FORT WORTH – A veteran newspaper executive with family ties to Texas has been promoted to publisher of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Ryan Mote, vice president of strategic advertising for The Sacramento Bee and McClatchy’s Western region, will start in Fort Worth on Nov. 5, McClatchy, the Star-Telegram’s parent company, announced.
He replaces Sean Burke, who is stepping down to pursue new opportunities.

Experts in news coverage, digital development and First Amendment topics will share insight on current issues at the 2019 Texas Press Midwinter Conference and Trade Show Jan. 24 - 26 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Denton Convention Center.
Guest speakers include a former president of the Newseum’s First Amendment Center, a digital pioneer in the development of newspaper websites and a legendary television news anchor and correspondent who started his career as a newspaper reporter in his native Texas.   

The 2019 Texas Press Midwinter Conference and Trade Show will focus on the critical importance of community newspapers with the theme “Subscribe to Democracy: Community Journalism Matters.” 
The conference theme dovetails with a Texas Press Service campaign with promotional materials available to member newspapers free of charge.

Following the tragic June 28 shooting in the Capital Gazette newsroom in  Annapolis, Maryland, the American Society of News Editors and Associated Press Media Editors assembled a tip sheet on Newsroom Safety Best Practices.
Th information is posted as a resource on the Texas Press Association website. Click here to access it.

AUSTIN – First Amendment attorney Laura Lee Prather, a champion of free speech and government transparency, is the recipient of the 2018 James Madison Award presented by the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.
The award honors those who demonstrate outstanding commitment to upholding the principles of the First Amendment and open government. 
Prather will receive the award Sept. 21 at the John Henry Faulk Awards Luncheon during the foundation’s Bernard and Audre Rapoport State Conference in Austin.

The Texas Press Association recently recognized Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, as a TPA Champion of Transparency for his legislative work to keep government open to the public.
“He went above and beyond to make government better,” said Odessa American Publisher Patrick Canty, TPA board chairman.
In 2017, Landgraf crafted legislation that aims to establish an online, searchable and public database listing protective orders issued by Texas courts as a result of domestic violence.

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.

We made a giant leap forward Thursday in easing the pain of newsprint tariffs. The U.S. Commerce Department today significantly lowered the tariffs that would apply to Canadian paper.
Today’s news is not a final outcome. A determination from the International Trade Commission is still needed before tariffs become permanent.

Letter from Susan Rowell, NNA president

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.

Associated Press Media Editors (APME) and the American Society of News Editors (ASNE) are holding a joint conference Sept. 11-12 in Austin.
Registration is open now for the 2018 ASNE-APME News Leadership Conference Sept. 11-12 at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin.