Texas Press Association

The city of Big Lake on Jan. 21 voted not to go along with the cities of Rockport, Sugar Land, Wichita Falls, Pflugerville and 15 individual city officials in their lawsuit seeking to strip criminal penalties from the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Plaintiffs say the criminal penalties chill their right to free speech under the First Amendment.

Big Lake city council voted on Dec. 1 to join the other cities in the lawsuit, but on Jan. 21 voted to withdraw after Randy Mankin, publisher of the weekly Big Lake Wildcat, suggested that if changing the law is their goal, the Texas Legislature, not the federal court system, would be a more appropriate way to proceed.

The lawsuit, filed Dec. 14 in U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas, in Pecos, was served Jan. 13 on Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, giving the state of Texas 20 working days to answer.

On Feb. 2, Texas Solicitor General James C. Ho filed a motion to dismiss the cities from the lawsuit, arguing that cities, as “creatures of the state” rather than natural persons, have no standing to file such a lawsuit. A ruling on the motion is pending.

Similar lawsuits were defeated at the trial court level in Pecos and most recently in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 10, when the court ruled en banc to dismiss the case as moot and meritless.

Texas Press Association, Texas Daily Newspaper Association, Texas Association of Broadcasters, The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, and other open government advocacy groups and individuals, including current and former public officials, have sided with the state and the attorney general’s office in opposition to the lawsuit.
The main point of unity among open government advocates is the fact that criminal penalties in the open meetings law work well as a deterrent to officials tempted to deliberate and decide the public’s business outside of properly noticed meetings.

“We support the attorney general’s efforts on behalf of open government,” said Fred Hartman, chairman of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association / Texas Press Association Legislative Advisory Committee.
“Elected officials are free to say whatever they want, but when they’re conducting the public’s business, it should be done in the open, not in secret,” Hartman added.

The Open Meetings Act has worked wonderfully since 1973, and there’s no reason to turn back the clock to the days when Texas government was less accountable to its citizens.”

Some 276 people attended the Texas Press 2010 Midwinter Conference and Trade Show, Jan. 21-23, at luxurious Moody Gardens Hotel in Galveston.

The trade show brought in exhibitors representing companies and organizations from coast to coast. All are identified in the new 2010 Buyer’s Guide at this link: http://tinyurl.com/ygymesn.

Attendees participated in a silent auction that raised nearly $6,000 benefiting the Texas Newspaper Foundation, a 501c(3) non-profit that helps fund journalism education programs through TCU’s Texas Center for Community Journalism and other educational institutions.

Four were inducted into the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame: George Bannerman Dealey, publisher of The Dallas Morning News from 1885 to 1946; Lyndell N. Williams, executive vice president of Texas Press Association from 1974 to 1998; Rigby Owen Sr., long-time owner of the Conroe Courier and president of Texas Press Association, 1970-71; and Sarah L. Greene, the only living inductee among this year’s class of honorees. Greene, publisher emerita of The Gilmer Mirror, was full-time publisher of the newspaper from 1974 to 2006. Visit the Foundation’s home page at www.tnf.net.

The conference featured entertaining speeches and programs addressing subjects affecting newspapers’ everyday operations.

Keck: Inspiration to surge onward
At the Hall of Fame dinner, Randy Keck, publisher of The Community News in Aledo, delivered a moving tribute to members of his community whose stories inspire him daily.

The routine but sometimes overwhelming frustrations publishers face week in and week out are brought back into perspective by those who face extraordinary struggles on a daily basis. Keck convincingly showed how it helps to remind one’s self of that in the most challenging moments.

Marling: Pulse of America Survey
John Marling, chief executive of Oregon-based Pulse Research, showed how data from his nationwide, ongoing survey of newspaper readers’ buying habits, interfaced with census information, reveals efficiencies that can greatly benefit newspapers.

For example, Marling said, there’s a better way serve advertisers than to call on them and tout your newspaper’s circulation as a chief reason to buy an ad. It is more meaningful and helpful, he said, to be able to give a furniture business an accurate estimate of how many people in the market area will buy a new mattress in the coming year.
Marling’s Pulse of America Survey provides users, no matter what their newspaper’s size or location, with that kind of information.

