Laurie Ezzell Brown, who has gained national recognition as publisher of the Canadian Record and her fight to stave off a news desert in her rural Panhandle community, will be inducted into the Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame during the TPA Awards ceremony Friday, June 20, during the TPA Convention and Trade Show in Denton.

The second generation to run her family newspaper, she joins her father, the late Ben R. Ezzell, who was inducted with the Hall of Fame Class of 2009.

America needs its newspapers today more than ever – and I’m not talking about the paper on which they are printed.

By LEONARD WOOLSEY, America’s Newspapers

With Meta (aka Facebook) now declining to vet the content posted on its platforms for truthfulness, social media’s already shaky reputation is poised to take a swan dive off the cliff of credibility.

The 2024 Texas Better Newspaper Contest opens Jan. 20 on the Advanced Contest Entry System (ACES) platform.

Participants have until Feb. 18 to upload entries on the platform, www.newspapercontest.com/Texas. 

Contest rules and eligibility guidelines are available now on the Texas Press Association website, www.texaspress.com/better-newspaper-contest-0.

WASHINGTON — Disclaimer: This is not a newspaper story. Let’s call it an analysis of an analysis.

Analysis by Donnis Baggett, Texas Press Association

The Poynter Institute’s latest “OnPoynt” report on the state of journalism has good news and bad news for hometown newspapers.

The good news: Your readers still consider you credible. They differentiate between the believability of their hometown paper and the national media, thank goodness. 

Every year, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) collects data on recycled newsprint. Texas law requires that newspaper publishers submit their report for 2024 to the TCEQ by Jan. 31. More information about the reporting requirement is available in the Texas Health and Safety Code, Section 361.430.

The current survey form is available online for publishers to fill out and return to the TCEQ. To access the 2024 survey form and for more information about the program, visit the TCEQ Recycled Newsprint website at https://www.tceq.texas.gov/p2/recycle/newsprint.html.

By JIM PUMARLO, Consultant
Election Day is fast approaching. Newsrooms are likely starting the countdown when they take a collective breath from the exhaustive campaign season and return to some level of normalcy. 

School is in full swing and everyone is settling into fall. The change in seasons brings out the hustle and bustle in all our  markets. This year, it also brings election season. Whether we’re mostly print, mostly digital or a combination of both, our communities will turn to us for credible and timely news and information leading to the November election.

By Bill Patterson, TPA President 2024-25

Maintaining your status as the premier clearinghouse for community news is a constant challenge in today's fractured media landscape.

Diminished resources are a fact of life in most newsrooms. Social media has spawned a proliferation of de facto news sites. And there are the inevitable instances when regional and statewide media outlets swoop into your towns for the big headline.

Report for America is looking to add more than 50 newsroom positions next summer and applications are now open for local newsrooms interested in partnering to host early-career and experienced journalists for up to three years.

The application deadline is Sept. 13 and newsrooms will be publicly announced in December. More information about how the program works can be found online at www.reportforamerica.org.

The journalism world was briefly turned upside down last month when Gannett and McClatchy both announced they were dropping the Associated Press (AP) at all their newspapers.

AUSTIN LEWTER, Director, Texas Center for Community Journalism

Gannett is the largest newspaper company in the United States. It publishes USA Today and more than 200 other newspapers from coast to coast. This includes a dozen newspapers in Texas.

They are no longer using articles, photos and videos from the AP in any of their publications.

And I think that is okay.