JOHN STEPHEN FAGAN
INDIANAPOLIS – Steve Fagan, a Navy veteran and journalist whose career started in 1970 and who spent 11 years as editor of The Monitor in McAllen, died June 2 after complications from a second battle with pneumonia and recovery from lung cancer while at Community North Hospital in Indianapolis. He was 74.
Fagan became editor of The Monitor in 2001 and retired there in 2013. Under his guidance, the newspaper was named 2011 Texas Newspaper of the Year in its circulation category by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors.

The U.S. Postal Service is ending curbside delivery for new home construction in favor of cluster boxes, which would require residents to go to a central location in the neighborhood, much like what is done at apartment complexes.
The change was announced in an April 26, 2018, revision to Part 631 of the Postal Operations Manual, an internal document for postmasters and employees to follow. As the Postal Service continues to lose money, it is looking for opportunities, and this has been discussed over the years. 

By MAX HEATH, NNA Postal Consultant

Texas Gulf Coast Press Association members celebrated their 80th annual convention this spring at the Sam Houston Hotel in Houston.
The conference included sessions on use of social media, use of Facebook Live for in-house promotion and revenue production, as well as a talk on the threat to transparency in Texas government by Joseph Larsen, longtime director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and an attorney with Gregor Cassidy, PLLC, in Houston.

Q: The police chief of one of several cities our newspapers cover reported in a public meeting that his officers had issued several hundred citations during a recent month. A county seat city that we also cover has more than double the population of the first city. But its officers issued fewer than half of the number of citations that the smaller city issued during the same period. I want to do a story about this, so I need to find the state law that says revenue from a city’s citations cannot exceed a set percentage of the city’s total revenue for the prior year.

While digging through some old files the other day, I ran across a folder containing a set of index cards titled “Tools of the Trade” that I’d helped my dad – former Record publisher Ben R. Ezzell – prepare three decades earlier. They were part of an exhibit prepared for Canadian High School students – props he used for a presentation on careers in print journalism.
Whatever I had been seeking in those files was instantly forgotten, as is always the danger when the present stumbles across the past. I was transported in time. 

On July 17, the International Trade Commission will hear testimony on the preliminary newsprint tariffs imposed in January and March on Canadian newsprint.
TPA and other members of a national coalition have been lobbying members of Congress to testify against making the tariffs permanent.
Newspapers have already seen production price increases of up to 30 percent and promises of higher prices to come. Advertisers who rely on inserts are also seeing production increases, which is expected to lead to a loss of income for newspapers. 

Q: Our county election commission has five members: the county judge, county clerk, tax assessor-collector and the chairs of the county Republican and Democratic parties. The commission appoints members to the early voting ballot board, appoints the early voting signature verification committee, approves the purchase of election supplies, etc. Is the commission subject to the open meetings law?

Well, as they say: All good things must come to an end.
My tenure as Texas Press Association board president wraps up this month, and therefore this is my final column for the Texas Press Messenger.
It has been a whirlwind year and a memorable one, and I am very thankful that I have had the opportunity and privilege to serve such a worthwhile organization.

The publisher of every newspaper in the United States finds himself today face-to-face with a heavy responsibility. That it is, perhaps, a responsibility unjustly forced upon him does not alter the weight of the burden, or the necessity of shouldering it. You are to pay the penalty and make a vicarious sacrifice in atonement for the sin of a certain type of renegade newspaper editor who sold the birthright of American journalism for a mess of pottage - and now hasn't even the pottage. 

Quanah Tribune-Chief has new owners
New owners of the Quanah Tribune-Chief are Shane Lance, Townly Thomas, and Dennis Thomas. 
Lance and Townly Thomas serve as co-editors of the newspaper, published weekly on Friday. They both grew up in Quanah and Dennis Thomas has been a resident for 15 years. A former teacher and coach for the Quanah ISD, Lance currently works for 3 Rivers Foundation. The new owners said they look forward to focusing on community news as the newspaper returns to local ownership.