Viers: Potential of Web awaits you
Software, hardware and workflow processes trainer Russell Viers summarized his presentation in three points.
• Capitalize on the opportunities a website gives you over print: Especially as a weekly paper, there are some real advantages a website has over print and that’s immediacy, Viers said.

When someone in the community dies, you can report the news immediately instead of waiting until Wednesday when the paper comes out. Other advantages include unlimited space, community input, a medium readers are becoming comfortable with and more.

With unlimited space, a paper can upload 100 or more photos from the school play, instead of just the best one that goes with the story.

With community input, an obituary can be more than just the facts that are often reported by the paper. Friends and family can add comments and build a story about the deceased. “This is something I see done now on Facebook when family members ‘converse’ about a loved one who has died,” Viers observed.
“If a paper can take advantage of the technology, it can turn that into a sellable product through advertising and possibly subscriptions.”

• Don’t try to do it yourself: “Too often I see papers trying to build a news website like a traditional ‘information’ website. The cost is greater than looking for a service that has already built the templates and incorporated the necessary technology. In addition to the cost a paper should look at the time it takes to build and update a site. That time could be spent gathering more and better content so readers have more to see when going online.”

• Your product is your content, not the delivery method: “More pictures, better pictures, more stories and better stories is what newspapers should be focusing on. Since we know our paper is only going to be about 12 pages, for example, we tend to only gather enough content for that space. With the web, we have the opportunity to report stories and deliver photos that would normally never make the paper.

“The more good content we can deliver, in both print and online, the more there is for readers to see and talk about. The more there is for your readers to see and talk about, the more opportunity there is for growth, and that translates into subscriptions and ad sales.

“If a newspaper can eliminate lost time in production of both the print and online product, that leaves more time to gather the news — our real product.

“And if readers have learned to turn to your paper for the news, whether online or print, then if the day ever comes where print is dead, that doesn’t have to mean death to the paper. Our product is the content we deliver, not the method in which it’s delivered.”

Copyright at core of business model
Sheri Hunter, an attorney with the Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold law firm in Austin, discussed copyright issues that tie to the newspaper industry’s viability.

The market’s desire for instant news poses a challenge to printed newspapers. News aggregators, feeding that desire, copy or link to a newspaper’s headlines, stories or chunks of stories, often without permission, and then sell advertising to package with that content. So, your content enables parasitic aggregators to make a profit while you continue to pay high overhead costs and suffer from decreasing revenue in a down market.

Hunter said the majority of media experts and academics agree that the traditional newspaper is worth saving. Suggestions have emerged since mid-May, when the issue was explored in a U.S. Congressional subcommittee hearing led by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

One idea, Hunter said, is to amend the federal copyright law so that original content producers, such as newspapers, would have a brief monopoly on their news. For a specific period, 24 hours for example, aggregators would have to reimburse the newspaper for any use that occurs during the period.

Another idea is to adopt a statute similar to the one used by the recording industry, in which a performer pays a songwriter an industry standard percentage or a negotiated rate to play or perform any given material.
And, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., suggested creating a non-profit status for newspapers, but it’s not clear how well Cardin’s idea is catching on.

In any case, Hunter said, it’s a good idea for newspapers to protect what they’ve created and well-known legal mechanisms still work, such as the cease-and-desist letter and the filing of a temporary injunction to stop unauthorized use.

Richards: Legal status counts big
Don R. Richards, media attorney and publisher of the Hale Center American, dug into the mysteries that surround a newspapers’ status as a legal publication and followed with a lively question-and-answer period.

He explained the difference between a legal notice and a public notice, talked about the loss of both kinds of notice to newspapers that don’t meet the definition of a legal newspaper in Texas, and he gave thorough airing to ways newspapers can fight for notices they have lost for one reason or another.

