Edinburg newspaper ceases daily publication

EDINBURG — The Edinburg Daily Review ceased publishing as a daily Feb. 23.

The 91-year-old publication was scaled back from a five-day newspaper to printing Wednesday and weekend (Sunday) morning editions.

The revamped eight-page Edinburg Review will now be free and no longer delivered door-to-door to residents.

“Primarily, a lot of the news we have in our paper right now is state and national news, which people are getting on television or national papers,” Pearl Austin Mathis, publisher and editor, told The Monitor in McAllen. “I don’t think that’s the reason they are taking the paper. They want our paper for Edinburg news. That’s what we are going to give them. We figure we can fill two papers a week with Edinburg news.”

New owners take over Bosque County

MERIDIAN — Evan Moore and Dianna Hunt Moore purchased the Bosque County News, effective April 1.

The Moores purchased the weekly paper from its former owner, Robby James, who had been publisher since 1998.

“Robby James has done a good job of building the newspaper,” said Evan Moore. “We want to continue what he’s started and focus on the people and the communities of Bosque County.”

Evan Moore recently accepted a buy-out after 25 years at the Houston Chronicle, where he had worked as a reporter, assistant suburban editor, assistant city editor and, most recently, as a reporter-at-large. He is a former reporter and state editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and spent nearly a year covering the Cullen Davis trial in Amarillo. He also worked for The Dallas Morning News.

Moore has won numerous journalism awards, including the Texas Institute of Letter’s Stanley Walker award for best journalism in a newspaper or Sunday supplement.

The paper will be owned by DEM Publishing, LLC, a corporation formed by Moore and his wife, Dianna Hunt Moore, an assistant governmental affairs editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Bill Berger of Associated Texas Newspapers Inc. represented the sellers.

Zapata weekly sold

ZAPATA — Karran Westerman is the new owner and publisher of the Zapata County News. She purchased the weekly from former owner and publisher Mark Henry. Henry still owns and publishes the Lake Cities Sun in Lake Dallas.

Midland launches community cyberchat

MIDLAND — The Midland Reporter-Telegram added a new online forum where people discuss everything from politics to public potties on its Web site www.mywesttexas.com.

The forum section is accessed by clicking Open Forum at the top of the Web site or by going directly to www.myopenforum.com.