2024 was another busy year at TCCJ

By AUSTIN LEWTER, TCCJ Director

And just like that, 2024 comes to an end.

It has been a whirlwind and we’ve been busy at the Center, and we’re looking ahead to an even busier 2025.

As such, it behooves me to reflect upon the year at the Texas Center for Community Journalism and be grateful for the connections we have made.

We started out 2024 with exciting news at Pilot Point and Iowa Park.

The Post-Signal has a new owner and Denton County’s oldest newspaper continues to print every week.

Iowa Park had been without a newspaper and an enterprising publisher in the town right next door decided to remedy that. We were thrilled to be there in February for the grand opening of the Iowa Park Journal along with Daniel Walker and his crew.

Later that month, we celebrated courage, tenacity and innovation in Texas community journalism when we hosted the Institute for Rural Journalism and the Uvalde Leader News and other friends from across the state for a symposium at UT-Austin. Leader News publisher Craig Garnett was presented with the Gish Award for courage and tenacity in rural journalism — an award which is rightly deserved.

Back at Tarleton later that month, we hosted 30 young journalists — Boy Scouts working on their journalism merit badges. That is always a rewarding experience.

Since taking over the center, I’ve made it a mission to integrate my college students with the mission of the center. We’ve done just that.

I took a group of four wonderful young journalists to the College Media Association Convention in New York City in March. While there, I gave talks about the virtues of community journalism to young people from across the country and our students networked with a new community of peers. Two of those students are working in community newsrooms today in Texas. The other two graduate in May and we have similar plans for them.

The center represented you at the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association convention. We set up a joint Texas newspaper booth at their job fair. You sent me your job postings and I talked to young people about your jobs.

Again this year, I made every Texas regional press association convention. That included the combined convention of Gulf Coast and South Texas Press Press Associations in Galveston, where we talked about good ideas to grow your paper. Then there was the North and East Texas Press Association in Granbury, where we talked about artificial intelligence.

Later in the spring we hosted another of our traveling news writing workshops. This time we welcomed 40 Southeast Texas journalists to Navasota in a workshop hosted by the Examiner.

Then we caught up with you in College Station at the TPA convention. In doing so, I undertook what has been the most fulfilling experience of my career thus far. I put three of my brightest students on a panel. You asked them questions and they asked you questions.

It was transformative for them, I know — and maybe some of you as well.

Then we had a layout and design workshop at our Fort Worth campus over the summer led by longtime TCCJ contributor Broc Sears.

We capped off the regional press associations later that month in Borger at the Panhandle Press Association Convention, where we talked about artificial intelligence and visited with more young people.

I was honored to be asked to represent Texas and TCCJ on the National Newspaper Association Foundation board of directors. I met journalists from all over the country at their convention in Omaha earlier this fall. We talked about artificial intelligence and newsroom policies there. It was also a wonderful opportunity to share the work of the TCCJ with a nationwide audience.

We visited our friends at the Liberty Hill Independent in October and contributed to their town hall event leading up to the general election.

We hosted the Texas Community College Journalism Association for their annual convention in Stephenville. And just a few weeks ago, I took another group of students to the College Media Association Fall Convention in New Orleans. There I talked to a standing-room-only group of students from all over the country about community journalism. I know one of them has been hired by a Texas community newspaper because of an introduction we made after the meeting.

All in all, 2024 has been a great year for Texas newspapers.

Another lost paper was saved when John Starkey rolled the Lindale Times into his Irving-based non-profit.

And we are getting young people hired in newsrooms. This has become my passion at the center — placing students in community newsrooms. We have Tarleton students in Archer City, Sherman, Abilene, Brownwood, Azle, Granberry and Westlake — just to name a few. We also have some in major market shops like WBAP and the Cowboy Channel.

Our program is growing. We have seen a 100-percent increase in journalism majors at Tarleton— year over year.

So, your pipeline of talent is growing.

I have the greatest job in the world, and I appreciate your trust in me to do that job.

Like I said, 2025 looks to be just as busy.

In January, we will announce the first of what will be two overnight workshops at our Fort Worth campus scheduled for this spring.

We plan to bring back the traveling writing workshops and introduce Texas newspapers to the notion of solutions journalism.As always, we can’t do this without you, and we need to know what we can do better. Please let us know.

You may have seen that our Facebook page has been somewhat dormant. The new Meta Business Suite seems to decide who can and cannot be page admins. They have hijacked us and locked us out. I’m working through it all and I apologize. We’ll let you know when our social media is back online.

Be looking in your email inbox soon for 2025 announcements.

As always, you can call or reach out to us here at the Center. 

Happy Holidays from all of us to all of you!

Austin Lewter is director of the Texas Center for Commnity Journalism at Tarleton State University.