Panhandle Press Association celebrates 114th annual meeting

The 114th annual meeting of the Panhandle Press Association was held July 14-15 in Canyon.

The convention opened with a luncheon on Friday during which Jim Steiert of the Hereford Brand and the late Carroll Koch of the Quanah Tribune-Chief were inducted into the PPA Hall of Fame.

Steiert is a 1969 graduate of Hart High School and a 1973 graduate of West Texas State University, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in journalism and served as editor of the WTSU student newspaper, The Prairie. He worked as news editor of the Castro County News from 1973-1975 before coming to the Hereford Brand in 1975 as sports editor. He quickly transitioned to the news desk, where he served as farm and outdoors editor in addition to numerous news writing duties. He became managing editor of the Hereford Brand in 1980.

During his years at The Brand, he also corresponded for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Amarillo Globe-News, KGNC radio, and KVII TV. Shortly afterward he became associate editor of Texas Farmer-Stockman magazine, an historic agriculture publication in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. He held that post for 10 years, pursuing agriculture and wildlife-related news stories all over Texas, and continued to write for the Farmer-Stockman magazine throughout its publication. Later he wrote for Irrigation Age and Dryland No-Till farm magazines.

He worked at West Texas Rural Telephone Cooperative for 27 years, 20 of those years in public relations editing and publishing the company’s Co-Op Connection magazine. He has freelanced for numerous outdoor magazines including Texas Parks and Wildlife, Outdoor Life, Field and Stream, Texas Sportsman, and Wildfowl. When his friend Mauri Montgomery became publisher of the Hereford Brand, he assisted with news stories and resumed his outdoor column for The Brand.

Through subsequent Hereford Brand administration, he was a contributing writer of local news and feature stories. Hereford came close to losing its newspaper in 2019 but Jeff and Angela Blackmon assumed ownership as publishers and saved the local institution. Jim agreed to write several stories for the first edition under the Blackmons, and he and wife Kerrie have become regular contributors of columns and news content since that time.

Steiert has won numerous PPA awards for column writing, news writing, editorials, and community service. He also received a first-place column writing award from the National Newspaper Association. He is also a long-time member of the Texas Outdoor Writers Association and has won many TOWA Craftsmanship awards for outdoor columns, outdoor news, outdoor photos and features appearing in the Hereford Brand. His book Playas, Jewels of the Plains was the recipient of TOWA’s first Outdoor Book of the Year Award.

He frequently provides news items to numerous Panhandle newspapers and media.

He met his wife, Kerrie Womble Steiert, while they were both working at The Brand in the 1970s and early 1980s. Kerrie served as women’s editor, and having resumed her column writing for The Brand, remains a consistent winner of PPA column writing awards.

Koch began her newspaper career working in the office of the Quanah Tribune-Chief for her husband J.A. Koch, who was the editor and publisher. Upon his untimely death in 1956, Koch took over the reigns as editor and publisher and became the caretaker of the news for Quanah. In 1958, with the hiring of Ed Eakin as editor, Koch focused on being a working publisher until her retirement and sale of the Quanah Tribune-Chief in 1978.

During her career, she also obtained part ownership in other area newspapers, including the Clarendon Press, Azle News, Saginaw Sentinel, and Chillicothe Valley News. She also was one of the founders of the Iowa Park Leader. In the mid-60s, she worked with Eakin and founded Nortex Offset Publication through the Quanah Tribune-Chief and began publishing books including many of the area history books published in the 1960s and 1970s. Koch was a member of the Panhandle Press Association, West Texas Press Association, and the Texas Press Association.

Koch was very active in the community and served on many local boards. She was honored as Citizen of the Year multiple times and was given the Community Service Award by the Quanah Chamber of Commerce for her devotion to Quanah and her work to make it a better place. For her work in journalism and what she accomplished as a woman in the field, she was honored for her career in journalism by the national fraternity for woman, Theta Sigma Phi.

Friday afternoon included an Advertising Roundtable, the annual PPA Ethics Panel discussion, and reports from TPA’s Mike Hodges and Ken Esten Cooke, followed by the president’s hospitality hour. Convention attendees traveled to the Pioneer Amphitheatre in Palo Duro Canyon Friday evening to take a backstage tour and performance of the outdoor musical drama “TEXAS.”

Austin Lewter of the Texas Center for Community Journalism led a class on Podcasting on Saturday morning at West Texas A&M University.

Awards were presented during lunch on Saturday at Mickey’s Place on the square in Canyon. In the PPA Better Newspaper Contest, The Clarendon Enterprise won General Excellence honors in Division One, and The Canyon News topped Division Two. Lance Hooper of Amarillo was named as the PPA scholarship recipient for the coming year.

Jeff Blackmon of Hereford was recognized for his service as PPA president this past year. The membership elected Tim Ritter of Canyon as president for 2023-2024, Tara Huff of Fritch as vice president, and Roger Estlack of Clarendon as secretary/treasurer. Suzanne Bellsnyder of Spearman and Shannon Cook of Canyon were elected to the PPA board. Returning directors are Shane Lance of Quanah, Michael Wright of Dumas, and Mary Dudley of Perryton. Blackmon also continues to serve on the board as the PPA’s immediate past president.

Next year’s Panhandle Press Convention will be held in Borger on July 19 and 20, 2024.