Here's something to be thankful for

Bill Patterson, TPA President

By now the election season dust is settled and everyone is hunkering down for a long winter’s nap — or maybe just a short one.

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season has become increasingly evident in the retail world since Labor Day. Now Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s are just around the corner. Before you know it, the holidays will be a blur in the rear-view mirror and 2025 will be here.

While you’re thinking about things to be thankful for this holiday season, I hope you’ll think of the work that Mike Hodges and Donnis Baggett do to keep our industry in a competitive place.

By the time you read this column, bill filing will be underway for the upcoming session of the Texas Legislature. Mike and Donnis, along with TPA attorneys Laura Prather and Reid Pillifant, will be sifting through 8,000 or more pieces of legislation that will be introduced by our lawmakers. That will lead to discussions on various bills that could impact Texas newspapers and how we decide to approach them.

Even before the bills are filed, we know there will be some major policy issues in play. Without a doubt we will again be fighting for newspapers to maintain their official status as the purveyors of public notices in Texas.

We’ve been running public notices proudly — and effectively — since Texas was a republic. Now we distribute notices both in print and in the ever-shifting digital media sphere, and newspapers’ notices are more readily available to Texans than ever before. But that won’t stop our critics from filing bills that would allow governmental entities to eliminate newspaper distribution and bury their notices inside their own government websites instead. 

We also know that there will be legislation involving artificial intelligence. TPA will be watching closely for any bills that could harm newspapers’ ability to protect ownership of their hard-earned intellectual property. So stay tuned on that front.

Defending access to public records and open meetings will also be a huge priority. Texas newspapers count on strong open government laws to keep state and local governments honest. Yet every session we do battle with lobbyists representing local governments — lobbyists who are paid with your tax dollars to push legislation that would weaken laws that make government transparent and accountable. And every session there are legislators who are more than happy to file any bill being pushed by their campaign contributors and their clients — the city councilmen and county commissioners they served alongside before they came to Austin.

Finally, as you’ve seen in previous TPA stories and email updates, there’s another effort underway to weaken the Texas Citizens Participation Act. As you know, the TCPA protects Texans’ right to speak or report freely on matters of public concern and fend off frivolous nuisance suits filed by an angry person, company or institution who wants to silence their critics. The TCPA, which we worked hard to pass in 2011, provides for an expedited appeal of a denied motion to dismiss this kind of nuisance suit.

That expedited appeal process provided by the TCPA has saved Texas newspapers millions in legal expenses over the last 13 years, and we need to keep the law strong to keep newspapers financially strong. TPA remains on the front lines of that battle.

I ask each of you to be on your toes and watchful for phone calls, emails, text messages and other communications that Mike and Donnis will be sending out between now and May. (At least we hope the Legislature will finish on schedule in May. If not, special sessions could drag into the summer.)

With TPA staff and lawyers busy in Austin, why do you need to be involved? In some cases, we may ask you to make a key phone call to your state representative or state senator. On rare occasions, we may ask a newspaper leader to testify on an important bill that’s coming up for a hearing.

We try to present TPA witnesses who either have personal knowledge of the issue involved, or members who have a hometown legislator sitting on the committee hearing the bill. We’ve noticed that lawmakers listen a lot harder when their hometown publisher is on the witness stand. All politics is local, remember?

In most cases we find ourselves fighting opponents who have lots of money and huge lobbying teams. We have Mike, Donnis, Laura and Reid, plus the volunteer newspaper folks who serve on TPA’s Legislative Advisory Committee. And because we are newspapers, our members still have the power of the pen and the computer keyboard to fulfill their duty.

An important part of that duty is making readers aware of what’s happening in Austin. We need to remember that when Mike and Donnis ask us to run a guest editorial about issues that affect us.

In addition to our duty to protect free speech, transparency and accountability, it’s also important to remember that newspaper folks have financial reasons to stay alert and engaged. Take public notice, for instance. If you look at your financials, and of course you do, then you know how important public notices are to your bottom line. So it’s in your direct financial interest to support TPA in every way possible when you’re asked to help protect those notices.

Get to know your elected officials if you don’t know them already. If you do, then check in with them periodically. Despite the never-ending anti-media rhetoric, most lawmakers will welcome a call from you because they know how important you are to their district.

In spite of all the hard work ahead, I hope you’ll take time to enjoy the seasons and celebrate with your families the next couple of months. Then let’s buckle in for another active — and successful — legislative session in 2025.