Newsmakers

Promotions, new hires and other staff changes reported in the September 2022 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

TUCKER STEPHENSON
New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung
NEW BRAUNFELS – Tucker Stephenson, sports editor for the Herald-Zeitung since 2016, is the newspaper’s new managing editor.
Stephenson’s history with the newspaper goes back to 2008, when his first sports byline appeared while he was working as a reporter at the Seguin Gazette. He later became sports editor there before joining the Herald-Zeitung staff full time.
Publisher Neice Bell announced the appointment, noting Stephenson has been “a dependable bedrock” for the newspaper for years. “He’s always stepped up when needed and he already knows much of what is required to be a great managing editor,” Bell said.
Stephenson has garnered many awards during his career, including being named one of the state’s star sports writers in 2021. He has experience in news writing as well.
In both Seguin and New Braunfels, Stephenson has worked with the Herald-Zeitung’s current editor, Chris Lykins, who is transitioning to a digital leadership role with the paper’s parent company, Southern Newspapers Inc.

CALEB DORN
The Pampa News
PAMPA – After nine years at The Pampa News, Editor John Lee has accepted a teaching position at Amarillo College.
Caleb Dorn, a 2019 graduate of Pampa High School, who has been serving in composing and reporting, has taken over Lee’s reporting and layout duties.
Publisher ReDonn Woods has taken over editor duties and decisions. 
“John will be missed,” she said. “We are a family here at The Pampa News and we are happy for him but sad he is leaving. Caleb has some great ideas, and we look forward to seeing what new things he will bring to the newspaper.”

NATHAN HAGUE
The Daily Sentinel
NACOGDOCHES – Veteran sportswriter Nathan Hague is the new sports editor of The Daily Sentinel.
Hague, an award-winning journalist, has spent the last eight and a half years as sports editor of the Marshall News Messenger, where he covered sports for six high schools as well as Marshall’s two colleges — East Texas Baptist University and Wiley College.
Before working in Marshall, Hague was the sportswriter for the Light and Champion newspaper in Center.
Hague is an East Texan and an alumnus of Stephen F. Austin State University. While a student at SFA, he worked part time for The Daily Sentinel as well as sports editor for The Pine Log, the campus newspaper.

MIKE ELSWICK
The Panola Watchman
CARTHAGE – Veteran East Texas journalist Mike Elswick has joined The Panola Watchman, Editor Meredith Shamburger announced.
Elswick covers Panola County government, along with community and school events in Beckville and Gary.
While new to the Watchman, Elswick is familiar with the East Texas area, where he has lived and worked for most of the past four decades. Most recently he was editor and publisher of The Light and Champion in Center.
Elswick is a graduate of Aransas Pass high School on the Texas coast. He has lived and worked in East Texas since 1983, when he joined the staff of the Longview News-Journal. While there, he advanced to regional East Texas editor, business editor and managing editor. At one point in his career in Longview, Elswick was responsible for covering Carthage and Panola County. He also served several years as managing editor of The Marshall Messenger, which at that time had common ownership with the Longview newspaper through Cox Newspapers.
In the mid-1990s he purchased and operated The Hallsville Herald and Waskom Review, two weekly newspapers in Harrison County.
In addition to working for publications in East Texas, Elswick worked for newspapers in Wyoming and Oklahoma.
He is a journalism graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He also served in the U.S. Air Force, stationed at Randolph Air Force Base in San Antonio. He was a physiological training specialist involved in pilot training.
His wife Stephanie is marketing director for Farmers State Bank in Center, which has a branch in Carthage. They live in Center and enjoy spending time with their seven grandchildren, who live in Nacogdoches, Kilgore and Longview.

CHRIS MECHE
Silsbee Bee
SILSBEE – Chris Meche is the new editor of The Silsbee Bee.
Christy Roach, publisher of The Bee, announced the appointment.
A longtime resident of Southeast Texas, Meche is a former minister and educator with a strong emphasis is English and coaching. After serving in the Navy onboard a submarine, he attended Southwestern Assembly of God University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in pastoral ministry. He pastored small churches in North Texas and in several areas of Oklahoma for eight years. The ministry was a bi-vocational job; he supplemented his income working in a nursing home.
In 2008, he returned to college at Lamar University, where he earned a master’s of arts degree in English while teaching English and journalism at Newton High School. He later earned a master’s of education degree at Lamar. He worked in education for 11 years, including seven years in Burkeville, where he coached baseball, football and basketball. He also taught at Angelina College at the Jasper campus.
In 2019, he started his own copywriting business in Winnie, which lead to his interest in journalism and joining The Bee staff.

EVAN HALE
Taylor Press
TAYLOR – Evan Hale is the new sportswriter at the Taylor Press.
Hale is originally from Scott, Louisiana, a small town near Lafayette, graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in May 2022 with a degree in journalism. While in school, he wrote for the campus newspaper, The Vermillion.
Prior to joining the Taylor Press, he worked for the Acadiana Advocate in Lafayette, covering his school sports in Lafayette, Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

RAE DRADY
Colorado County Citizen
COLUMBUS – Rae Drady recently joined the staff of the Colorado County Citizen as a general news community reporter.
She brings years of experience at the post, most recently working as a reporter with the Sealy News, a sister newspaper of the Citizen.
After graduating from high school in Rockville, Maryland, she came to Texas to attend San Antonio College as a journalism major and worked for the campus newspaper, The Ranger. She also worked for the Herald in Universal City.
“One of my main goals of being a reporter is to make sure that people are informed about what their government officials are doing, what’s going on in their community, the new laws that are being passed that are going to affect them,” Drady said.

JAKE DOWLING
The Facts, Clute
CLUTE – Sports writer Jake Dowling has been promoted to sports editor at The Facts.
Before joining the Facts staff in 2021, Dowling, a Findlay native in northwest Ohio, was a sports editor for almost six years and a news editor for two years at The Evening Leader in St. Marys, Ohio. The daily publication with a circulation of 2,000 covered four high schools and a summer collegiate baseball team in nearby Celina.
The University of Findlay graduate previously worked as a sports freelancer and eventually a staff writer for the Wapakoneta Daily News.
Dowling’s best memories from his time covering sports in west central Ohio were the four straight years of attending the state volleyball championship at Wright State University in Dayton and following the St. Mary’s Memorial football team’s 2018 state semifinal season. Covering state football championships at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, and one of the best football programs in the state in Massillon, Ohio, also topped the list.

NICK FLORES
Laredo Morning Times
LAREDO – Nick Flores has joined the sports staff of the Laredo Morning Times.
Flores hails from Illinois, where he grew up watching the Chicago Bears, Bulls and Cubs. In later years, he became a soccer fan.
He pursued his goal of becoming a sports writer at Iowa State University. His first beat was covering women’s swimming and diving, and his first story was published the Iowa State Daily in 2018. After finishing school, he made the move to Texas to accept a sports writing position with the Laredo Morning Times.
“I look forward to meeting all the head coaches, athletes and everyone behind the scenes, but also the members of the Laredo community in general,” he said.