for access to stories, and no obligation to pay for content.

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Appalachia Today™ does use monetization features on third-party social media platforms which display the site's content.  Any and all advertisements displayed on third-party platforms are associated with the platforms themselves, as opposed to Appalachia Today.  The use of social media monetization helps keep AppalachiaToday.com free-to-view and free-to-read. 

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Appalachia Today™ does not employ native advertisements or sponsorship articles (advertorials) from paid sponsors.  This is to say that we do not offer a pay-to-write system for sponsored content.  However, the site does gladly offer free reviews and write-ups of Appalachia-based businesses, events, and attractions.  Any business and/or entity may request a review article, and we will work with your business to provide a spotlight article that is both fair and complimentary. Business owners, team members, and/or business entities themselves who appreciate our reviews are encouraged to give back to us by supporting us via the same Support avenues as any reader. 

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Trademark & Copyright Notice

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The AppalachiaToday.com web domain was acquired in January 2025 by Casey Nicholson, who worked on developing the site and the Appalachia Today™ brand before launching the site later that same year.  The brand name "Appalachia Today" and the associated mountain sunrise logo are trademarked, with Class 038 Registration Pending. Protection of Trademark is retroactive from the time the AppalachiaToday.com website was first registered, January 2025.  Unauthorized use of "Appalachia Today" as a brand name, especially for news or media purposes, is strictly prohibited. The creation and use of unauthorized social media accounts going by the name "Appalachia Today" or some derivative, as well as the use of the username or account name AppalachiaToday and its derivatives (@AppalachiaToday, etc.), is strictly prohibited.  

 

All work appearing on AppalachiaToday.com or promoted through its associated accounts on social media is copyrighted material, with all rights reserved.  Casey Nicholson is the copyright holder of all content associated with Appalachia Today™.  Works submitted to Appalachia Today™, such as guest articles and photographs shared with permission, are considered covered by this copyright notice, with collaborators working on a pre-arranged basis, be it volunteer or paid.  Collaborators forfeit right to copyright upon publication.

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Disclosure of Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

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The ambition of Appalachia Today™ is for the site to be an authentic representation of lived experience in the Appalachian Mountains.  To this end, Appalachia Today employs the philosophy that Artificial Intelligence (AI) should be used as a tool for good original writing from real persons, never as a replacement for human reporting or contributions. Stories appearing on Appalachia Today are always expressions of an author's views based on in-person reporting, or of human analysis of current events (e.g. summary articles of major news events covered by trusted news outlets).  This does not preclude the use of AI when used as a tool for the formatting of article layouts; proofreading and spellchecking; suggestions for revisions for tone, clarity, and professionalism; as well as template-style drafts of articles based on an author's original contributions for story prompts. Template drafts are always reviewed and revised substantively before publication.  Data claims provided by AI, including direct quotes and statistical analysis, are always fact checked prior to publication. Digitally rendered artwork generated by AI, including hyperrealistic images which could be mistaken for photographs, are always disclosed and attributed to AI on the article webpage. The goal is for Appalachia Today to consistently provide articles written in line with the ethics of professional journalism in the 21st Century.

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