Richards briefed members on four particular Texas attorney general opinions that are critical to understanding the mechanics of public notice: H-1081 (1977) second-class permit; JM-268 (1984) legal publications, JC-0223 (2000) general circulation and GA-0380 (2005), selection of a newspaper.

And, Richards led the audience through Texas Government Code Chapter 2051, where key elements and requirements of legal publications reside.

Lieber’s personal story wows crowd
Award-winning columnist Dave Lieber of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram induced tears and laughter from the closing brunch audience.

He shared anecdotes from 1993, his early days in Texas. It was rough training in Cow Town, where he received coaching on the nomenclature and wearing of boots, hat, belt and jeans.

Lieber warmed the room with the touching story of how he met the woman who would become his wife, her children, and dog, Sadie, who turned out to be the unlikely key to making all of the pieces for a happy life fall into place.

I was hanging out in our newspaper morgue the other day, working on 2010 contest entries when I got distracted and started paging through some of our publication’s really old issues.

Just about everyone knows how valuable a newspaper’s back-issues are when it comes to archiving a community’s history. Quite regularly, we all have visitors come in, asking if they can look through old issues in pursuit of research data.

When that happens, almost without fail these visitors end up spending a lot more time at this task than they’d budgeted, simply because they become side-tracked as their eyes fall on other tidbits of history.

But these trips down memory lane don’t just happen to our readers. Even newspaper folks themselves occasionally fall victim to this benign affliction.

Like me.

That day, as I combed through old issues, I happened upon a May 9, 1896, copy of the Fredericksburg Standard’s predecessor — the Gillespie County News.

It really wasn’t so much the news-of-the-day that caught my attention as did the more physical aspects of the publica-tion itself.

For example, on the front page of that 113-year-old copy there was only one article, and it was just the continuation of a serialized feature begun the week before.

All the other space, aside from the nameplate, was taken up with advertisements — 12 of them, in fact — including two competing baking powder ads that captured the top-right and lower-right corners of the page. There was also a top-center promo for Ayer’s Sarsaparilla which claimed to cure cancer. (So much for truth in advertising.)

The whole experience of look-ing through those back-issues got me to thinking about how much newspaper production has changed over the years — some for the better and maybe in some cases not so much.

As I moved on to subsequent volumes and into the early years of the Standard (the News’ successor starting in 1907), I noticed some other physical characteristics that distinguished those old publications from what we produce today.

For one thing, the pages were ginormous in size. Compared to many newspapers today that are printed on a 22-inch web, those old rolls at one point measured as much as 35 inches wide.

But, on the other hand, the technology was such back then that there were no photographs. Later on, engravings did occur, but they weren’t local — just national or international in nature.

Over time — in the Standard’s case around 1936 — the front-page ads disappeared, retreating inside to where most editorial room purists figure they always belonged anyway.

Another aspect that changed was the size of headlines. Not until the mid-1930s did it apparently occur to anyone around our office that you could make them more than one column wide. Before then, the makeup man could load umpteen stories on page one, wrapping them up and down the page to form a vast sea of gray.

Front-page coverage back then tended to have a wide range of topics. Those old layouts did display the traditional communitywide stories about meetings, civic functions, farm news and the like. But they also made room for the incidental, like who was visiting from out of town, where the weekend garden socials took place and similar other big doings.

Around 1938, the Standard started printing locally-produced photos — something that then-managing editor and eventual-publisher Art Kowert always particularly valued.

Over time, our paper — like just about everyone else in this business — got better at making its product more eye-friendly, thanks to improvements both in readability and appearance through the miracles of offset printing. In the process, we made headlines bigger, columns wider, layouts more modular and photos larger and more creative in their content.

In fact, it seems like only yesterday that just about all of us with ink in our veins adopted SAU widths, dumped column rules and started using lots of photos.

Those were the good old days.

Unfortunately, a lot of us have lately had to make some tough decisions, mostly due to economic challenges. Page sizes have, in many cases, became smaller; we’ve tended to reduce the width and sometimes the number of columns, and newsprint is not as thick as it once was.

