Newsmakers

Promotions, staff additions and other change reported at Texas newspapers.

MICHELLE ROBINSON
The Daily News, Galveston
GALVESTON – Michelle Robinson has joined the staff of The Daily News as chief revenue director.
Leonard Woolsey, president of Southern Newspapers Inc. and publisher of The Daily News, announced the appointment.
Robinson is a 16-year media industry veteran who most recently served as the president and director of local sales for her hometown paper, the Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune and its website, trib.com. Robinson also has worked in Washington state and Idaho, where she served as advertising director for both the Idaho Falls Post Register and the Idaho Press. At the Idaho Press, which serves Boise and the Treasure Valley, she helped the paper grow into the state’s largest daily print newspaper.
She also served as publisher for the award-winning Boise Weekly, the Treasure Valley’s alternative arts publication.
Before embarking on a career in newspapers, Robinson spent several years as a chef, having graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Portland, Oregon.
Robinson said she first met Woolsey and The Daily News staff in 2017 when she visited Galveston “to learn about the impressive work they were doing with Coast Monthly magazine.” She and her husband later vacationed in Galveston.

MICHAEL BROOKS
Jackson County Herald-Tribune
EDNA – Michael Brooks, who has been employed as a reporter at the Jackson County Herald-Tribune in some capacity for the past six years, will fill the role of general manager during the absence of Millie Diaz, who is stepping down to complete a history writing project.
Diaz, who recently released a historical fiction novel, will be writing a comprehensive history for the Velma Lee and John Harvey Robinson Charitable Foundation.
Brooks began employment with the Herald-Tribune as a stringer covering area high school sporting events and stepped up to a full-time position several months later.
In addition to sports, he has covered law enforcement and court news, farm news and features. He also designed pages for the newspaper’s special sections and magazines. 

KEITH E. DOMKE
Brenham Banner-Press
BRENHAM – Keith E. Domke has joined the Brenham Banner-Press staff as managing editor.
Domke went to Brenham from the Boerne Star, where he was general manager and editor of the twice-weekly newspaper. Prior to that, he was managing editor of the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung. He has been in leadership roles in the newspaper business throughout his 39-year career, including the editor of nine papers and the publisher of one.
Brenham Banner-Press Publisher Jeff Parra announced the appointment. “I hired Keith as managing editor in Boerne, and he improved the quality and quantity of all editorial products,” Parra said. “Keith exceeded my expectations there, and I look forward to him bringing his magic here to Brenham.”
Domke has worked in seven states during his four-decade community journalism career. He started in Kansas and worked in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Wyoming and his home state of Indiana. He moved to Texas in 2016 when he became editor of the Blanco County News.
“Community journalism is where the fun and excitement is in this business,” he said. “It’s both important and enjoyable to provide people the information they can receive nowhere else. The Banner Press is that product here.
“We will work very hard to provide this city, Washington County and our entire coverage area with a great publication readers will enjoy.”
Domke has earned more than 60 newspaper awards through various state and regional press associations during his career, including 15 in Texas. He has received multiple first-place honors in news writing, column writing, headline writing, photography and newspaper design and was named Wyoming’s photographer of the year in 2008. He also has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

JEFF FORWARD
The Paris News
PARIS – Jeff Forward has joined The Paris News to lead the newsroom team as managing editor.
Forward, 53, a veteran editor and journalist, came to Northeast Texas by way of West Point, Nebraska, where he was managing editor of West Point News and The Wisner News-Chronicle.
Previously, Forward has led or worked in newsrooms in California, Indiana, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nebraska and Texas.
Forward said one of his goals is to continue reporting the news the community wants and expects, while adding alternative ways of telling stories compared to traditional news methods and formats.
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Forward is a 1997 graduate of The Ohio State University, where he majored in journalism and earned minors in American history, art history and international studies. 
He reported for and was a campus editor at Ohio State’s student newspaper, The Lantern. After graduating in March, 1997, he relocated to Northern California, where he worked at numerous daily and weekly newspapers for 15 years.
Forward’s investigative journalism includes coverage on the election of California’s first woman sheriff, Virginia Black, and the controversial and secretive banning of the book “The Catcher in the Rye,” by a local school district.
He also won second place in the 2021 Texas Associated Press Managing Editors news contest for Star Investigative Report of The Year. His 10-month investigation of the election in The Woodlands Township uncovered a web of out-of-state campaign donations as well as numerous violations of Texas election laws by multiple candidates.
Forward has previously held positions as news editor at The Cranberry Eagle, in Western Pennsylvania; as regional editor and senior reporter at The Houston Chronicle and The Woodlands Villager; regional editor of three newspapers in Iowa owned by CNHI; and managing editor of The Elk Grove Citizen in Elk Grove, California.
“Jeff has a proven track record as a reporter and editor,” said Publisher Clay Carsner. “I look forward to him bringing his experience and maturity to the editorial department for The Paris News and continuing our award-winning coverage for Paris and the surrounding communities.”

ENOLA GAY MATHEWS
Sulphur Springs News-Telegram
SULPHUR SPRINGS – Enola Gay Mathews recently joined the Sulphur Springs News-Telegram staff as community liaison.
Publisher Dave Shabaz announced the appointment, noting Mathews has deep knowledge of the local community as well as talent for promotion that will benefit both the News-Telegram and Country World. 
She will help expand local media through a podcast for the newspaper, he added.
Mathews has more than 35 years of radio experience, 32 years with the local radio station KSST. She also worked briefly with other newspapers. A native of Odessa, she grew up in Longview and has lived in Sulphur Springs since 1985. A musician, she performs with a vocal duo and is an aficionado of Western Swing, bringing acts to the local Reilly Springs Jamboree.
Mathews said her connection to the community was cemented by her time in local radio.
“Folks have reminisced about listening over morning coffee, or while they worked in the dairy barn. Even passing truck drivers tuned in regularly. Through that connection, I made friends out in the farming and ranching communities past the limits of Hopkins County,” she said, adding she hopes to continue that connection through podcasts and interviews published on the newspaper’s website.