Local employee purchases Beeville Bee-Picayune, regional newspapers

BEEVILLE – South Texas News, Inc. has assumed ownership of the Beeville Bee-Picayune, along with five other newspapers in neighboring counties.

South Texas News, Inc. is independently owned by local South Texan Albert Reynolds, who has been employed at the Bee Picayune for nearly two decades.

“The newspaper was for sale, and I wanted to buy it … there was no ‘buyout’ or ‘takeover’ — this was a friendly transaction that brought the ownership back to South Texas,” Reynolds said. “I was taught for 16 years by my friends and previous Beeville Publishing Co., Inc. owners Jeff and Chip Latcham; I was taught for an additional three plus years by my friend and previous Coastal Bend Publishing LLC owner Jonathan McElvy, and I have been and will continue to be taught by my friend Dennis Wade, our publisher. I hope I have been a good student of these great leaders of our local newspapers. I plan to never stop learning from them and others and, of course, from our readers and advertisers.”

The Latcham brothers were on hand for the sale announcement to wish their former employee well in the new venture. “We still believe in the value of community newspapers; it’s a challenging and rapidly changing industry just like everything else,” they said. “We wish Albert and his team success in meeting the needs of the varied South Texas communities it serves going forward ... we wish McElvy success in his own transition too.”

“I’m so grateful for the opportunity our company had to be stewards of these community newspapers,” McElvy said. “We succeeded the legendary Latcham family, and if that wasn’t a daunting enough task, we assumed operations in February 2020 – one month before the pandemic shut down our country. Through all of that, though, I’m proud of the work we did in these newspapers. I’m so grateful for the employees here who kept figuring out ways to publish strong, local newspapers. And I’m most grateful for our publisher, Dennis Wade.”

Wade continues to publish the newspapers under South Texas News, Inc. “I am delighted that this group of community newspapers, website and other products and services are transitioning to local ownership,” Wade said. “Jonathan McElvy and his partners stepped in at the right time, and Albert is stepping in at a great time. It has been my pleasure to work very closely with Albert for almost four years. He and I share the very same vision: produce local news and information products that can and will effect change. We look forward to the future.”

In addition to the Beeville Bee-Picayune, the group includes STexasnews.com, Goliad Advance-Guard, Karnes Countywide in Karnes City, The News of San Patricio in Portland, Refugio County Press and The Progress in Three Rivers.