News Briefs

Denison daily drops to semi

DENISON — The Denison Daily Post on April 2 cut back its publishing schedule to semiweekly and became The Denison Post.

The newspaper, which launched as a weekly in April 2000 and went daily in June 2001, will now publish Sundays and Wednesdays with all local content and no wire stories. Publisher Chris Allen said the move to be all local has received overwhelming community response and more news tips from readers than ever before.

Some staff restructuring and the elimination of six positions are part of the frequency change with Dwayne Wilder as features editor, Ann Lowry as society editor, Dorothy N. Fowler as news editor and sports editor Sam Mitchell, sports writer Rich Hilliard and reporter Tom Russell retaining current roles.

The newspaper, which reported 2,508 paid circulation on its October postal statement, became a daily less than two years ago under an unusual deal with the city’s economic and development board, which awarded Denison Newspaper Corp. $100,000 with stipulations that the newspaper maintain a minimum payroll and employ at least 20 people.

With the change, Texas now has 90 daily, 62 semiweekly and 378 weekly paid newspapers.

Van Alstyne changes hands

VAN ALSTYNE — Ric and Tracy Linnebur have sold the Van Alstyne Leader to Will Cain, owner of Cain Communications and former editor of the Johnson City Record-Courier and Llano News.

The sale includes the free weekly Anna-Melissa Tribune, launched in spring 2002. The Linneburs and LinTex Publishing had owned the Leader for three years.

Cain said some enhancements will be made to the Leader’s design and layout but no drastic changes are planned. Jeff Wood will continue as editor.

Abilene finds gold in agriculture ads

ABILENE — The Abilene Reporter-News kicked off a new classified section last month that launched the first day with 160 ads.

The Trading Post is a new feature of the classifieds that pools all the agriculture, farm and ranch, and livestock ads into one place. The newspaper hoped to kick it off with a quarter-page section but the ads nearly filled a whole classified page, according to advertising director Jim Grahn.

Agricultural ads have run in the newspaper for a long time but previously did not have their own place. The Trading Post also will feature a daily column by local agriculture personalities.

The Wichita Falls Times Record News also launched the section last month. Both newspapers, which are owned by E.W. Scripps Co., are following the lead set by sister newspaper the San Angelo Standard-Times, which has been running the section for several years.

Pampa Online begins subscription access fees

PAMPA — The Pampa News revamped its Web site news.pampa.com last month and began subscription-based access to the online version.

Subscriptions to the online version cost the same as the printed newspaper. Teasers to each story are provided on the new Web site but a link to “get the full story” is only active for subscribers.

The move is part of a slow but growing trend among newspapers toward online access fees. Several newspapers also are offering fee-based e-versions, which are digital replicas of the print copy.

ISWNE offers columns, editorials on war in Iraq

The International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors has posted more than 20 editorials and columns about the war in Iraq on its Web site. Newspapers can download and reprint the columns if they notify the writer in advance. The pieces represent varying perspectives from editors in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Ireland. Log onto www.iswne.org and click on editorials.

DallasNews.com is tops 

DALLAS — DallasNews.com, the site of The Dallas Morning News, was cited as the number one local news and information online portal in the DFW area for 2002 for attracting the most consistent and largest at-home and at-work unique audience reported by Nielsen/Net Ratings.