The 2021 Texas Press Association Convention & Trade Show has been rescheduled due to continuing safety concerns associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
The event will be held June 10-12 at the same location, the Embassy Suites by Hilton Denton Convention Center, TPA Executive Director Mike Hodges announced.

Thanks to the pandemic, the 2021 session of the Texas Legislature will be vastly different than any session we’ve seen before.

By Mike Hodges and Donnis Baggett, Texas Press Association

Texas Press Association has purchased access to the Online Media Campus so that in 2021, members of Texas Press Association will have free access to all webinars and training sessions, TPA Executive Director Mike Hodges announced.  
Through a partnership with America’s Newspapers, press associations may subscribe to Online Media Campus and provide their membership free access to training.

The Headliners Foundation has announced the rules for the 2020 Showcase Awards and set the deadline for entries on March 8, 2021.
Showcase Awards recognize outstanding journalism that has made a significant impact on Texas government, public policy, culture or the conduct of a business, non-profit or other organization. Entries will be drawn from material submitted online and selected for display in the Showcase section of the Headliners Foundation website.

The Texas Associated Press Managing Editors annual contest for outstanding journalism is now open to all Texas newspapers.
Previously, newspapers had to be members of the Associated Press to enter the contest, but the TxAPME board has removed that requirement.
Papers compete in one of four classifications based on circulation size.
For contest rules and to enter, go to TAPMEcontest.org before deadline –
11:59 p.m. Feb. 1, 2021.
Work published in print and online between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2020, is eligible.

HEARNE – Phillips Publishing, LLC, Dennis and Teresa Phillips, acquired the Robertson County News and Franklin Advocate from Moser Community Media, LLC, on Dec. 1.
The sale was announced in a joint statement by Dennis Phillips and MCM President Jim Moser.
MCM purchased the 130-year-old Robertson County News in 2010. Dennis Phillips has been publisher and Teresa Phillips has been associate publisher in Robertson County since 2012.

CLIFTON – Rita Hamilton has returned to Texas as publisher of the Clifton Record and Meridian Tribune.
Hamilton started her career in January 1994 as an administrative assistant to a publisher at a Gannett paper in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. She was with Gannett almost 18 years, serving in Shreveport  and Alexandria, Louisiana. Later, she moved to Texas and worked at the Greenville and Huntsville papers as part of CNHI. From there she moved to Middlesboro, Kentucky, where she led two papers in Kentucky and one in Tennessee.

Staff additions, promotions at Texas newspapers.

Obituaries published in the January 2021 edition of the Texas Press Messenger

As journalists, social media can be one of our best newsgathering tools. It opens the door to diverse sources as well as valuable photo and video content, but it is also full of pitfalls if you aren’t careful.

By Amy Kristin Sanders
Associate Professor, Journalism and Media, University of Texas at Austin