LIVINGSTON – General Manager Kelli Barnes has been promoted to the position of publisher of all Polk County Publishing Company (PCPC) newspapers, including the Polk County Enterprise, company owner Alvin Holley announced.
The change will take effect immediately.
Holley has been an owner of the publishing company since 1972 and served as its general manager or publisher since that time. While he has been semi-retired since 2018, he will remain an active participant in the operation of the company and its newspapers.

As Texas reopened for business in stages, newspapers focused on their communities as they and their fellow hometown businesses navigated the “new normal” of the COVID-19 era.
Each week in May, Gov. Greg Abbott announced new phases of the reopening designed to restart the Texas economy made moribund by the coronavirus response. Limits on capacity were maintained during each phase, along with other safety recommendations, such as encouraging people to wear masks and wash their hands frequently. 

As the state tentatively began reopening an economy ravaged by the coronavirus shutdown,Texas newspapers relied on grit and ingenuity to keep fighting, providing vital coverage in the face of a financial firestorm.
With untold thousands of business closed and most advertisers missing in action, newspaper executives acknowledged that survival is increasingly difficult at a time when dependable reporting is essential.

Another Pulitzer Prize winning journalist has been added to the history of Texas newspapers.
Jeffrey Gerritt of the Palestine Herald Press was awarded the prize for "distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, moral purpose, sound reasoning, and power to influence public opinion in what the writer conceives to be the right direction, using any available journalistic tool."

Spring conventions for Texas’ five regional press associations didn’t happen this year, thanks to COVID-19.
Government prohibitions of mass gatherings in response the coronavirus pandemic began in early March. Shelter-in-place orders to ensure social distancing soon followed.
The Panhandle Press Association convention scheduled March 20-21 was canceled. Contest chairman Roger Estlack said contest results haven’t been released as board members are working to arrange a one-day conference later in the year for presenting awards and electing new officers.

Although the annual North and East Texas Press Association spring convention was canceled, results of the regional group’s contest were announced April 4, the day the awards presentation was originally scheduled.
The NETPA contest included two daily divisions, one semiweekly division and three weekly divisions.
Sweepstakes winners were the Longview News Journal, Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, Hood County News (Granbury), Wise County Messenger (Decatur), The Sachse News and the Post-Signal (Pilot Point).

GRANBURY – Jerry Tidwell retired April 2 after 47 years in the newspaper business, the last 41 years as publisher of the Hood County News.
A past TPA president (1996-96) and Texas Newspaper Hall of Fame honoree, Tidwell has been an industry leader for decades. He served as president of the National Newspaper Association in 2006-07. In 2016, he and Roy Eaton co-chaired the NNA Convention held that year in San Antonio. At the regional level, he has been active in the North and East Texas Press Association, serving as president in 1984-85, and the West Texas Press Association.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Jeffrey Gerritt, editor of the Palestine Herald-Press, has won this year’s National Headliner Award for editorial writing. 
Gerritt was honored for a collection of editorials, including commentary from his newspaper’s “Death Without Conviction” series that examined the death of county jail prisoners by medical neglect before they got their day in court.
“A bold, focused cry for decency and justice, in the best tradition of journalists challenging the powerful for the benefit of all,” the contest judges wrote.

Obituaries published in the May Messenger.

Cornerstone Publications owner Natalie Elizabeth Spencer, 53, of Rio Medina, died following an automobile accident in the early evening of April 2.
She was born April 11, 1966 in Houston, the daughter of William E. “Bill” Youngs and Martha Eloise Hanby Youngs.
She graduated from Medina Valley High School in 1985. She loved to play golf and was the first female golfer at MVHS.