Against these new demands, here in Fredericksburg we’ve been trying to hang on to our 27-inch web and a six-column format, partly in deference to our collective readership’s aging eyes and — perhaps naively — to counter what seems to be a misguided notion among some folks that newspapers must truly be in trouble because their pages are getting smaller, thinner and fewer in number.

Even so, all of us are doing what we can to better serve and survive in good health.

Aside from software improvements like pagination, digital color photography and the like, here in our part of the publishing world, we’ve tried to boost our efforts in news dissemination by implementing programs like home delivery and a complete online presence.

Still, I know there’s room to grow and to learn a thing or two from friends in this business who have been particularly adventurous in new approaches to reaching readers — like blogging, twittering, doing streaming videos and putting ads on the front page.

Ads on the front page? Now there’s a novel idea.

By KEVIN SLIMP

Keeping in mind that I wrote about the rumored tablet device by Apple three months ago, it was with some satisfaction that I listened to Steve Jobs’ announcement concerning the iPad on Jan. 27.

As I visited with attendees at a newspaper conference in Minnesota, the interest in the new device was evident as one publisher after another approached me to get my opinion on its potential effect on the newspaper industry.

Rumors concerning the iPad were a favorite topic of technophiles over the past few months. Little did I know that the announcement would generate the excitement that it did.

As I peruse the list of iPad features, I feel a strange sense of excitement and fear at the same time. Let me explain.
While researching material for my previous column, I was struck by the response of one expert who responded to my question about a possible Apple device by saying, “Look, a unicorn!”

He was referring, of course, to the inability of any device to live up to the mountain of hype. Rumors hinted at a gadget that would combine a high definition TV, along with a computer and phone.

In addition, all magazines, newspapers, books and other printed materials could be viewed on the large screen with the click of a button. And Internet connection wouldn’t be a concern. The tablet would have continual access to the Internet. No need to log in to an Internet provider. And the battery would stay charged for days at a time.

It looks like some of the hype was prophetic. Streaming video and television will be available. So will books, magazines and newspapers. Plus, users will be able to browse the Internet. And with a battery life up to ten hours, my flying friends won’t be roaming through airports like zombies in search of some place to charge their computer batteries.

Critics cite some of the iPad’s “deficiencies.” Without a USB port, there’s no apparent way to transfer files between computers and iPads. Apple’s continued alliance with AT&T drew boos from some of the audience at the unveiling. Possibly the biggest criticism relates to the iPad’s inability to play Flash files, a staple for online ads on newspaper sites.

At an Apple employee gathering following the iPad launch, Jobs said, “Apple does not support Flash because it is so buggy. Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash. The world is moving to HTML5.”

OK. That’s another conversation for another day. But I will say this. When Apple added the Firewire port, I thought they were crazy. Boy, was I wrong about that.

So, I’ve been getting emails from publishers wanting to know what I think of the iPad. They want to know what effect it will have on our industry. Obviously, I don’t know for sure. But I can tell you what I think.

This first edition of the iPad probably won’t be a game changer. I don’t expect most newspapers will rush to get their publications on an iPad. However, just as Apple revolutionized the music industry, it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to see how future versions of this device could revolutionize the publishing world.

As the screen gets a little larger, new technology emerges to enhance the iPad experience and applications abound, I could see the iPad — or something like it — changing the way many of us produce newspapers.

I’m excited about the opportunities we’ll have to create new revenue streams and enhance the distribution of our papers. On the other hand, I worry about competition coming out of the woodwork.

Most people wouldn’t have any idea how to get a newspaper printed and distributed to the masses. Creating a publication and getting it on the iPad will be much easier. That part of it concerns me, as it should concern you.
That’s one reason I would strongly suggest that you prepare your newspaper for the release of the iPad. When it appears in the near future, the iPad will be everywhere. Instead of reading newspapers or working on computers in airports, I believe we’ll see people reading on the iPad  . . .  or something like it.

Having said that, I fully expect my e-mail to be filled with readers who disagree. Heck, I’m not even sure if I agree with myself.

