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.

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.

Promotions and staff changes at Texas newspapers.

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. 

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.