Midwinter conference sneak preview

Experts in news coverage, digital development and First Amendment topics will share insight on current issues at the 2019 Texas Press Midwinter Conference and Trade Show Jan. 24 - 26 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Denton Convention Center.
Guest speakers include a former president of the Newseum’s First Amendment Center, a digital pioneer in the development of newspaper websites and a legendary television news anchor and correspondent who started his career as a newspaper reporter in his native Texas.   
Activities begin Thursday, Jan. 24, with committee and regional press association meetings in the afternoon and the trade show opening reception that evening. The trade show continues Friday morning, Jan. 25, along with the silent auction benefiting the Texas Newspaper Foundation.
The Friday luncheon following the trade show and auction will feature “Revolution, Rights & Rock’n’Roll,” a program by Ken Paulson, former president of the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center.
Paulson is a journalist, lawyer and educator who has combined these roles as an advocate and expert on the First Amendment. He’s the dean of the College of Media and Entertainment at Middle Tennessee State University and is the former editor of USA Today, where he remains a columnist writing about First Amendment issues.
Throughout his career, Paulson has drawn on his background as both a journalist and lawyer, serving as the editor or managing editor of newspapers in five different states. A former president of the American Society of News Editors, he was guest a regular guest lecturer at the American Press Institute for 12 years. He has also hosted and produced PBS television programs on First Amendment issues.
Paulson is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law and the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He also has served as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School. 
Also at Friday’s luncheon, TPA honors will be presented, including the Golden 50 Award, the Frank W. Mayborn Award for Community Leadership and the Fred Hartman Award for Excellence in Sports Writing. 
Afternoon conference sessions will include a legislative update and discussions on current topics led by members.
At the Friday night banquet honoring the 2019 Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame inductees, Hearst senior vice president Lincoln Millstein will present his “Paper Cuts” program relating his experience as “a digital terrorist inside the turbulent world of newspapers.” 
Millstein is a recognized digital pioneers in newspapers. He co-founded Boston.com for the Boston Globe in 1995 and ran it for five years before moving to New York as executive vice president of New York Times Digital. After joining Hearst, he spearheaded numerous industry initiatives, including the Newspaper Consortium with Yahoo! in 2006; the creation of the first industry private exchange, quadrantONE, a partnership with Zillow.com; and last year’s creation of the industry retail joint venture Wanderful Media.
Millstein has held numerous editorial positions during his career, including business editor at both the Hartford Courant and Boston Globe, and city editor and managing editor of features at the Globe. In addition to his digital responsibilities, Millstein has been involved in the redesign and restructuring of Hearst’s print newspapers.
He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, where he was editor-in-chief of the student newspaper. He was a National Endowment for the Humanities Professional Journalism Fellow at Stanford University from 1980 to 1981.
Friday’s events conclude with a hospitality event after the banquet.
More topical discussion sessions are planned Saturday morning, Jan. 26. 
The closing brunch program will feature two old friends who shared college experiences and began their long journalism careers together: retired former CBS News anchor and chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer and Wise County Messenger publisher Roy Eaton. Their program will feature “Projections and Reflections” from their decades of news experience.
Schieffer and Eaton are active alumni of Texas Christian University, where Eaton has served as publisher in residence for the Texas Center for Community Journalism, part of the Bob Schieffer College of Communication.
Retired after 46 years with CBS News, Schieffer now serves as the Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. 
Following graduation from TCU, Schieffer served three years in the U.S. Air Force as a public information officer stationed at Travis Air Force Base and later McChord Air Force Base. He launched his civilian journalism career as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered the Vietnam War, the Kennedy assassination and other major news events of the mid-20th Century. He later joined the Star-Telegram’s television station, WBAP-TV in Fort Worth, before joining CBS in 1969.  While at CBS, he was anchor on the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News, Chief Washington correspondent and moderator of the of the Sunday public affairs show, Face the Nation.
Eaton began his journalism career as a part-time reporter for a Fort Worth radio station in 1956 following his freshman year at TCU. While still a student, he was named news director of the station in 1958.
He became news director of the NBC radio affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth in 1968 and later became director of television news coverage and news anchorman for the Dallas-Fort Worth NBC television affiliate.
In 1973, he returned to his hometown of Decatur and purchased the newspaper he has published for 45 years, the Wise County Messenger. The newspaper has won more than 150 state and national awards for excellence in news coverage, advertising and design, including dozens of awards in the National Newspaper Association Better Newspaper contests. The Messenger won NNA’s “General Excellence” award for twice-weekly newspapers in 2005.
The 2019 event will be the first since members approved bylaws changes making the midwinter conference the sole annual meeting of the Texas Press Association. 
Registration forms and more information are available online at http://texaspress.com/midwinter-conference.