If the mail service has improved, you should be reading this column before heading out to the 141st Texas Press Association Convention in Denton June 10-12.

You are coming, aren’t you?

This column is written by Paul Watler, Jackson Walker LLP.

Q: How do I recognize a defamatory statement in a letter to the editor? What if non-print and other media have in effect published the same defamatory statement? 

Another legislative session is nearing an end, and it’s been intense. With four weeks remaining as of Messenger deadline, it’s still too early to tell whether newspaper public notice will survive the biennial barrage of nasty legislation, but one thing is certain: Texas publishers have never been more engaged in the legislative process than this year.

While the 2021 TPA Convention and Trade Show was postponed from January to June due to pandemic concerns, the move to a summer convention is permanent.
In virtual meetings in January, the TPA Board of Directors voted to make the annual convention a summer event.

To accommodate the change from a winter annual meeting to a summer annual meeting, the Texas Better Newspaper Contest is changing its schedule.
Awards presentation for the 2019-20 contest, originally scheduled in January, will be held June 12 as the concluding event of the rescheduled convention. 

The National Newspaper Association Foundation has opened the NNA Better Newspaper Contest to non-members.
All Texas newspapers, regardless of whether they are NNA members, may register for the contest by using the Texas Press Association code, NNAF21.

Recent staff changes, additions and promotions at Texas newspapers.

Two weeks ago the Texas Press Association asked our members an uncomfortable question: Are public notices important to your newspaper’s survival?