PALESTINE – Jake Mienk, publisher of the Palestine Herald-Press and Corsicana Daily Sun, has expanded his publisher responsibilities to The Huntsville Item and the Jacksonville Progress.
Mienk was promoted to the regional publisher’s position because of his leadership skills and knowledge of local markets, according to Steve McPhaul, CNHI LLC’s executive vice president of newspaper operations. 
Last year, Mienk was named by Editor & Publisher magazine as one of the country’s top young newspaper executives. 

LUBBOCK – Robert Granfeldt is the new group publisher of the Amarillo Globe-News and Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Gatehouse Media officials announced Feb. 6.
As publisher, Granfeldt is responsible for operations, readership and both publications’ relationship with their communities.
Granfeldt has worked at the Avalanche-Journal, Florida Times-Union and the Montgomery Advertiser. 

VIRGINIA TURNER BROOKS
ATLANTA – Virginia Turner Brooks, 97, of Atlanta, died Jan. 28, in a Texarkana hospital. 
She was the owner of the Atlanta Times and worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation during World War II.
She attended Hockaday Junior College and graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York.
She was a member of First United Methodist Church in Atlanta, of Pi Beta Phi Sorority, the Atlanta Garden Club, The Hat and Glove Society, Board of Trustees at Saint James Day School and a board member of the Original Atlanta Public Library.

SAN ANTONIO – The National Press Photographers Association has honored San Antonio Express-News Director of Photography Jose Luis Rios with the Jim Gordon Editor of the Year award.
Rios was selected from a pool of six nominees. The award recognizes outstanding editors who support and promote strong photojournalism, demonstrate the best use of photos and raise the industry’s standards.  
Rios, 58, a native of Colorado City, Colorado, has served in his current role with the Express-News since January 2010. He oversees nine photojournalists and two photo editors. 

Promotions and staff changes at Texas newspapers.

2017 award recipients
announced June 19, 2017 at the TPA Leadership Retreat in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

2016 Golden 50 Award recipient was Glenn Rea. The award was presented June 18, 2016 during the TPA Summer Leadership Retreat held at La Torretta Lake Resort & Spa in Montgomery

The U.S. Postal Service has granted Periodical newspapers the option of preparing flats trays (white tubs) without lids and strapping, as required since 2006.
Customer Support Ruling PS-347 has been issued by Lizbeth Dobbins, manager of product classification at USPS headquarters.
 It limits preparation without lids to pieces “that will be worked or processed at the entry facility or associated Sectional Center Facility.” That would include all the 3-digit ZIP codes covered by the SCF distribution territory, starting with the first three digits of your own ZIP code.

DUMAS – Longtime Moore County News Press Editor Gardner Collins died Dec. 14 in Amarillo at the age of 85.
Collins spent 30 years with the News-Press, retiring in 1994. Five years later, he was inducted into the Panhandle Press Hall of Fame. 
Collins graduated from Texas A&M University in 1954 with a major in journalism. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he began his newspaper career with The Borger News-Herald in 1956. He also worked for the Paris News and The Hereford Brand as a reporter-photographer before moving to Dumas in 1964. 

WEIMAR – A memorial service for Bruce Wayne Beal, owner, publisher and editor of the Weimar Mercury, was held Jan. 13 at the First United Methodist Church of Weimar.
He died Jan. 7 in Houston, at the age of 68. 
Beal was born July 6, 1949, to Clyde Beal and Ruth Gieseke Beal in Dallas. He grew up in Dallas and Sweetwater before his family moved to Houston, where he graduated from Spring Woods High School. He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a journalism degree in 1971.