Longtime employees purchase Frio-Nueces Current

PEARSALL – Frio-Nueces Current managing editor Manuel Azocar III and business manager Kasie Rendon have purchased the newspaper from longtime owner and publisher Craig Garnett.

The sale, which became effective June 1, leaves the new owners in charge of all operations — reporting, advertising sales and distribution. The newspaper operates with a staff of five, plus delivery personnel.

Azocar joined the Current in June 1993 as typesetter, when the office was located in downtown Pearsall at 220 S. Oak Street. Rendon came to the Current in May 2011 to work with circulation and classifieds.

Garnett, who also owns the Uvalde Leader-News, purchased the Current in 1998 from William Dozier of Kerrville. The business acquired its present location at 321 E. San Marcos in 1999.

“Kasie and I are deeply honored by the trust placed in us to steward our local newspaper; it is both a profound privilege and a vital responsibility. A community thrives when it is connected by shared stories and reliable truth, and we accept the full weight of that responsibility,” Azocar said.

Azocar paid tribute to the “legacy built before us,” saying as new owners he and Rendon planned to honor the newspaper’s roots, “while building a vibrant future.”

“We draw confidence in being able to meet the needs of our community because of the award-winning staff and team at the Frio-Nueces Current that delivers week-in and week-out. We work with some of the best customers, businesses and people in general and seek to prove every day that your trust is well-placed,” Azocar said.

Over the last 28 years, the Current has won dozens of awards for excellence in journalism from both the South Texas Press Association and the Texas Press Association. In the last 10 years alone, the newspaper has won the sweepstakes award six times for newspapers of similar size.

“Manuel and Kasie have proven beyond a doubt their devotion to the Frio Nueces-Current and the communities it serves. I cannot imagine a more committed and talented team to take the helm of the outstanding community newspaper they have helped to create,” Garnett said.

“I hope readers and advertisers will continue to support the Current. Without local reporting, a town loses not only a vital governmental watchdog but an irreplaceable link to community itself.”

The Frio-Nueces Current was established in 1894 as the Pearsall Leader. It was combined with the Cotulla Record and Dilley Herald in January 1991. The name change sought to reflect both the flow of the two rivers that traverse Frio and La Salle Counties and the immediacy of items that are defined as “news” by then-publisher William Dozier.