It is hard to ignore something that happened on Facebook last night. I posted a question related to the new iPad. So far, negative responses outweigh positive responses 10 to one.

Mark my words. One way or another, the iPad is going to change things. You might want to get in line behind me to get one when they’re released in the near future. This is one technological leap you don’t want to miss.

Morris Publishing Group to file for bankruptcy
Morris Publishing Group, based in Augusta, Ga., will file a “prepackaged” reorganization plan under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and the Amarillo Globe-News announced Jan. 14.
In addition to the Avalanche-Journal and the Globe-News, Morris owns 11 other daily newspapers, including the Augusta Chronicle, Savannah Morning News and its largest newspaper, the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla.
The plan reportedly will cut the company’s debt of $415 million by nearly 70 percent.
A January 2009 reorganization separated Morris Publishing from its former parent company, Morris Communications LLC.

Freedom announces plan to file for reorganization
Irvine, Calif.-based Freedom Communications, parent company of The Monitor in McAllen, the Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, The Brownsville Herald, the Odessa American and many other media outlets, on Jan. 21 announced it had filed a reorganization plan.
The company expects a confirmation hearing for the reorganization plan to be held in early March. Under the reorganization plan, the company’s secured debt would be reduced from $770 million to $325 million.
More than 6,000 current and former employees who participate in the company’s qualified pension plan have been protected from the beginning of the process, said Freedom CEO Burl Osborne. The reorganization plan calls for participants in the company’s non-qualified pension program to have 70 percent of their benefits reinstated.
Freedom Communications filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last August.

Affiliated Media to file for Ch. 11 bankruptcy
Affiliated Media, the holding company for MediaNews Group, the owner of The Denver Post, The Salt Lake Tribune, the El Paso Times and more than a dozen weekly and semiweekly newspapers in Texas, announced a “prepackaged” plan to restructure $930 million in debt under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
According to a story published Jan. 16 in the El Paso Times, the agreement swaps debt for equity, retains the current management team and excludes all of the company’s media properties.
And, because media properties are excluded, advertisers, vendors, employees and subscribers will be unaffected.
MediaNews chairman and CEO William Dean Singleton said no layoffs or wage cuts are planned because of the reorganization.

Open records requests create need for more staff
The city of Richardson got so many requests for public information in 2009 that it had to hire another employee to keep up with the demand, according to a Dec. 31 story in The Dallas Morning News.
The city secretary said she and her assistant have little time to do much other than fulfill requests, which increased from 257 in 2008 to more than 300 in 2009.
An additional records clerk will cost the city about $58,000 in salary and benefits. The clerk will work on requests and handle records management, The Morning News reported.
“Reasons for higher numbers of requests vary. In part, Schmidt said, the public is more aware that they are entitled to information from their government. Also, with residents able to file requests by e-mail or through city Web sites, it’s easier than ever to do so,” reporter Ian McCann wrote in his byline story.

Ruling: Autopsies not open
The Office of the Attorney General ruled that the Southeast Texas Forensic Center’s autopsy records are not subject to the Public Information Act, the Longview News-Journal reported Jan. 1.
In a late-December ruling, Assistant Attorney General Pamela Wissemann stated the records were collected and maintained by the justice of the peace who ordered the autopsy and because the JP is a member of the judiciary, the records are not subject to the Act.

Newspaper forced to move after reporting arrest
The Copperas Cove Leader-Press’s lease on its long-time location on Avenue D in downtown Copperas Cove was not renewed at the end of 2009, eight days after the newspaper reported the arrest its landlord.
The newspaper’s landlord, Jack Smith, was arrested for public intoxication on Oct. 30 during the Copperas Cove High School vs. A&M Consolidated varsity football game.
The landlord’s attorney said the newspaper was not evicted, but that Smith simply decided not to renew the lease.
Leader-Press Publisher Larry Hauk expressed his feelings about the situation in a Dec. 29 news story. “I have no regrets about the coverage of Jack’s arrest in the newspaper. As I’ve said before, we will not be swayed in who or what the Leader-Press covers. I do regret the staff has had to move during the holidays. …”
The newspaper’s new location in Copperas Cove is 2210 E. Highway 190, Suite 1.

