Newsmakers

Autumn Barton joined C&S Media’s Farmersville Times and Princeton Herald as staff writer. She is a graduate of Baylor University where she worked for the Lariat.

Wyatt Buchanan joined the Plainview Daily Herald as a Hearst Fellow. He served as a general reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle for eight months and after his four-month stint in Plainview will work at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer before finishing at the Hearst Washington bureau. In other news at the Herald, Tim Fox has been named sports editor. He was a sports intern for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and Fox News and local two channels.

Josh Edwards received The Paris News’ 2003-04 Journalism Scholarship Award. He is a student at Paris Junior College and works part-time at the newspaper as well as serving as incoming editor of the school’s newspaper.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram announced several staff changesKathy Vetter, managing editor for investigations, was named managing editor/enterprise. Lois Norder, managing editor the for the Northeast Tarrant County edition, became managing editor/investigations. Ellen Alfano, managing editor for sports, features, online and graphics, added photography. Larry Lutz, managing editor for the Arlington edition, added Northeast Tarrant. Jean Marie Brown, metro editor, was promoted to assistant managing editor for Arlington. Lee Williams, metro editor for Northeast Tarrant, became metro editor for Fort Worth. Theresa Humphrey, metro editor in Arlington, became metro editor for Northeast Tarrant. Kristin Sullivan, assistant metro editor Arlington, became metro editor there. Bruce Maxwell, assistant Arlington photo director, became photo director for Northeast Tarrant succeeding Mark Rogers who became photo director/enterprise. Sarah Yoest Pederson became Sunday coordinator, replacing Maricar Estrella, who is an assistant metro editor for Northeast Tarrant.

Suzy Foster joined the Mineral Wells Index as a reporter covering education, county government and the hospital district. She has worked for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, Hood County News, Dublin Citizen and a magazine. She replaced Trey Pope who left to pursue other interests.

Robert J. Harty joined Star Community Newspapers as general manager responsible for advertising sales, marketing and circulation. He most recently was publisher of Collin County Publishing Co., which included the Frisco Enterprise and Allen News. Prior to that he was publisher and owner of Harty Print Media Group, which published The Farmersville Times, Princeton Herald and Lakeshore Times.

Mike Haynes, columnist for the Amarillo Globe-News, received a $1,000 cash award of merit as one of 15 top writers in the 2002 Amy Writing Awards. He placed third in the competition that drew more than 900 entries. He teaches journalism at Amarillo College and is president of Panhandle Press Association. He writes for the Belief and Ethics section of the Thursday edition.

The Kerens Tribune received a certificate of appreciation for outstanding support to the Columbia shuttle recover effort from the Texas Forest Service and Blue Mountain Incident Management Team. Editor Neal Williams reported on the tragedy and assisted the city of Kerens in securing debris and search efforts.

Dana Latchman received an honorable mention award from the Texas Public Health Association for a story on a local retiring hospital executive. She is a reporter for The Bastrop Advertiser. Carolyn Poirot, of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, won the print media category for an eight-article submission.Poirot also in May won the Michael DeBakey Journalism Award, a national honor that increases understanding of the use of animals in medical research. The award carries a $3,000 prize and is sponsored by the Foundation for Biomedical Research. A staff writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Poirot won for a July 2002 article on the trials and success of doctors working at Southwest National Primate Research Center in San Antonio.

Randy Nettles, Texas Press Association’s senior advertising account executive, won the Austin Advertising Federation’s “Big Wig” Award for Austin’s Best Newspaper Rep in 2003. The Big Wig Awards honor the best and brightest suppliers and vendors in Austin’s advertising industry and salute efforts in making Austin’s advertising among the most brilliant in the country. TPA was a Gold Sponsor of the “Big Wig” Awards. Nettles has been in advertising sales for TPA since July 1998 and before that worked in ad sales for the Austin American-Statesman for nine years.

Richard Oliver of the San Antonio Express-News is the newest chairman of the Southwest Associated Press Sports Editors. Oliver, who has been vice chairman for the past two years, takes over from Mike Lee of the Amarillo Globe-News. Fred Faour of the Houston Chronicle was elected the new vice chairman and will serve a two-year term.

Panhandle Press Association awarded three scholarships to area high school seniors who plan to major in journalism. Winners are Ida Morales of Hale Center, Corye Gill of Plainview Christian High School and Kyla Crossland of Dumas High School. The $500 scholarships are matched by Texas Press Association as part of the regional press association matching fund program.

Tony Pederson has been appointed the endowed chairman of the Southern Methodist University journalism department. Pederson is the former executive editor and senior vice president of the Houston Chronicle. He is the second Belo Distinguished Chair at the university. A $5 million gift from The Belo Foundation in 2001 paid for the endowment and a digital facility at the school. Pederson took over for Chris Peck, who left in October to become editor of the Commercial Appeal in Memphis.

Danny Reneau, owner and publisher of the Silsbee Bee, was injured in a May 15 traffic accident that killed a Diboll man. The man, Joseph Paul Adams, was traveling south on U.S. Highway 69 when his car crossed the centerline about 2:50 a.m. on near Colmesneil and collided head-on with the 2000 Ford pickup Reneau was driving southbound, according to a Department of Public Safety report given to the Bee. Adams was not wearing a seatbelt, according to the DPS. Reneau was taken to Memorial Health Hospital in Lufkin where he was treated and later released for a broken right wrist and forearm, a broken right heel and broken bone in his left foot.

Gregory A. “Al” Rowe returned as editor of the Grand Saline Sun where he previously served from April 2000 to April 2001. In the hiatus he worked for the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office. He also has worked at The (Center) Light & Champion and Panola Watchman.

Bill Salter, publisher of the Odessa American, added “emeritus” to his title, effective June 1. Salter, who has been publisher since 1994, will continue to write his Sunday column, “William Tells,” and will be involved in community projects involving the paper. On June 1, Patrick Canty, a Freedom Communications Inc. executive in Irvine, Calif., took over as publisher. The San Antonio native has been in journalism for more than 20 years, the past 10 with Freedom since he started as editor of the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen in 1993. Canty will be only the sixth publisher in the newspaper’s 55-year history with Freedom.

Judy Terry joined the Stephenville Empire-Tribune as ad director. She has 15 years experience and began in 1988 with DFW Suburban Newspapers as general manager and in 1997 became general manager of the Colleyville News & Times. For the past two years she was retail advertising manager of DFW Community Newspapers, now called Star Community Newspapers.

The Texas State Bar announced winners in the 2003 Gavel Awards. The TPA members include: Julie Blacklidge, Fort Worth Business Press, individual articles/editorials, weeklies/biweeklies; Mike Trimble, Denton Record-Chronicle, individual articles/editorials dailies under 50,000; Cindy Van Auken Culp, Waco Tribune Herald, individual articles/editorials, dailies 50,000 to 150,000; Jenni Vinson, The Freer Press, series weekly/biweeklies; Sarah Ovaska and Bradley Olson, The (McAllen) Monitor, series dailies 50,000 to 150,000; Beth Gallaspy, Vanessa Everett, Shane Graber and Jeorge Zarazua, The Beaumont Enterprise, dailies 50,000 to 150,000; Linda P. Campbell, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, dailies over 150,000.

Steven M. Weaver has been named senior vice president/advertising at The Dallas Morning News. He was president and publisher of the Tampa Tribune and had a 15-year career with Knight Ridder. He started at the Dallas Times Herald.