Spring conventions for Texas’ five regional press associations didn’t happen this year, thanks to COVID-19.
Government prohibitions of mass gatherings in response the coronavirus pandemic began in early March. Shelter-in-place orders to ensure social distancing soon followed.

Although the annual North and East Texas Press Association spring convention was canceled, results of the regional group’s contest were announced April 4, the day the awards presentation was originally scheduled.
The NETPA contest included two daily divisions, one semiweekly division and three weekly divisions.

GRANBURY – Jerry Tidwell retired April 2 after 47 years in the newspaper business, the last 41 years as publisher of the Hood County News.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Jeffrey Gerritt, editor of the Palestine Herald-Press, has won this year’s National Headliner Award for editorial writing. 
Gerritt was honored for a collection of editorials, including commentary from his newspaper’s “Death Without Conviction” series that examined the death of county jail prisoners by medical neglect before they got their day in court.

Obituaries published in the May Messenger.

Cornerstone Publications owner Natalie Elizabeth Spencer, 53, of Rio Medina, died following an automobile accident in the early evening of April 2.
She was born April 11, 1966 in Houston, the daughter of William E. “Bill” Youngs and Martha Eloise Hanby Youngs.
She graduated from Medina Valley High School in 1985. She loved to play golf and was the first female golfer at MVHS.