Houston County newspapers merge

Polk County Publishing Company Inc.’s owner, Alvin Holley, sold the Houston County Courier, a newspaper formerly in the PCPC group, to Kelly Nicol, owner and publisher of The Messenger, a competitor newspaper in Houston County. The merged newspapers are now the Houston County Messenger. The final issue of the Courier came out April 13.

By Emily Banks Wooten, editor@polkenterprise.com

PCPC Publisher Kelli Barnes made the announcement recently “with great emotion and mixed feelings.”

“In today’s media climate, I feel we are extremely blessed to have the opportunity to sell this paper for the Holley family, while also leaving Houston County with one strong community paper. As you all have heard in the news, many communities are losing their paper and many owners are unable to find suitable buyers,” Barnes said.

“Our heart is for each community to always have a newspaper. It’s better for a community to have one strong newspaper instead of two for the community to try to support,” Barnes said.

The Courier has served Houston County since 1890 and has had several owners during that time. Holley has owned the Courier for over 40 years, having purchased it from the Lamb family in 1980.

“We’ve enjoyed working with the staff of the Houston County Courier for all these years and the support we’ve received from the community. We’re proud of our association with Houston County. My health is primarily the reason I had to slow down. I had a heart transplant years ago and as time went on, I could do less and less. I just felt like it was the best thing to do while I had the opportunity to sell it,” Holley said.

The Messenger has been in existence since 1897. Nicol’s family bought it in 2001 and he and his wife, Toni Nicol, purchased it from his family in 2019. The newspaper comes out twice weekly, on Thursdays and Sundays.

“We’ll continue to publish twice a week. I think merging the papers together and having one paper will benefit the community. We will continue to serve the entire Houston County area as we have for the past several years.”

Nicol added that he does plan to continue publication of the full-color magazine Houston County Living, increasing publication from bi-annually to quarterly.

In conjunction with the merger, Nicol is also buying the existing Courier office building at 102 S. 7th St. in Crockett with plans to renovate it. Until renovations are completed, Nicol is renting an office in The Loft, a historic event venue located at 502 E. Houston Ave. in Crockett.

Barnes said the Courier has had its ups and downs, but in the past nine years has struggled financially, due in part to the fact it is the only newspaper in the PCPC group with a competitor newspaper in the same county.

“We are doing everything we can to help make this transition as smooth as possible for the employees at the Courier, customers/readers of the Courier, and the community of Houston County,” Barnes said.

PCPC comprises four newspapers – the Polk County Enterprise, the Tyler County Booster, the Trinity County News Standard and the San Jacinto News Times – and three full-color magazines – East Texan, Polk County Welcome Guide and Discover Tyler County.