August 2005

Newsmakers

Jonathan Blundell left his post as editor of the Belton Journal to become editor of free sister newspaper The Harker Heights Evening Star.

James Love, who edited the Evening Star, became editor for the Journal.

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Jennifer Crump is the new community editor for the Allen American. She is a recent graduate of Texas A&M Commerce.

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The Elgin Courier welcomed two new sales staff members -- Erin Heine and Sandy Murphree, who rejoined the staff. Murphree previously worked at the Courier for 10 years as a writer and recently retired from the University of Texas.

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Highland Lakes Newspapers Group announced several staff changes.

Chris Crews has been appointed editor of the group that includes The Highlander in Marble Falls, Burnet Bulletin, Llano Buzz and Kingsland Current. Crews had been editor of the Bulletin since 2004. He succeeds Gary Parsons.

New hires at the Highlander are reporter and feature writer Angela Timmons and sports editor Chuck Licata.

Steve Habel was promoted to regional sports director for the newspaper group. Returning to head up the Burnet office is Mark Atwood.

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Michael V. Hannigan is the new editor of the Athens Daily Review. He started his journalism career as a general assignments reporter at the Review more than a decade ago and has worked at four of the company’s newspapers, including two editor positions. Most recently, Hannigan was editor of The Malakoff News.

Dan Gordon also joined the Daily Review as its newest reporter. He is a 2005 graduate of Texas Wesleyan University.

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Jennifer Kuhn has joined the editorial staff of the Del Rio News-Herald as a writer.

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Keith Horton is the newest member of The Buffalo Press. He will be in charge of sales and also taking on some of the writing duties.

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Jennifer Stone has been named editor of The Malakoff News. She had worked for the Athens Daily Review for more than six years.

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Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick recently appointed several newspaper men to the Texas Elections Advisory Committee.

Newspaper members include Midland Reporter-Telegram publisher Charles A. Spence, Odessa American publisher Patrick Canty and Austin American-Statesman reporter Mike Ward.

The Texas Elections Advisory Committee evaluates the tabulation of unofficial election returns for the primary and general elections, and makes recommendations regarding the process it considers appropriate.

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Gary Willmon has been named city editor of the Lufkin Daily News. Willmon had worked as editor of The Free Press in Diboll for the past 15 years, after working 14 years as a staff writer and sports editor for the Daily News.

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Michael Wilson, a former senior advertising executive for The Wall Street Journal, has been named vice president of advertising for the Austin American-Statesman. Wilson succeeds George Gutierrez, who earlier this year was named publisher of ¡ahora sí!, the Spanish weekly published in association with the Statesman. Wilson also had a stint selling advertising for The Dallas Morning News and was publisher of the Asian Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong.

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Winners have been named in the inaugural James S. Hogg Journalism Award for Mental Health Reporting by The University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

In the print category: first place Patrick Walker of the Waxahachie Daily Light for “Broken Dreams: Decuirs Hope Their Story Helps Change Attitudes;” second place Andrea Ball of the Austin American Statesman for “Hospitals Seeing More Mentally Ill;” and third place Marina Pisano of the San Antonio Express-News for “Mind-Body Connection.”

First place receives $1,000, second place receives $500 and third place receives $250.