publishing owner s sibray llc publisher david sibray editor mike friel founded 1999 headquarters beckley west virginia 25801 united states website wvexplorer.com west virginia explorer is an informational guide to the u.s. state of west virginia that has been published online at www.wvexplorer.com since 2000 . long classified as a travel guide it has since evolved into a compendium of resources for west virginia information . history edit established in 1999 by sibray & associates of beckley west virginia the publication was conceived to provide visitors with a journalistic alternative to information being provided through travel bureaus 1 . by 2002 however it had become the flagship for a network of independent informational sites that concerned west virginia and by 2005 was publishing more than 1 375 000 pages on the web 2 . in 2011 sibray & associates moved to disengage west virginia explorer from its association with other affiliates and transferred rights to the publication to sibray limited liability company a public relations firm specializing in the dissemination of travel information . later that year david sibray as publisher was named in a trademark dispute filed by the new river gorge bridge day commission over use of the name bridge day 3 which had been employed since 2002 by the publisher of wvbridgeday.com . however the commission in 2012 dropped its suit against sibray who successfully claimed that neither he nor west virginia explorer had interest in the ownership or publication of the bridge day site . in 2013 sibray announced plans to publish a mobile ready version of the site to include more than 5 000 pages of information that would encourage social media activity and would expand its scope of operations to include the publication of news . the new version of the site was quietly launched in january 2014 . also in 2014 the publisher announced plans to open content provision to named contributors . unlike earlier versions which included the work of a limited number of untitled authors the 2013 version has begun to rely of correspondent authorship and contributors for content . the work of more than 20 writers editors and photographers has been incorporated into the publication . sibray then said he saw no reason the publication should not open its pages to unlimited contribution . 5 references edit 1 . dmoz open directory project january 2 2007 wv explorer sponsored guide to west virginia tourist destinations with links to affiliated sites . http www.dmoz.org regional north america united states west virginia travel and tourism travel guides 2 . pace fred october 28 2005 local tourism firm goes national . the register herald beckley w.va . http www.register herald.com business x519053219 local tourism firm goes national 3 . taylor zack september 8 2011 bridge day organizers sue creators of unofficial website charleston daily mail charleston w.va . http www.charlestondailymail.com ap aptopstories 201109080116 4 . misadventure of a present day keeper january 25 2006 http whereismavis.com 2006 01 mavis manor joins the wv explorer travel guide 5 . our story june 7 2014 http wvexplorer.com about us story external links edit west virginia explorer official website http wvexplorer.com facebook account for west virginia explorer https www.facebook.com wvexplorer retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wvexplorer & oldid 611971611 categories west virginia mediacompanies based in west virginia1999 establishments in west virginia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 7 june 2014 at 17 31 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view