Sunshine Week, the annual national observance highlighting government transparency, is set March 14 - 21.
Spearheaded by the News Leaders Association, Sunshine Week highlights the public’s right to know what its government is doing, and why. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know.
Sunshine Week is funded primarily by a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Gridiron Foundation.

CENTER – Leon Aldridge has returned to the editor and publisher post at The Light and Champion, a Moser Community Media publication.
He succeeded Mike Elswick, who has served in that capacity the past two and a half years.
A longtime resident of Center, Aldridge served as publisher of The Light and Champion twice previously.
His career in communication also includes having served as editor and publisher of newspapers in Texas at Naples, Boerne and Marlin.

CHILDRESS – LK Media Group and Hicks Media have merged and the company will use the Hicks Media brand going forward with all their newspapers, as well as additional newspapers they acquire, according to a Feb. 12 announcement.
The group includes The Red River Sun, The Post Dispatch, The Floyd County Hesperian-Beacon and The Knox County News-Courier.
The company also announced the appointment of Jay Williams as publisher of the Red River Sun in Childress and the Knox County News-Courier in Knox City.

PARIS – Nine years after joining The Paris News as an advertising representative, Clay Carsner has assumed the role of publisher.
Leonard Woolsey, president of Southern Newspapers Inc., which owns The Paris News, announced the promotion to the staff. 
“Clay brings a terrific attitude and wealth of local experience to guide the newspaper, employees and community forward,” Woolsey said. “The Paris News is an essential part of our community-based newspaper family, and one we believe plays a critical role in the Red River Valley.”

Jim Bardwell, publisher of the Gladewater Mirror, Lindale News & Times and the White Oak Independent, was elected president of the Texas Press Association at a special virtual TPA board meeting held Jan. 21. The virtual meeting was held instead of the usual in-person convention meeting due to COVID-19 pandemic health concerns.

Jim Beaver has assumed duties as publisher of The Boerne Star, part of Granite Publications.
Beaver has been with Granite for 12 years, first heading the group’s website sales program and later working with various newspapers in improving sales. Most recently he served as publisher of the Elgin Courier for two years.
His career spans 41 years, including working with newspapers and websites in Texas, Missouri and Mississippi.

We have all seen challenges to the future of a free and independent press. Yet I remain an optimist if we in the community newspaper business can learn best practices from the large media outlets and harness the best tools to help us disseminate information, which will always be in demand.

By Ken Esten Cooke, TPA Second Vice President

Awards in the annual Lone Star Writing Contest for high school students have been released.
The contest is co-sponsored by Texas Press Association and the Interscholastic League Press Conference.
In congratulating the winners, Jeanne Acton, assistant academic director and UIL ILPC director, noted that “even during this pandemic, Texas scholastic journalists showed they can still produce showcased solid reporting and writing. The competition this year was robust, and judging the contest was no easy task.”
Winners are:
Big School Winners (5A-6A) 

Staff changes, promotions, retirements at Texas newspapers.

JILLIAN SMITH
The Kerrville Daily Times

Past TPA President Chris Barbee, former publisher of the El Campo Leader-News and Wharton Journal-Spectator, is El Campo’s first directly elected mayor.
Barbee, a returning El Campo councilman, earned the post during November balloting thanks to the 2,655 to 884 passage of a City Charter amendment calling for the top vote collector among at-large council members to be named mayor and the second most vote-getter as mayor pro-tem.
Barbee collected 1,920 votes to win the five-way race delayed from May to November by Gov. Greg Abbott’s order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.