TPA honored four newspaper industry veterans with the Golden 50 Award during the recent TPA Convention and Trade Show.

The award honors men and women who have displayed exemplary service and selfless contributions to journalism for 50 or more years. The association presented the first Golden 50 Award in 1963 and over the past 60 years, more than 200 men and women have been honored.

Outgoing TPA President Leonard Woolsey presented the awards during the recent TPA Convention and Trade Show.

Honorees are:

Here are requested links to a few of the presentations at the recent TPA Convention and Trade Show.

To view Robert Williams' slides of Ad Ideas, click here.

To view attorney Don Richards' overview of contracting for services, including a template for creating a contract/agreement, click here.

Attracting and keeping top talent can be difficult today. AffinityChoice, a new employee benefit group insurance program, is designed to help TPA members meet that challenge.

Eligible employees of participating member publications are offered a menu of voluntary employee benefit coverages, including group life insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance and short-term disability insurance.

Showing off sweepstakes awards in the North and East Texas Press Association Better Newspaper Contest are (from left) Santana Gallacher accepting for the Longview News Journal in Division 1; Jeff Pownall accepting for the Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel in Division 2; Meredith Shamburger accepting for the Kilgore News Herald in Division 3; Abigail Allen, Pilot Point Post Signal in Division 4; and Wyndi Veigel, The Dublin Citizen in Division 5. The awards presentation capped the 96th NETPA convention in Nacogdoches.

Showing off sweepstakes in their divisions of the South Texas Press Association annual contest are (from left) Craig Garnett and Meghann Garcia, Uvalde Leader-News; Ken Esten Cooke and Kim Grinke Jung, Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post; and Marc Robertson and Manuel Azocar, Frio-Nueces Current. 
 

Obituaries published in the June 203 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

CHUCK CARLTON

DALLAS – Charles Jay “Chuck” Carlton, 64, of Flower Mound, died April 25 in St. Paul, Minn., while completing a sports writing assignment for the Dallas Morning News.

A native of Macomb, Ill., he was born March 16, 1959, to Gerald Carlton and Nancy Elder (Carlton). He graduated from Colchester (Ill.) High School in 1977 where he was salutatorian.

Carleton attended Western Illinois University as a journalism major.

New hires, promotions and other staff changes at Texas newspapers.

MARIA DOUGLAS REEVE

Houston Chronicle

HOUSTON – Maria Douglas Reeve, executive editor of the Houston Chronicle, has been named vice president-editor for content initiatives for Hearst Texas.

TPA members and their families have great opportunities for extended summer fun during the TPA Convention & Trade Show June 1-3 at Kalahari Resorts and Conventions in Round Rock.

The special hotel rate for the TPA convention includes access to the huge Kalahari entertainment complex, including two water parks and an arcade/adventure park.

KINGSVILLE – JT Strasner has been named editor and publisher of the Kingsville Record.

Strasner previously served as a publisher in El Campo, Brenham and Port Lavaca, as well as group publisher over five newspapers in Missouri.

The Kingsville Record was purchased by the Kingsville Area Industrial Foundation in late 2019.

Polk County Publishing Company Inc.’s owner, Alvin Holley, sold the Houston County Courier, a newspaper formerly in the PCPC group, to Kelly Nicol, owner and publisher of The Messenger, a competitor newspaper in Houston County. The merged newspapers are now the Houston County Messenger. The final issue of the Courier came out April 13.

By Emily Banks Wooten, editor@polkenterprise.com

PCPC Publisher Kelli Barnes made the announcement recently “with great emotion and mixed feelings.”