July 2002, News Briefs |
Floods stay out this time
NEW BRAUNFELS — (AP) In October 1998, Herald-Zeitung Publisher Doug Toney and staff waded through several feet of water to salvage the newspaper’s computers, but nearly everything else was lost in the deluge. This year, at least, the water stayed outside the building.
Still, earlier this month Toney found himself again packing up the computers and pens and pencils to reach higher ground on the recommendation of authorities. For three days, the paper operated from the production building, which had been wired after the 1998 flood for just such an emergency.
“Much of what we learned from revamping our disaster plan in ’98 was very helpful,” Toney said.
Flour Bluff founder retires after 26 years
FLOUR BLUFF — Flour Bluff Sun founder and publisher Marie Speer retired June 30 and sold the newspaper she started 26 years ago to Texas Coast Publications, Inc.
The Speer family founded the newspaper and Coastal Bend Sun with the first issue dated April 22, 1976. Both newspapers will be consolidated under one flag with the new ownership.
“The problem with running a newspaper is that you just can’t stop,” Marie Speer wrote in one of her final issues. “The weeks roll by, and there is always another issue to get out.”
Texas Coast Publications, Inc. is a new company formed by Mark Henry, Sean French and Bill DeFries.
Henry, former president of Granite Publications, and French, former publisher of The Highlander in Marble Falls, recently purchased the Zapata County News.
DeFries, former editor and assistant publisher of the Aransas Pass Progress and Ingleside Index, will serve as the new editor and publisher responsible for all aspects of the operation.
“We feel very good about the acquisition of Marie’s papers and even better about the guy who will be running things,” Henry said. “We believe Bill will publish a newspaper that truly serves the best interests of the communities in the coverage area.”
DeFries said he hopes to make the consolidated weekly newspaper a product that will serve Flour Bluff, North Padre Island and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. One of the first changes DeFries made was to take the newspaper from a tabloid to a broadsheet format with color.
DeFries is joined at The Sun by Evonne Love on the advertising side. She began her newspaper career with the Waco Tribune-Herald in 1986 and has worked at the Austin American-Statesman and The Highlander.
Family adds another Hill Country weekly
BLANCO — The Wesner family added another weekly to their Central Texas holdings in purchasing the Blanco County News.
Roy McNett, editor and publisher for 20 years, sold the newspaper and took early retirement following recent health problems and heart surgery. He bought the newspaper in 1982 from Garrett Newspapers, Inc.
“I was hoping to match the former Blanco County News publisher Jimmy Houck’s 25 years as editor, but my doctor is urging me to reduce stress by taking this ‘early retirement,’” McNett said.
Scott Wesner is the new publisher. He also is publisher of the Mason News.
“Blanco has always been one of our favorite Hill Country communities,” Scott Wesner said.
His father Ken Wesner is publisher of the Llano News and San Saba Star and brother Brett Wesner is publisher of The Examiner in Navasota. The family also owns two weeklies in Oklahoma.
One of the first changes was to rehire Sheryl Smith-Rodgers as editor. Smith-Rodgers began working at the newspaper in 1989 as reporter/photographer. In September 2000 she became news editor. Since January she has been on sabbatical from the newspaper.
Rickenbacher Media served as broker for the transaction.
Burkburnett changes owners
BURKBURNETT — Longtime Burkburnett Informer/Star publisher S.J. McBeath retired in May and sold the newspaper.
The McBeath family owned the newspaper since 1973 and the publisher’s son Sean McBeath served as editor since 1981. He thanked the loyal readers and advertisers.
“Without their support, the McBeath family couldn’t have been successful in publishing the newspaper for the last 29 years since my dad purchased it in 1973,” Sean McBeath said.
Larry Crabtree, publisher of the Vernon Daily Record, and other publishers in the Roberts Group purchased the newspaper. No personnel changes were planned other than the management.
“We are excited about and look forward to working with this already-assembled team to provide the Burkburnett area with a publication that will always be a vital part of this progressive area,” Crabtree said.
HCN finds new partner in TV station
HOUSTON — Houston Community Newspapers has joined forces with KPRC-TV to form a news-sharing relationship much like other partnerships built around media convergence.
Through a collaborative effort the newspaper group, which includes dailies The Courier in Conroe and Pasadena Citizen, and television station will share news tips and resources such as weather information, Web site links and enterprise reporting.
Shared stories on the air will carry an animated graphic with the newspaper’s masthead and partnered stories in the paper will carry attribution at the end.
Scholars to convene in Texas for 25th birthday
SAN MARCOS — On Nov. 1-2 scholars from eight states will meet at Southwest Texas State University to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Southwest Education Council for Journalism and Mass Communication.
The event marks a quarter century of a Texas grassroots organization that has grown to 45 member schools in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.
For more information contact Fred Blevens, 512-245-3484 or e-mail fred@swt.edu.
ABC numbers are in
The latest Audit Bureau of Circulations figures are in and all of Texas’ metropolitan dailies are in the Top 100.
The Houston Chronicle came in at number 12 with 549,440 and The Dallas Morning News was right behind at 497,968. The San Antonio Express-News was number 44 with 226,750 and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram was 46th with 225,509. The Austin American-Statesman rounded out the Texas bunch at 58th with 190,046.
Media groups sue Web company over pop-up ads
NEW YORK — Several of the nation’s largest news publishers have sued Internet advertising company Gator over software that triggers pop-up ads on their Web sites.
The suit was filed in June in U.S. District Court in Virginia by a group that includes parent companies of The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. The digital division of Knight-Ridder, which publishes the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, also is a plaintiff.
The suit calls Gator “a parasite on the Web that free rides on the content of others” and seeks an injunction and unspecified damages.
California-based Gator claims that its ad network has 22 million active users and 400 advertisers.