It’s time to get entries in for the 2018 Texas Better Newspaper Contest.
TPA member newspapers are invited to upload entries through the Texas BNC online contest platform. Access the platform at www.texaspress.com/bnc and click on the ENTER NOW button. Deadline for entries is 5 p.m. March 22.
The 2018 Texas Better Newspaper Contest is open to all newspapers that were members of TPA during the entirety of 2017. 

GALVESTON — Unique local coverage, important to both readers and advertisers, is key to the future of community newspapers, Texas Press Association members were told at the annual Midwinter Conference and Trade Show in January.
Overcoming adversity — both from market factors and during natural disasters in the communities newspapers serve — was the theme of the “Come Hell or High Water” conference held in Galveston. The importance of hometown newspapers’ local coverage was also a central theme of the sales programs presented during the conference.

Two panels of community journalists gave programs concerning how their staffs covered disasters impacting Texas in 2017.
In the program entitled “Come Hell or High Water,” Canadian Record Publisher Laurie Ezzell-Brown discussed covering ice storms and wildfires in the Texas Panhandle and Port Aransas South Jetty Publisher Mary Judson discussed how she used a disaster plan to keep her family newspaper running while directing coverage of the devastation.

Congress has passed federal income tax reform legislation with no mention of an advertising tax. Newspaper publishers  and others who depend on advertising for their livelihood can breathe a sigh of relief.

Ann Roznovsky
WACO – Ann Roznovsky, who had a six-decade affiliation with the Waco Tribune-Herald and whose contributions to local civic, cultural and business organizations prompted the city of Waco in 1996 and 2008 to set aside days in her honor, died at her home Dec. 16, following a battle with cancer. She was 81. 
A celebration of Roznovsky’s life was held Dec. 21 at First United Methodist Church of Woodway in Waco. 

Promotions and new staff additions at Texas newspapers.

Kaley Branch, Mark Goodson, Wade Wilson
The Gatesville Messenger

As outlined last month, community newspapers once again have an inflationary price increase under the 2006 postal reform act, passed with the National Newspaper Association’s help, and with several newspaper rule improvements.

There is an overly narrow and dangerous proposal working through the U.S. Department of Commerce with a very real potential of making access to your local newspaper and the valuable content more expensive and difficult to gather.

Guest column by Leonard Woolsey
Publisher, Galveston County Daily News

Congress has passed federal income tax reform legislation with no mention of an advertising tax. Newspaper publishers  and others who depend on advertising for their livelihood can breathe a sigh of relief.

It’s almost time for Texas newspapers to file annual recycled newsprint reports.
Every year, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) collects data on recycled newsprint. Texas law requires that newspaper publishers submit their report for 2017 to the TCEQ by Jan. 31, 2018.
This year, there's a new contact person for the Recycled Newsprint program - Alex Frame.  
More information about the reporting requirement is available in the Texas Health and Safety Code, Section 361.430.