• The contest opens for entries Jan. 22.

• The state contest and most of the regional contests are conducted on the ACES platform. Many newspapers enter more than one contest. When entering the 2023 Texas BNC, please make sure you are using the link to the state contest, www.newspapercontest.com/Texas.

Industry news reported in the January 2024 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

Madison County accepts Tocker Grant to digitize newspapers

MADISONVILLE – Madison County Commissioners recently accepted a Tocker Foundation grant for the Madison County Library that will provide funding for digitizing old editions of the Madison Meteor and The Patriot.

Obituaries published in the January 2024 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

JOHN M. ROBERTS

VICTORIA — John M. Roberts, retired publisher of his family newspaper the Victoria Advocate, died Dec. 12 in Round Rock. He was 78.

Promotions, new hires and other staff changes at Texas newspapers reported in the January 2024 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

Sarah Forsythe, Brenham Banner-Press

BRENHAM – Sarah Forsythe has joined The Banner-Press newsrooms as a reporter.

As 2023 draws to a close, staffers of TPA member newspapers should start thinking about coverage, photos, special sections and other work they will enter in the next Texas Better Newspaper Contest. The contest opens for entries Jan. 22, so it’s already time to start narrowing down choices and gathering page PDFs for entries.

By AL CROSS

University of Kentucky

Nonprofit newspaper journalism, until now largely a feature of urban areas, is going rural – especially if the National Trust for Local News keeps up what it’s doing and plans to do.