News Briefs

Jury clears photographer

GALVESTON — A jury cleared a former Galveston County Daily News photographer of a charge that he interfered with police during 2007’s Mardi Gras.

Nick Adams, who now works for The Appeal-Democrat in Northern California, was an intern with The Daily News in February 2007, when he was photographing an arrest during Mardi Gras. League City officer Cliff Woitena saw him and told him to stop taking pictures but when Adams did not, he said, the officer took him to the ground and arrested him.

Defense attorney Anthony Griffin said a digital index from Adams’ camera showed police deleted photos while Adams was in custody.

Blackburn buys all shares

CHILDRESS — Shares from The Childress Index, Inc. and TO-MO-CA Communications, Inc. have been purchased by Christopher Blackburn, who previously owned 50 percent of both corporations.

Blackburn purchased the remaining shares from his uncle, Thomas C. Higley, who will retain one share of Index stock.

TO-MO-CA Communications owns the Hollis (Okla.) News. Blackburn also owns the Hall County Herald in Memphis. In a separate transaction he also recently acquired the Knox County News.

New owners in Throckmorton

THROCKMORTON — The Throckmorton Tribune new owners are Casey and Paula Chambers.

Paula Chambers is the editor and worked at the Tribune from 2002 – 2006.

They bought the 122-year-old newspaper from Terry Armstrong.

Dallas daily donates Almanac

DALLAS — The Dallas Morning News is donating the 151-year-old Texas Almanac to the Texas State Historical Association.

The Almanac, which first appeared in 1857 just 12 years after Texas became the 28th state, has become a recognized reference book on a variety of Texas subjects. The donation also includes TexasAlmanac.com and archive material.

San Antonio daily will serve outlying areas, again

SAN ANTONIO — Demand for the San Antonio Express-News is prompting the newspaper to resume delivery to the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi and the Hill Country, where it had stopped distribution at the start of the year.

Publisher and president Tom Stephenson said the revived distribution is smaller, going from about 13,000 papers to slightly more than 6,000 copies daily and 8,000 Sunday.

News buys C-J’s archives

FLORESVILLE — The Wilson County News has purchased the archives of the Floresville Chronicle Journal after the weekly ceased publication. The archives date back to the late 1800s.

Galveston, Ft. Worth cut staff

Two Texas dailies announced cutbacks in staffing recently.

The Galveston County Daily News reduced its work force by 12 full and part-time employees and by three independent contractors, a little less than 10 percent of the company’s work force.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram will eliminate 15 jobs — eight in the newsroom and the rest in the marketing, operations, circulation and advertising departments. The cuts affect less than 1.5 percent of the Star-Telegram’s staff. The newspaper also has a hiring freeze in most departments.

Also the Star-Telegram announced plans to sell its four-story, 30,000-square-foot downtown annex building and an adjacent surface parking lot, as well as two other downtown parking lots.