Weekly adds city name to masthead

QUINLAN — The Tawakoni News changed its name to the Quinlan-Tawakoni News. The name adds the city location of the newspaper.

Kilgore publisher buys Bullard, Chandler papers

KILGORE — Kilgore-based Bluebonnet Publishing, LLC, publisher of the Kilgore News Herald and the Tri County Leader in Whitehouse and Troup, bought two newspapers in Bullard and a weekly serving Chandler and Brownsboro in separate transactions Sept. 14.

The Bullard Banner and Bullard Weekly News will be combined under Bluebonnet’s ownership. The new Bullard Banner News will be published on Tuesdays.

Dale Ray owned the Banner since 2001. Cyndi Adams and Joan Pace owned the Weekly News since they started the newspaper in 1996.

Lori Thomason, former managing editor of the Jacksonville Daily Progress, has been named editor of the Bullard newspaper.

In the third transaction, the weekly Chandler & Brownsboro Statesman and Lake View News, a monthly circulated around Lake Palestine, were purchased from founding publisher Roger Perry.

Bluebonnet Publishing was created four years ago to buy the News Herald. More than two years ago the company bought the Leader. Partners include Bill Woodall and Corona Resources Ltd. of Addison.

Austin daily starts community blogs

AUSTIN — The Austin American-Statesman and Pluck Corp. have launched a free community blogging service at www.statesman.com and www.austin360.com.

The new service allows Austinites to create and host their own blogs (online journals) where they can write, edit and report on local events and topics of personal interest at Statesmanblogs.com and Austin360blogs.com.

Blogging is initially categorized across 12 different topics, including the Austin City Limits music festival held in September. The Statesman’s blogging sites are powered by Pluck InSite Blogging, a managed, hosted solution that allows publishers to quickly build branded blogging services into their Web sites.