Mark Atwood has joined the editorial staff of the River Cities Daily Tribune in Marble Falls. He also has worked as a reporter and editor for the Ennis Daily News, Joshua Star Tribune, Burnet Bulletin, and The Highlander.

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The Houston Chronicle announced three staff changes including the hiring of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist.

Cartoonist Nick Anderson joined the editorial page staff. He was named as the best political cartoonist last year by the Pulitzer committee. Anderson came from the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., which he joined in 1991. His cartoons have been featured in Newsweek, The New York Times and USA Today and are syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. His work appears regularly in 70 newspapers.

Mark Babineck has been named assistant state editor. He previously worked for nearly 10 years with The Associated Press and most recently had been with Reuters.

Dean Betz is the new online editor. He came from Advance Internet, where he was editor-in-chief of the Newhouse Group’s largest news site, NJ.com.

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Tina Baiter joined the Madisonville Meteor as reporter. Baiter graduated from Sam Houston State University Dec. 17 with a degree in journalism.

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Philip Billnitzer has accepted the editor job at The Wimberley View. He will continue to work as a weekend news anchor on KTSA radio, News-Talk 5-50, and as freelance writer for Houston Health & Fitness Sports Magazine.

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Garrett Bryce has been named managing editor of the Alvin Sun. Bryce has been a member of the staff since October 2003.

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Tracy Dang began working for the Colorado County Citizen as the new staff reporter. She came from sister paper the Madisonville Meteor, where she had been a reporter for nine months. The December Texas Press Messenger also reported that Dang is engaged to Binh Thai, a Houston-based computer consultant.

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Keri Davidson is a new reporter for the Western Observer in Anson. She previously taught English in South Korea for 18 months.

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Rollie Hyde, 1997-98 Texas Press Association past president and longtime Plainview Daily Herald publisher, recently joined the media mergers and acquisitions firm of W.B. Grimes & Co. as an associate. Hyde will handle merger and acquisition assignments in the southwest, mountain and plains states.

Hyde joins Grimes after 40 years of newspaper publishing, including the past 15 years for Hearst Corp.

Sandra Aven was named Hyde’s replacement as publisher in Plainview. She started at the paper in 1993 as office manager. Two years later she was named controller.

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Laura Kestner has been promoted to associate editor of the De Leon Free Press. Kestner previously worked at the Free Press as reporter and associate editor from 2002-04 before leaving for family reasons. She rejoined the newspaper, again as reporter, in July. Kestner also has worked as a writer and editor for the Dublin Progress, Dublin Citizen and Hico News Review.

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Elsa Molinar is the new bookkeeper for the Alpine Avalanche. She is an Alpine native and a 1998 Alpine High School graduate.

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Ray Quiroga was elevated from San Benito News managing editor to general manager/editor. He began his professional career at the News in the fall of 1998. He was named managing editor in November 2002.

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Randy Sanders is retiring as editor of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal after 36 years. He began in the sports department and rose through the ranks to become editor in 2000. Along the way, he served as city editor, Sunday/special projects editor, assistant managing editor, managing editor and executive editor. Sanders plans to continue to serve on the board of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

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The San Antonio Express-News announced a new publisher and the hiring of the paper’s first public editor.

Tom Stephenson, general manager and chief operating officer, was named president and publisher. He replaces  Larry Walker, who will serve as chairman, then retire at the end of 2006. Stephenson joined the Express-News in 1997 as senior vice president of operations and administration after a 22-year career with Knight Ridder.

Walker came to the paper in 1990. Walker will continue to oversee the Express-News Editorial Board and its endorsements. Stephenson will take a seat on the board.

Bob Richter rejoined the Express-News on Jan. 1 as the first public editor. He served as the deputy editorial page editor from 1987 until 2001. Richter came to work in the sports department of the San Antonio News in 1978. In 1984 he became the first Washington correspondent for the newly merged San Antonio Express & News. In 2001, he returned to reporting at the Austin bureau but in 2003 he left journalism to become spokesman for Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

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The Sealy News announced two staff additions.

Jackie Lea took over the duties of ad sales and joined the staff at the end of November. Kristen Ybarra joined the staff as a part-time editorial and sales assistant in December.

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Krista Simmons has been appointed executive editor of the Fort Worth Business Press. She previously served as the paper’s news editor. Simmons replaces Bill Thompson, who resigned to pursue other interests. Simmons joined the Business Press in November 2004 after working as the senior writer in the office of communications at Texas Wesleyan University.

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Texas Press Association this month hired a new staff member and will say goodbye to another.

Shawn Jones has joined Texas Press Association as an advertising account representative. He came from the Olney Enterprise where he was advertising director. Jones replaced senior account representative Randy Nettles who left in September to pursue other interests.

TPA periodicals consultant Harley Hitchcock will retire Jan. 31 after six years. During his tenure Hitchcock visited most of TPA’s 500 member newspapers, assisting with postal issues and saving countless dollars in mailing costs.

TPA has 12 employees.

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Karla Abernethy Thetford, won the Texas Classroom Teachers Association 2005-2006 Silver Apple award for excellence in reporting public education news with a circulation of less than 50,000. Abernethy-Thetford, a reporter with The Canyon News, earned the award while working as education reporter-lifestyles editor of the Hereford Brand for a series of stories in October 2004 that focused on the importance of career and vocational training.

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Rachel Toalson joined the Taylor Daily Press as lifestyles editor in December. Toalson most recently spent two years as a staff writer for the San Antonio Express-News.

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Holly Sulak Willis landed her first newspaper job as a summer intern at the El Campo Leader-News in 1988 following her junior year at the University of Texas at Austin. She returns to the Leader-News as a part-time reporter. From 1991-98 she worked in broadcast journalism at television stations in Texas and Memphis, Tenn.

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Tracy Zemke joined The Cameron Herald advertising staff. She worked nearly 15 years in the medical field.