News Briefs

White wins FAI scholarship

Jay White, publisher and co-owner of The Munday Courier and Stonewall County Courier, is the 2004 recipient of the TPA First Amendment Institute Scholarship.

In its second year, the scholarship is awarded to a staff member from a TPA member newspaper and pays the tuition for the recipient to attend the institute sponsored by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

White is publisher and owner of both newspapers. He purchased the Munday Courier with wife Cynthia in July 1998 and the Stonewall County Courier in Aspermont in 1999. The couple added a four-unit web press in Haskell in 2000.

Prior to the newspaper business, White was a chemical plant manager in Maryland and Texas from 1995-98 and from 1972-85 he toured the United States and Canada with music groups and recorded sound tracks for two film companies and a variety of artists. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in English in the class of 1972.

“I think I will add unique small town insight into the daily problems we all face in dealing with attempts to circumvent our First Amendment rights,” White wrote in his application letter.

As the 2004 scholarship recipient, White will attend four sessions of the institute — freedom of speech, March 5-6 in Dallas; freedom of the press, May 14-15 in San Antonio; freedom of religion, July 23-24 in Houston; and freedom of assembly and petition, Sept. 29-30 in Austin.

Muleshoe changes owner

MULESHOE — The Muleshoe Journal sold Jan. 5 to CJB Publications Inc. and Chris and Joye Bradford.

Scot and Lisa Stinnett sold the newspaper after opting to spend more time in Fort Sumner, N.M. where their children attend school. The couple also own the Clovis (N.M.) Livestock Market News and the De Baca County News in Fort Sumner.

The Bradfords also own and publish the Castro County News in Dimmitt and the Olton Enterprise.

They do not plan any major changes at the Journal, which was founded in 1919.

Last year the Journal merged with sister twin weekly the Bailey County Journal, which was published on Sundays in Muleshoe and was founded in 1960.

2 papers complete merger

FRIONA — On Jan. 1 the weeklies Bovina Blade and Friona Star merged and continued to publish as the Friona Star.

Ron Carr purchased the newspapers last summer and decided that it made financial sense to merge the two small weeklies that were overlapping each other.

The Star, founded in 1925, has since expanded its page count and includes news from both communities. The weekly reported 1,325 paid circulation on its October Statement of Ownership.

The Blade was founded in 1955 and reported on 644 paid circulation in October 2002.

Newspaper comes back to life

KERENS — The Kerens Tribune is back in business but actually never ceased publication.

The newspaper was reported to have closed in December but Donna York found a buyer who took over in a last-minute transaction that saved the 112-year-old weekly.

Former Kerens interim mayor and four-year city alderman Gail Christie purchased the newspaper shortly after New Year’s and published the first issue Jan. 8, apparently only missing one week of publication.

Houston daily unveils redesign

HOUSTON — On Feb. 9, the Daily Court Review unveiled its new logo, new look and new name DCR.

The new name and look allow the staff to move the focus off strictly the legal system and broaden its news scope to reach out to other areas of the Houston business community, including the financial, real estate and energy sectors.

The newspaper was founded in 1889.

Glitch exposes subscribers’credit cards on Internet

FORT WORTH — The Fort Worth Star-Telegram in January informed 174 subscribers that their credit card numbers were inadvertently accessible on the Internet for at least two years.

The file with the information was created as a test for an online subscription payment program and was immediately deleted after it was discovered Jan. 26.

The newspaper reported that the file was accessible beyond its computer firewall for about two years but no apparent misuse occurred.

An employee of the newspaper’s parent company Knight Ridder discovered the file while searching for his name on the Internet.