As the year draws to a close, TPA members are encouraged to start selecting their best work in 2024 to enter in the Texas Better Newspaper Contest.

The contest opens for entries on Jan. 20 on the ACES contest platform, the online system used for the past two years. Entries submitted should have been published during the 2024 calendar year. Deadline for entries is Feb. 18.

LOCKHART – After 45 years as publisher of the 152-year-old Lockhart Post-Register, Dana Garrett is stepping down as publisher and naming Leesa Teale to take his place.

KERRVILLE – The Kerrville Daily Times has a new publisher with a small-town upbringing, a love of tight-knit communities and an appreciation for what the Texas Hill Country represents.

John Wells came to Kerrville from Bainbridge, Georgia, where he has served as publisher of The Post-Searchlight newspaper.

In 2025, the Texas Press Messenger’s volume number rolls to 100 —  10 decades covering Texas newspapers as they dutifully served their communities through the milestones of the 20th Century and continuing challenges of the first two decades of the 21st Century.

New hires, promotions and other employment news reported by Texas newspapers and published in the December 2024 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

MARSHALL – Timothy Stuckey has joined the staff of The Marshall News Messenger as a staff reporter.

By TONY FARKAS, Polk County Publishing Company

He was called a friend, a brother and even a mentor, but one of the highest compliments Greg Peak ever received was that he was a newspaper man, through and through.