Skip to main content

Wesner purchases Dublin Citizen from longtime owner, McKinnon

Lea and Mac McKinnon, owners and publishers of the Dublin Citizen since Aug. 1, 2002, announced this past week that the Citizen has been sold effective Jan. 1, 2015.

The McKinnons will be retiring but will remain active in the community and will continue to live in Dublin.

The staff at the Citizen that everyone has been working with for years will remain the same.

The McKinnons both expressed their appreciation for all the support from Dublin and surrounding communities.

The new owner is Brett Wesner of Wesner Publications Company which publishes papers in Texas and Oklahoma including newspapers in San Saba, Dimmitt and Littlefield.

“I am very excited by the prospect of working with the people of Dublin and the surrounding area to continue the high-quality community journalism Mac and his staff have consistently provided,” Wesner said.  “I’ve been aware  of the  professionalism of the staff of the Dublin Citizen for some time, and it will be an honor for me to be part of their team.”

Wesner has been publishing newspapers for 27 years, beginning in southwest Oklahoma.  “I was born in Cordell, OK, which has a wonderful rural weekly newspaper tradition, and I grew up knowing the importance of the local newspaper in our communities.  In working with local editorial staff at what is now 10 locations in Texas and Oklahoma, I have tried to continue that tradition.”

“I’m also very pleased that Scott Dykowski has agreed to come to Dublin to lead our efforts here,” Wesner said.  “Scott is an experienced newspaper journalist with a love of Texas small-town life.  I know he will be a dynamic force at the newspaper as well as an energetic part of the community.”

Dykowski noted, “I grew up in Trenton, Texas, a small community northeast of McKinney. I graduated from Angelo State University in San Angelo with a Bachelor’s in Mass Media -- while there I was editor of the Ram Page, ASU’s student newspaper.

“ I met my wife, Sarah, in journalism classes,” Dykowski said, adding “we were married May 6, 2011, and we moved to Lubbock so she could pursue her master’s degree. While there, I worked as a copy editor at the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. After she graduated, we followed my job to North Dakota, where I worked as the presentation editor of the Grand Forks Herald. On a personal level, I enjoy reading and playing tennis.“

He added that he is  excited about working and living in Dublin. ”My wife and I haven’t been here long, but we already love the town, the rolling hills and the people we have met -- not to mention the lack of blizzards and inches of snow. We hope to get settled and involved soon. I’m looking forward to working with the Dublin Citizen -- I’ve been reading it from North Dakota, and it’s a great paper. I hope I can help maintain the high standards the paper holds itself to.”

The sale of the Citizen has been in the works for several months, Mac McKinnon noted, adding that he believes Wesner and Dykowski are the right fit for the community.

“It’s not easy handing over something as personal as a newspaper to someone else but we have the greatest confidence that the new owner and publisher will take care of our community,” the McKinnons said.