Star-Telegram cuts positions
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Jan. 14 reported plans to reduce staff by 28 and eliminate 17 open positions.
“Although we’ve seen improvement in revenue trends recently, we still need to reduce our expenses going forward,” said Star-Telegram President and Publisher Gary Wortel.
The newspaper last downsized in March 2009, when staff was reduced by more than 100.
In other news, on Jan. 13, the Mansfield News-Mirror, long a Texas Press Association member, became a free publication. The News-Mirror is owned by McClatchy, the owner of the Star-Telegram.

Waco Citizen celebrates 65th year in business
Publisher Bill Foster celebrated the Waco Citizen’s 65th year in business with a 28-page special anniversary edition dated Jan. 7.
In his front-page column, Foster tells readers the edition is “a lot about ourselves and the family because we have been making the paper and related events happen during these first 65 years in business.
“You will notice the first ‘paper’ we published was in our garage in 1944. In the ’50s I started making decisions and had to take the checkbook away from my dad, because he would buy something and I would have to pay for it.”
Foster observes that many people who worked for him at the Waco Citizen “got a start to a bigger occupation.”
He recalls the great tornado of May 11, 1953, the special issue he published featuring a gay wedding, and the newspaper’s forced removal from downtown Waco in an urban renewal effort.
Foster also recounts hand-setting type for the newspaper in 1944 and steps that have led to modern digital production at the Waco Citizen.

Kerrville Daily Times celebrates 100 years
In its New Year’s Day issue, The Kerrville Daily Times encouraged readers to send in old photos and rare copies of the newspaper or clipped articles.
Publisher Mike Graxiola invited readers to “join us as we celebrate our centennial throughout 2010.”
The newspaper, part of Houston-based Southern Newspapers Inc., traces its lineage to the Center Point News, founded in 1910. A group of investors moved the newspaper to Kerrville in 1925, consolidated it with The Latest, and renamed it The Hill View Times. James J. Starkey changed the name to The Kerrville Times in 1926. The newspaper became The Kerrville Daily Times in 1949 and printed its first weekend edition in 1976.

Bosque County News is renamed Meridian Tribune
Mark Henry, publisher, announced in the Jan. 6 edition of the Bosque County News that the newspaper has changed its name to the Meridian Tribune.
Reverting to the Meridian Tribune flag is a gesture intended to honor the city and all the readers and advertisers throughout Bosque County, Henry said.
The Meridian Tribune started in March 1893 and continued publication until 17 or 18 years ago, when it was purchased by the Bosque County News, a competing newspaper that started a few years earlier, Henry said.

Publisher’s plan would cover 4 West Texas communities
On page 1 of the Jan. 21 issue of The Rankin News, Publisher Hal Hutchens wrote to his readers:
“As I look back at the 85 years and over 4,200 issues since the first publication rolled off the presses back in 1925, it’s unimaginable to me that a small town paper like The Rankin News could have ever survived for as long as it has.
“And as we travel into the 21st century and a time when we see the world consumed with instant news from internet and television and we read about newspapers across the country, large and small, closing their doors, I am overwhelmed and proud that the people of Upton County have continued to support this little weekly paper through it all.”
Hutchens followed with a recap of the history of his county-seat newspaper and its predecessors, working toward the present.
“Since taking over the paper in 1998 I’ve been fortunate in my planning. The Rankin News has so far survived the toughest recession since the Great Depression and is doing reasonably well. I’m not making much money by any means, but with two area newspapers having already closed their doors in the past year, and others still in question, I’m still able to crank up the press and turn out a paper each week and that’s worth a lot to me.”
The Iraan News, 20 miles south of Rankin, and The McCamey News, 20 miles east of Rankin, both closed in early 2009.  So the picture is: a cluster of triangulated cities in West Texas. McCamey news content was picked up by The Crane News, the Crane County seat weekly newspaper about 20 miles north of McCamey.
Hutchens sought to have The Rankin News named the official newspaper for McCamey but let go of the idea and continued with his plan to serve Rankin while providing news and advertising services for other towns in his region that currently don’t have their own newspapers. His plan is called the Pecos River Dispatch, a newspaper that would cover Rankin, Iraan, Midkiff (20 miles from Rankin in the northeast corner of Upton County) and Sheffield (20 miles south of Iraan, in east Pecos County).
“A town can’t grow without a newspaper,” Hutchens said in a Feb. 13 telephone interview. “These communities in my area, the ones I want to serve, are small enough to feel the pain of one family moving out and the joy of just one family moving in. It’s not at all like in big city, where the economic impact of one family might go unnoticed.”
Hutchens said he plans to submit a name change to the U.S. Postal Service, converting The Rankin News to the Pecos River Dispatch.
The Rankin News’ 2009 postal statement listed a paid circulation of 289. Upton County’s population is listed at 3,283.

