Industry news

Wise County Messenger honors high school UIL journalism state qualifiers 
DECATUR – Three Wise County seniors, who were UIL Academic state journalism qualifiers, recently received the inaugural Ken Roselle Excellence in Journalism honor from the Wise County Messenger.
Messenger President/Owner Roy Eaton, Publisher Kristen Tribe and Editor Richard Greene presented the honor along with a $100 scholarship to Jacob Richey and Tony Howerton from Bridgeport High School and Hailey Holt from Paradise High School.
Richey won the 4A title this year in copy editing. He finished second in editorial writing and placed fifth in feature writing. He also claimed the 4A title in headline writing as a sophomore and was named the Tops in Texas.
Howerton finished third in headline writing at state this year.
Paradise’s Holt competed at state for a third time and captured the 3A title in editorial writing.
“It is an honor to recognize these talented young journalist for their contributions to local journalism,” Greene said. “It takes a lot of dedication and commitment to reach the UIL state meet. We feel it is important to recognize that effort with an award named after a fellow journalist that continues to have a huge influence on our entire Messenger staff.”
The new award honors Ken Roselle, the first employee hired when Roy and Jeannine Eaton purchased the Messenger in January 1973. Roselle had been a photographer/writer in the communications department at the University of Texas at Arlington.
Serving as editor for more than 20 years, Roselle was also the newspaper’s photographer and advertising sales person, handling the most significant accounts for years. He retired from the Messenger five years ago.
“I thought I was a pretty sparse writer with my background in broadcast news, but Ken was an absolute stickler for removing unnecessary words from a news story,” Eaton said. “Ken wielded his red editing pen with the purpose of making a story more readable without excess ‘flowery’ language.”
Eaton also noted that Roselle was a low-key advertising sales person who studied his clients’ industries to create “some of the most beautiful ads combining his magic with photography with brilliant copy making his ads stand out in the paper for years.”
The Messenger plans to continue the award honoring UIL journalism state qualifiers during their senior years.

San Angelo Standard-Times building to be sold to city
SAN ANGELO – The City of San Angelo is purchasing the Standard-Times building for possible use as a new police station.
The city council approved negotiating for the sale in April after the building had been on the market for a year.
The fifth building for the Standard-Times, the facility has more than 40,000 square feet of usable space, including a full basement. When the property went on the market in spring 2020, officials noted the newspaper would seek a a new location “better suited to the digital age of news-gathering and production.”
The Standard-Times has operated at various locations in San Angelo since the first edition was printed in 1884. The newspaper staff has operated out of its current location at 34 W. Harris Ave. since 1951.

NNA Newspaper Contest opened to non-members
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.
When registering, potential contestants will fill out a form providing the newspaper’s name, address, circulation and frequency, along with the TPA code. After that form is submitted, the contestant will receive an email with instructions, password and other information for accessing the NNA contest platform, where entries may be uploaded.
The contest includes an editorial contest with more than 50 categories and an advertising contest with 16 categories. There is also a division for Newspaper in Education and other education related projects.
There is a fee for non-member entries. Deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. June 25.

Better Newspaper Contest changing with convention
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 contest period for the next Texas BNC will be Sept. 1, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2021, with awards presentation at the 2022 convention, scheduled July 28-30, 2022, in San Marcos.
Starting in 2022 and going forward, the contest period will be each calendar year with entry periods in February, judging periods in March and award presentations at the summer conventions.