Regional press associations offer unique experience
By Bob Brincefield, TPA President
The first official duty on the calendar for the new TPA president is attending the summer convention of the West Texas Press Association. The event was a good way for me to begin my tenure. Carol and I have made many friends since we became members of the regional association and attending their convention is something we look forward to each year. 
Three weeks into the job I didn’t have much to report to the group, but having Dwight McKenzie and Joel Allis from the TPA office in attendance gave me the opportunity to talk about how TPA staff members are available to help member newspapers with advice, training and technical assistance.
Later, during the ride home I was struck by the uniqueness of the press association landscape in Texas. The two previous states where I have worked had one press association. There are seven in Texas. The two statewide organizations TPA and the Texas Daily Newspaper Association are somewhat atypical by themselves, but when five regional associations are added to the mix the arrangement becomes truly unique.
The WTPA convention site, Odessa, was a four-hour drive from Brownwood, which is in the center of the state. During the drive I started to gain some insight into why regional associations necessarily came into existence. I was imagining what the drive must have been like in 1926 when WTPA formed. Today there are freeways and automobiles that can handle 70-mph speed limits with ease. That was not the case for conventioneers heading to the first convention in Sweetwater in 1927.
Fort Worth is reputed by some to be where West Texas begins. I guess El Paso is the end. In between the two cities there is a lot of real estate. One can imagine how long a trip to Odessa must have taken for some members in 1920s vintage automobiles and on roadways of the era.
Time and distance may not have been the only reasons prompting the development of the fractional organizations. The commonality of economic, social and political characteristics of the various regions in the state undoubtedly played a role in the press association development. Texas is a huge state and the differences between areas like the gulf coast and the Panhandle are numerous. Parochial issues and concerns may well have received more immediate and in-depth attention in smaller, more homogeneous groups.
TPA has 510 paid circulation newspaper members spread across the largest state in the U.S. Of the member papers, 85 of them are dailies and 423 publish less than daily. In 1921, 14 men from 16 daily newspapers formed the Texas Daily Newspaper Association. According to their website, the group organized over concern for a rapidly developing organized labor movement in the country and the effect that movement would have if it spread into the state’s daily newspapers with their large numbers of employees.
Since all of the press groups were organized by and for Texans, it is not surprising that there would be some that boast their organization is the biggest. On their website the South Texas Press Association reports they are the largest regional press association in the nation. West Texas Press Association claims they are the largest (in geographic area) in the world. Meanwhile, TDNA says they are the largest association restricted to only daily newspapers in the nation.
In terms of age, the Panhandle Press Association is the oldest regional association. The members celebrated their 100th convention this past spring in Canadian. North and East, like WTPA, organized in 1926. South Texas Press Association formed a year later in 1927, and Gulf Coast organized in 1938.
Carol and I attended our first TPA convention in 1981 in Fort Worth. It was not until we came to Brownwood in 1997 that we became active in a regional association.
I had often heard that it is in the regional associations where the work is really done. For years I did not understand what was meant by that statement. Enlightenment came when I was asked to become a member of the WTPA board of directors.
One quickly gains an appreciation of the TPA staff. At the regional level it is the board of directors and perhaps a part-time employee that seeks new members and financial sponsors to fund the organization. They organize better newspaper contests, find judges, plan annual conventions, get speakers and write stories and take photos to report on the event—all the while trying to stay within a small budget. It can be a daunting task but it teaches newspaper association work and builds strong bonds between members.
The member newspapers of the five regional associations are well represented in TPA. The presidents and vice presidents of the five regional associations serve on the TPA board of directors during their terms in office. Those directors bring the work ethic developed at the regional level to the state organization. The experience gained on the regional boards helps foster an exchange of ideas among members of the TPA board and staff and that strengthens TPA.
To say the regional associations are a microcosm of TPA may be a stretch, but perhaps not too far off the mark. I am told that each regional association has its own unique character and personality. I am looking forward to finding out.
The landscape of press associations in other states may be different than it is in Texas. Those organizations may serve the member newspapers well, but in Texas the network of regional press associations complement TPA and provide strength to the state organization. |