Joe Bean
Joe Patrick Bean, 51, of Austin, died Dec. 24, 2009, at University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin. 
He was hospitalized Dec. 17 after suffering a severe head injury in a fall in the parking garage where he worked, and died eight days later following a massive heart attack.
Bean was a public affairs specialist for the Texas State Teachers Association and a regular exhibitor for TSTA in the annual Texas Press trade shows.
He earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. He taught journalism for several years at Concordia University in Austin. His career included work as a book reviewer for the Victoria Advocate, as an editorial writer and columnist for the San Antonio Express-News, and as opinion page editor for the Muskogee (Okla.) Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat.

Bruce Bissonette
Bruce Earl Bissonette, 85, died Dec. 9, 2009, of congestive heart failure at Eden Assisted Living in El Paso.
Bissonette was a police, fire, military and aviation reporter for the El Paso Times throughout the 1960s and wrote an award-winning column, “Prop Pitch,” until 1974. His media career in El Paso also included work as a television reporter, camera operator and news director. He was known as “Uncle Earl,” the co-host of a morning radio show.
He founded Skyway Products, a small custom manufacturing company that produced aviation supplies in the 1970s and dabbled in acting and photography. In 1972, he play a small role in the Steve McQueen movie, “The Getaway,” filmed partly in El Paso.

Lyn Blackmon
Lyn Blackmon, 78, died Jan. 14, 2010, at her home in Texarkana.
Blackmon, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, was a long-time arts and entertainment reporter for the Texarkana Gazette.
She joined the newspaper in 1965 as a general assignment repoter. She covered the police beat, courts and politics until 1970, when she left the job. She returned in 1982, working as the newspaper’s part-time librarian and in 1985 moved to the job of feature writer and arts and entertainment reporter. She retired in 1999.

Larry Gage
Larry R. Gage, 76, died Jan. 7, 2010, at Garden Terrace nursing facility in Houston, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease.
A graduate of then-East Texas State College in Commerce, Gage earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1955. While attending college, he worked at newspapers. He completed some of his course work by correspondence in order to work in the Austin office of U.S. Sen. Sam Rayburn. He served in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957 and earned as master’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin in 1959, where he met his wife, Mary Angeline Smith, also a journalism student.
He began his newspaper career at the Jacksoville Journal and later became state editor and editor for the Brownwood Bulletin, where he worked for 1959 to 1966. He joined the Houston Chronicle in 1966 and worked there for 34 years. He was a member of the Chronicle editorial board when he retired in 2000.

Bob Green
James Robert “Bob” Green, 85, of Albany, died at his family ranch on Dec. 22, 2009.
Green was born on the ranch and grew up in Shackelford County, attending schools in Albany and Breckenridge before enrolling in the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell.
Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, he, along with many of his classmates, enlisted in the U.S. Army. He earned Silver Star and Bronze Star medals for battle action at Leyte and as a tank platoon leader at Okinawa.
A rancher, gardener, writer and historian, Green wrote a weekly column for the Albany News and was a frequent contributor to the Abilene Reporter-News. He was the voice of Fandangle, the community-produced pioneer pageant at Fort Griffin, near Albany, every year in late June.

