Robert Lynn Ludwig
CORSICANA – Robert Lynn Ludwig, former managing editor of the Corsicana Daily Sun, died Aug. 3. He was 56.
Originally from the Houston and Pasadena area, he attended San Jacinto College and graduated from the University of Houston in Clear Lake.
He worked for several newspapers, including the Pasadena Citizen and Brazosport Facts, before becoming managing editor of the Corsicana Daily Sun in 1995.

Robert A. (Bob) Eierdam
WASHINGTON – Robert A. (Bob) Eierdam died Sunday, Aug. 26, 2018 at a Fort Worth hospice. He was 94.
He was born Nov. 4, 1923, in Spokane, Washington, to Al Eierdam and Frances Murawski Eierdam. Eirdam served with the U.S. Army in the Pacific Theater in World War II. After the war, he moved to Fort Worth, where he graduated from Texas Christian University in 1949 with a degree in journal-ism.

The International Trade Commission’s rejection of newsprint tariffs  on imports of uncoated groundwood paper from Canada is good news for newspapers struggling with the added costs.
The ITC’s Aug. 29 ruling that U.S. newsprint producers were not materially harmed by imports from Canada effectively puts an end to protective tariffs that the Commerce Department imposed earlier this year and revised in August.

There is still time for members of Congress to urge the International Trade Commission to reverse the Commerce Department’s preliminary tariffs on newsprint imported from Canada.
The comment period closes Aug. 20, and the ITC will vote on the case Aug. 28.

Four generations of family leadership continues under the Cooke family with Ken Esten Cooke and his wife Christine Granados taking over as co-publishers of the Rockdale Reporter.
“I am thrilled at the opportunity to keep the newspaper in the family as it has been family owned and operated for 107 years,” Cooke said.  
Cooke also publishes the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post. Granados is editor of Rock & Vine magazine, also published in Fredericksburg, and continues to teach writing courses at the University of Texas - San Antonio. 

The Texas Press Association named state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, a 2017-18 “Champion of Transparency” in ceremonies at Nichols’ office attended by TPA officials and publishers of newspapers in Nichols’ district.
Nichols is credited with standing up for Texas laws regarding open meetings and public records and the right of citizens and journalists to have access to meetings and records.

The Texas Supreme Court has denied a motion for a rehearing by the Fort Bend Herald in a case the newspaper brought against Fort Bend County in 2014 to recover attorney’s fees over obtaining public information.
The Herald made a routine Public Information Act request for the names of two people who filed a criminal complaint against former Lamar school district contractor Jim Gonzales, but the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Department refused to provide the information despite well-established legal precedents.

Obituaries published in the August 2018 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

CENTER – Veteran East Texas journalist Mike Elswick has been named editor and publisher of The Light and Champion, bringing with him his wife Stephanie as advertising manager. 
Elswick, a graduate of Aransas Pass High School, has worked for newspapers in Texas, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Mike Elswick worked for the jointly owned Longview News-Journal and Marshall News Messenger for nearly 30 years between 1983 and 2013. 
He served as editor and publisher for the Terrell Tribune from 2013 through 2016. 

Staff changes at Texas newspapers.