August 2002, News Briefs |
12-year-old newspaper gets only 2nd owner
DUBLIN — The Dublin Citizen has a new owner, only the second in its 12-year history.
On Aug. 1 Karen Wright sold the weekly, which she established in 1990, to Mac B. McKinnon. When the newspaper was founded, there was a long-established weekly that had been purchased by a newspaper group but Wright’s newspaper soon was the only one in Dublin.
McKinnon, a 1961 Dublin High School graduate, has a long history with Texas newspapers. He was state editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and owned the Colorado City Record, where he lived from 1971-80 before moving to Midland as news director of the NBC-TV affiliate.
He also owned and operated the Burnet Bulletin, Marble Falls Messenger and Bertram Enterprise from 1983-88. He was editor of the Pecos Enterprise from 1989-98 before moving to Colorado to become publisher of the Fort Morgan Times, a post he held until July.
Bill Berger of Associated Texas Newspapers helped McKinnon sell the Burnet newspaper in 1988 and assisted in the sale between Wright and McKinnon.
Examiner changes hands
NAVASOTA — Grimes County natives Edna Keasling and Hank Hargrave are among an ownership group that purchased The Examiner. The group, Navasota Publications Inc., purchased The Examiner from the Wesner family.
Navasota Publications Inc., which also includes among its owners several people associated with Granite Publications, officially took control of The Examiner on Aug. 1.
Keasling will serve as editor and publisher and will be responsible for day-to-day operation of the weekly newspaper. She also will serve as president of Navasota Publications Inc.
Hargrave, a former staff writer for The Examiner, will serve as vice president of Navasota Publications Inc. He will continue in his current role as editor and publisher of The Madisonville Meteor, which also is associated with Granite Publications.
Keasling was editor and publisher of The Boerne Star, a semiweekly also associated with Granite Publications, since January 1998. Prior to that, she had served as editor and publisher of The Madisonville Meteor since 1992.
Hargrave joined The Madisonville Meteor in July 1995 as managing editor, and took over as editor and publisher in January 1998.
Other publications associated with Burnet-based Granite Publications include weeklies Alpine Avalanche, Bandera Bulletin, The Cameron Herald, Colorado County Citizen, Elgin Courier, Fort Stockton Pioneer, Hill Country News (Cedar Park), Marlin Democrat and Thorndale Champion; semiweeklies Sealy News and Gonzales Inquirer; and the Taylor Daily Press.
The Wesners own the Blanco County News, Llano News, Mason County News and San Saba News, as well as two newspapers in Oklahoma.
Throckmorton has new owner
THROCKMORTON — On Aug. 1 Terry Armstrong became the full-time owner, publisher and editor of the Throckmorton Tribune. She had been working at the newspaper since May.
She bought the 116-year-old newspaper from Cecil and Joyce Mayes.
Income vs. relocation research available online
AUSTIN — The Austin American-Statesman is making available to Texas newspapers and researchers the results of a demographic study used for a July 21 story. Conducted by former University of Texas sociologist Robert Cushing, the study tracks the movement of people and their income within Texas from 1992 to 2000.
The Internal Revenue Service collects data on taxpayers who move. The agency records the number of returns, the number of exemptions and the gross income that leaves every county in the United States, and the IRS records the same information for those entering every county. The IRS estimates this system accounts for at least 80 percent of the people in the United States.
The data are available online www.statesman.com/specialreports/citiesofideas/or in an Excel spreadsheet available by e-mail at bbishop@statesman.com.
As an example, the information shows all the returns, exemptions and income that left El Paso for Lubbock, and Lubbock for El Paso. All 27 Texas metropolitan statistical areas are included, as is a category for rural Texas.
The American-Statesman is making the data available to newspapers at no cost, asking only that credit for the data be given to the newspaper and Cushing.
Questions about the data or its use should be directed to Bill Bishop at the Statesman, 512-445-3634, or bbishop@statesman.com.
Freedom Communications to keep newspapers in family
IRVINE, Calif. — Shareholders of family-owned Freedom Communications Inc., which owns the Odessa American, The Monitor in McAllen, the Brownsville Herald and Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, have opted to transfer ownership on to the fourth generation, now in its 20s and 30s. The shareholders of Freedom, which owns 28 daily and 37 weekly newspapers and eight television stations, met this month to consider a range of options including a share buyback, an employee stock program, an initial public offering and an outright sale.
Literacy Day tab available
International Literacy Day is Sept. 8 and the Newspaper Association of America Foundation is making “See Clearly: Read,” a special 8-page tab, available free. Newspapers must print their own copies but the layout and design is camera-ready and provided on a CD-ROM in QuarkXPress and PDF. To order contact Jim Abbott at 703-902-1730 or abboj@naa.org.