Deborah Howell
Deborah Howell, 68, died Jan. 2, 2010, after being struck by a car while vacationing in New Zealand.
Howell was the daughter of San Antonio newspaperman and broadcaster Henry Howell. She was born in San Antonio.
In the early 1960s, Howell worked as an intern at the Austin American-Statesman. She graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
She was a copy editor for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times before joining the Minneapolis (Minn.) Star as a reporter in 1965. She was city editor for four years, one of the few women to hold such a post in those days, and was promoted to managing editor. In 1979, she left the Star for the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, where she advanced from assistant managing editor to managing editor in 1982 and executive editor in 1984. While there, she led the newsroom to win two Pulitzer Prizes. In 1990, she was hired as chief of the Newhouse News Service Washington bureau and her staff won a Pulitzer while she was there.
She was named ombudsman for the Washington Post in 2005 and served until she retired in 2008.

Elizabeth McClellan
Elizabeth “Betty” Josephine Mahood McClellan, 82, of Kerrville, died Dec. 25, 2009, in a Stamford care facility.
McClellan was born and grew up in Stamford and worked there as a stringer for the Abilene Reporter News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News. She attended Texas Tech University and the University of Texas at Austin. She earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Houston in 1974.
In 1963 she and her husband, Alton F. McClellan Jr., moved to Austin and in 1969 the family moved to Houston, where she worked for Houston Public Library. The McClellans retired and moved to Kerrville in 1976.

Bill Maddox
Bill R. Maddox, 71, of San Antonio, died Jan. 3, 2010, after a long battle with cancer.
Maddox had worked for Public Strategies Inc. in Austin for 13 years before retiring in 2009.
He attended Paris Junior College, majoring in journalism. In 1961, he started a 15-year newspaper career, starting as a reporter for daily newspapers in Irving, Tyler, Marshall and finally, Port Arthur, where he served as executive editor. He won many awards in Texas Press Association better newspaper contests and served on the TPA board of directors.
He left the newspaper business and served nine years as press secretary for the Congressional Joint Economic Committee for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, having been appointed by then-U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas.

John Newell
John Keith Newell, 91, died Jan. 18, 2010.
A native of Arkansas and a graduate of the University of the Ozarks, the young Newell’s part-time job as a Linotype machine operator at a Clarksville, Ark., newspaper made a lasting impression.
In World War II, Newell was in the Army, serving in Iwo Jima, Saipan and Guam. He met his wife in Memphis, Tenn., at a USO and proposed marriage in a letter containing a ring. She wrote back, “Yes.”
Newell went on to work for the Arkansas Democrat, the Arkansas Gazette and The Associated Press, all in Little Rock. He joined the San Antonio Express in 1951 as telegraph editor. Before retiring in 1983, he had been science editor, news editor, assistant managing editor and managing editor of the evening paper.
He loved writing headlines and won 13 AP headline-writing awards.

Roy Scudday
Roy Sheppard Scudday, 88, of Fort Davis, died at his home in Fort Davis on Jan. 6, 2010.
Scudday was a 1938 graduate of Newman High School, now Sweetwater High School, and attended the University of Texas at Austin where he received a bachelor of arts degree in journalism in 1942.
That same year he joined the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant and did not return to the United States until 1945, having participated in seven major invasions in the Pacific against the Japanese.
After the war, he worked for newspapers in Odessa, Victoria, Houston, and Wichita Falls. He served as editor of the Sweetwater Reporter from 1953-1957.
He then worked in public relations in Fort Worth and Austin during which he was active in politics with the Texas Democratic Party, working on the campaigns of several Texas office holders and candidates in the 1960s and 1970s.
He then worked for the General Land Office, after which he opened an appraisal firm, Roy Scudday and Associates, in Fort Davis. He operated the firm until 2008, during which period his wife Ann served as Jeff Davis county judge.
Scudday was buried with full military honors at Sweetwater Cemetery.