“What happens when the news is gone?” The New Yorker magazine asked in January, in its headline over a long story about the failing local-news ecosystem in Jones County, North Carolina. It is the best case study of the local-journalism crisis I’ve seen, and we did a Rural Blog item about it at https://tinyurl.com/tnqk4au.

Q: What is the U.S. Postal Service’s definition of a paid digital subscriber and what are the USPS requirements for reporting paid digital subscribers on postal forms?

Sometimes in our lives we’re blessed to be a part of a special event that makes you so proud it brings you to tears.
One of those events for myself, family and friends and more than 600 other proud folks occurred on Feb. 7 when my first grandchild and only grandson, Dylan Chadwick Ferguson, graduated from the 78th Season of the Corpus Christi Police Academy, received his badge and officially became an officer with the Corpus Christi Police Department.
Dylan was one of 30 new officers selected out of 800 applicants.

STEPHENVILLE — Support for almost 400 small-town newspapers in Texas now comes from Tarleton State University, the new home of the Texas Center for Community Journalism, which was formerly housed at TCU.
The center’s new co-directors are Tarleton faculty members Dan Malone and Kathryn Jones.
The change was announced at a reception Feb. 20 in the communication studies newsroom in the O.A. Grant Building in Stephenville.

Tommy Thomason, journalism professor and founding director of the Texas Center for Community Journalism at Texas Christian University, retired from teaching Dec. 31.
Thompson taught journalism at five universities and had been with TCU since 1984. Among other career accolades, he was honored by the Poynter Institute of Media Studies with a National Teaching Award in Journalism Ethics.
He was the founding director of the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism within the Bob Scheiffer College of Communication and stepped down from that position in 2009 to found TCCJ.

BEEVILLE – Coastal Bend Publishing LLC, owner of six newspapers in the region, has tapped Dennis Wade to serve as its publisher and vice president. 
Jonathan McElvy, president and CEO, announced the appointment.
Wade has managed a number of newspaper groups across the country, including Granite Publications in Taylor, American Consolidated Media in McAllen and Eagle Publications in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
Most recently, Wade was publisher of the Lawton (Oklahoma) Constitution, before joining the Lawton-Fort Still Chamber of Commerce as vice president.

Promotions, additions and staff changes at Texas newspapers.

Obituaries published in the March 2020 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

CORPUS CHRISTI – Transparency experts will gather Tuesday, Feb. 25, in Corpus Christi for a seminar examining updates to state open government laws and offering training on the Texas Public Information Act and the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Rep. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi is hosting the one-day open government conference, joined by the non-profit Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas in cooperation with the Texas Attorney General’s Office.