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Karla Abernethy-Thetford has joined the staff of The Hereford Brand as general assignments reporter. She worked as a general assignments reporter at The Claude News and spent six years at The Canyon News where she left as the managing editor two years ago to work for the Canyon Independent School District.

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The American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors announced its Excellence-in- Feature-Writing contest winners and several Texas newspapers were honored:

General Feature First:  Tim Madigan, Fort Worth Star-Telegram;

Short Feature First:  Denise Gamino, Austin American-Statesman;

A&E Feature Third:  Andrew Marton, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A&E Commentary First:  Christopher Kelly, Fort Worth Star-Telegram; Second:  Ken Parish Perkins, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Headline Writing: Second:  Ponch Garcia, Austin American-Statesman

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The Bay City Tribune welcomed two new general assignment reporters, Erika Koenig and Michael Smith, and made one promotion.

Shelly Gormey has been named managing editor. Gormey joined the staff as a reporter in 2003.

Koenig graduated from Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University), majoring in mass communication with a specialty in print journalism. She was editor of the communication department’s weekly newsletter while at Texas State.

Smith attended Louisiana State University and majored in geography. He spent two years working for the state of Louisiana as a geographic information systems analyst.

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Neice Bell, former publisher of the Hill Country Recorder in Boerne, is the new advertising director for the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung. Bell, who has had a lifelong career with community newspapers, was advertising director for the Kerrville Daily Times for 16 years and advertising director for The Mountain Sun in Kerrville.

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Anna Boudreau has been promoted to news editor of the Stephenville Empire-Tribune. Boudreau joined the newspaper in December 2001 as part time photographer while continuing her education at Tarleton State University. Upon graduation in December 2002, she was promoted to staff writer and in November 2003 to lead writer.

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Ken Brodnax, an Odessa American columnist, has teamed with a local illustrator to produce a comedic collection of quips and characters designed to resonate with baby boomers. “You know the Bloom is off the Boom when ...” by Brodnax and illustrated by Reynaldo Leal was published by Bristol Publishing Co. of Lubbock. The newspaper is selling copies at its office.

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Lynnell Burkett, San Antonio Express-News editorial page editor, will step down at the end of the year to become a full-time time editorial writer. She will continue to write editorials and produce her Sunday column, which appears each week in the Insight section.

Bruce Davidson, a former political reporter and editor who now is the associate editorial page editor, will take over for Burkett at the end of the year.

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Elise S. Burroughs is the new executive director of the Society for News Design.

Burroughs succeeds Dave Gray, a founding SND member and executive director for the last eight years who retired at the end of May. Prior to joining SND, Burroughs was the director of technology conferences and manager of the New Media Federation for the Newspaper Association of America. She also served as executive editor of NAA’s Presstime magazine and had a stint as the publications director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

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Sarah Cockrell is the new editor for the Alvarado Star. Before joining the Star, she worked as an editor for The Collegian, the Tarrant County College newspaper while finishing her second year of school. Cockrell will graduate from the University of Texas at Arlington in December with a journalism degree.

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Brian Davidson joined The Stamford American as editor. He graduated from Texas Tech University with a bachelor of science degree in biology.

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Shawn Easter, former general manager and advertising manager of the Jacksboro Gazette-News and The Jack County Herald, is the new advertising manager at the Lake Country Sun in Graford.

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Four Texas newspapers received the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International’s Key Award for overall coverage of education June 17 in Austin during the group’s 75th annual convention.

Winners were the Lamesa Press-Reporter, Wharton Journal-Spectator, Brownsville Herald and the Muleshoe Journal. Delta Kappa Gamma Society International promotes excellence in education and personal and professional growth of women educators.

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The Galveston County Daily News announced changes in its advertising and circulation departments.

Pat Bell, formerly the circulation director, became director of sales. He first came to The Daily News as a retail account executive in April 1998, and in November 1998 he accepted the position of circulation promotion manager. In December 2002, Bell became circulation director.

Yvonne Mascarro has been named circulation director. She has worked at The Daily News since 2000, where she was previously circulation sales manager and Newspaper in Education coordinator. Before coming to The Daily News, she worked for The Brownsville Herald, The Seguin Gazette and The Valley Morning Star as education director.

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Shannon Hildreth has been promoted to retail advertising manager of the Tyler Courier-Times-Telegraph. Hildreth, current president of the Texas Newspaper Advertising Managers Association, has been employed at the Tyler paper for more than eight years, the past four as retail sales manager.

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The Jacksonville Daily Progress hired two new employees.

Toni Johnson is an advertising sales representative and joins the team after spending 12 years in administration and marketing.

Matt DeWalt has joined the staff as sports editor and came from his hometown San Diego. He received a degree in mass communication from Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Mo.

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Sandy Manning has been named features and opinion page editor for the Ennis Daily News. Manning has been covering Metroplex news for more than 20 years. She spent 15 years as special sections editor for a group of suburban newspapers in north Dallas and came to Ennis after five years at The Dallas Morning News.

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Lester Murray, a recent graduate of Southern Illinois University, joins the news staff at the Kilgore News Herald as a reporter. He served many years as a police officer in Fort Worth before moving into federal law enforcement in California and Illinois.

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Kathi Nailling is the new general manager of the Cedar Creek Pilot. She came from sister newspaper the Athens Daily Review where she served as advertising director for four years. Before that, Nailling was advertising director of the Pilot for eight years and spent 19 years with the Dallas Times Herald.

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Victor O. Obaseki, a 2003 graduate of the University of North Texas in Denton, is the newest staff writer for the Mineral Wells Index.

He replaces his one-time UNT classmate Lauren Grimm, who has taken a position with the Greenville Herald-Banner, a sister publication of the Index within the Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. family. Earlier this year, Obaseki completed a three-month internship as a staff writer for the Ocala Star-Banner in Ocala, Fla. through the Freedom Forum’s Chips Quinn Scholars Program.

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Shana Ogden is a new reporter for the Cleveland Advocate. She came from Bryan/College Station where she worked in insurance.

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The Paris News hired two staff writers and two interns and made one promotion.

Photographer Bill Ridder was promoted to photo chief.

Staff writer Charles Richards came out of a brief retirement after 25 years with The Associated Press.

Staff writer Danny Gallagher came from the Henderson Daily News.

Nikki Easter, an intern, is scheduled to graduate from Prairie View A&M University.

Josh Edwards, also an intern, plans to attend the University of North Texas this fall.

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