TPA members have until Friday, Feb. 13, to enter the 2025 Texas Better Newspaper Contest.
Contest managers should register and upload entries on the TPA page of the ACES contest website. Instructions, rules and other information are available on the TPA website.
Texas Press Association is seeking nominations for awards to be presented at the 2026 TPA Convention & Trade Show June 18-20 at the Hyatt Regency DFW Airport Hotel.
The honors include:
• Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame
Behind every data point is a story waiting to be told. To help members tell that story to their local business communities, the Texas Press Association is providing a powerful new member benefit thanks to a new partnership with Pulse Research.
Pulse helps sales representatives lead with insights rather than ad rates, showing local businesses exactly how each newspaper’s audience is made up of their future customers. Click here to access the TPA Resource Page.
MERCEDES – The Mercedes Enterprise made a major move to continue providing news coverage in Mercedes and throughout the Rio Grande Valley with a transfer of ownership from Mid-Valley Publishers to Valleywood Publications, a company owned by Mercedes Enterprise Editor Raul Garcia Jr.
Roger and Ashlee Estlack of Clarendon have acquired the Red River Sun in Childress from Hicks Media LLA.
The sale brings the Sun under the management of the Texas Panhandle’s oldest newspaper, although the two papers will continue to be separate publications.
The Red River Sun covers Childress, Collingsworth, and Hall Counties and combines the heritages of The Childress Index, The Wellington Leader, and the Memphis Democrat / Hall County Herald.
The Estlacks took over management of the paper Dec. 1 and the sale was finalized Dec. 31.
PLEASANTON – Jessica Alvarado-Machado and Charley Gallegos have been named co-managing editors of the Pleasanton Express, succeeding Daniel Elizondo.
The announcement by Publisher Noel Wilkerson Holmes was part of an introduction to the newspaper’s newsroom management team, which includes Lisa Luna, lifestyles editor, and Heaven Marquez, sports editor.
Neice Bell’s more than 45 years in newspapers — which began in a Kerrville closet as a typesetter in 1979 — will wrap at the end of May as she finishes her second tenure as publisher of the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung.
By KAITLYNN HUTCHINS, The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung
Fredericksburg lost an important steward of the town’s history when Sherrie Geistweidt, an employee of Fredericksburg Publishing Company for just over 50 years, retired from her storied career.
Geistweidt wrote the column “50 Years Ago in the Standard.” She previously wrote a once-per-month personal column called “Time Pieces” filled with historical and humorous memories and anecdotes from her life growing up on land near the Doss area in northern Gillespie County.
Promotions, new hires and other employment news reported in Texas newspapers and published in the February 2026 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.
UVIE BIKOMO
Beaumont Enterprise
BEAUMONT – Uvie Bikomo, formerly audience development editor at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has baeen named editor of the Beaumont Enterprise. Bikomo will lead the editorial side of the newspaper and its digital products.
The announcement was made by Hearst Newspapers President Jeff Johnson and Hearst Community Newspapers President Jeff Bergin.
Obituaries published in the February edition of the Texas Press Messenger.
ROGER COWLES
VIDOR — Roger Cowles, 70, longtime editor, reporter and employee of the Port Arthur News, died Dec. 26.
He is remembered as a quiet but influential force in Southeast Texas journalism, a steady presence whose career spanned decades and whose work helped shape how a community saw itself, according to the newspaper’s obituary.