WTPA, NETPA members meet for second joint convention

HAMILTON – Golfers teed up at the Perry Golf Course Thursday morning, April 7, and later journalists from the North and East Texas Press Association and the West Texas Press Association were welcomed to the Circle T Resort in Hamilton for their second joint convention.

Members of the two regional press associations opened the convention that evening with a meal from Wenzel Lone Star Meat Company.

Friday morning, journalists were welcomed by Hamilton Mayor Rodney Craddick and learned about glossy magazines in a program by Hamilton Herald-News Managing Editor Kymbirlee Jeschke and Lufkin News Managing Editor Jeff Pownall.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jeffrey Gerritt flew in for the event to encourage journalists to cover the important stories, no matter how small their markets might be. Gerritt received the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing at the Palestine Herald-Press for his series on the horrific deaths of pre-trial detainees in the small Anderson (Texas) County Jail, the court and law enforcement officials on whose watch those deaths happened and the rising tide of people dying in jails across the state.

At lunch, participants heard from Austin Lewter, director of the Texas Center for Community Journalism at Tarleton State University, about resources available through the Center.

Editors and publishers interacted with a roundtable of journalism students from Tarleton about how they receive news and what they are looking for in a newspaper as they enter employment.

Friday afternoon, journalists were released to explore Hamilton. Several took in another round of golf at Perry Country Club and others toured the Ramsey Collection.

Friday evening, two special awards were presented. Suzanne Bardwell of the Gladewater Mirror, White Oak Independent and Lindale News and Times received the Sam C. Holloway award posthumously for outstanding efforts of upholding high standards of journalistic integrity and service to her communities.

Brad Blakemore of The Dallas News received the Tom Mooney Friend of the Newspaper Award for his contributions to the NETPA.

Friday evening was capped with a live auction to raise funds for scholarships. The auction raised $3,700, the most ever in a single NETPA/WTPA auction.

The event ended with an awards ceremony brunch Saturday morning. Sweepstakes winners in the WTPA contest included The Texas Spur, the Hamilton Herald-News and the Levelland-Hockley Co. News Press. Sweepstakes honors in the NETPA contest went to the Longview News-Journal, Division 1/Daily; the Hood County News, Division 2/Large Semi-Weekly; Cleburne Times Review, Division 3/Small Semi-Weekly; The Wylie News, Division 4/Large Weekly; and the Murphy Monitor, Division 5/Small Weekly.

Click here for results of the NETPA contest and click here for WTPA results.