Entry period is open now for the 2019-20 Texas Better Newspaper Contest - with about three and a half weeks left until the deadline.
Participants may upload entries on the contest platform, www.betternewspapercontest.com, through Monday, Oct. 5.
All material submitted for judging must have been published between Sept. 1, 2019, and Aug. 31, 2020. 

A new U.S. Postal Service experiment called Expedited to Street/Afternoon Sortation (ESAS) came to light in mid-July to threaten delays in newspaper delivery.

By Tonda Rush
Director, Public Policy, National Newspaper Association

By Jim Pumarlo, consultant

Q: A resident of our county, on her Facebook page, posted information supporting one candidate and casting innuendos on the other in a July runoff. The social media post is a string of allegations in the form of questions that could affect the election. What should we consider before we proceed with our coverage?

None of us are blind to racial injustice in America. Currently, most of us are involved in covering protests against that injustice whether we are the smallest of weeklies or the largest of dailies, because these protests are happening everywhere in our state. 
This brings up, for newspapers, the delicate issues of race and our collective past that we must be prepared to address when our communities and our readers ask us to be accountable for such things. 

Texas newspapers burst onto the Pulitzer Prize scene in a big way in 1955, capturing two awards in local reporting.
Alice Daily Echo writer Caro Brown won for local reporting - edition time (later called deadline reporting) for her series dealing with the successful attack on one-man political rule in neighboring Duval County, work that the Pulitzer judges said showed "professional skill and courage" in the face of "bitterest political and personal opposition."

Gov. Greg Abbott recently issued an executive order to announce the opening of additional businesses and activities in Texas expanding the businesses and activities included in the first phase of the plan to Open Texas while minimizing the spread of COVID-19. 
All newly opened businesses and services are subject to the recommended minimum standard health protocols outlined by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

We are recapping recent questions to the NNA postal hotline shared for the benefit of others without identifying the newspaper( s) involved. 

American Press Institute has added more tools to the API website's COVID-19 resources.
Included are coronavirus data journalism tools, how to understand research studies and why smaller advertisers and ad buys might be better right now. Click here to see the updated page.
Among the featured reports are:

1955 - Local Reporting - Edition time 
Mrs. Caro Brown of Alice Daily Echo
For a series of news stories dealing with the successful attack on one-man political rule in neighboring Duval County, written under unusual pressure both of edition time and difficult, even dangerous, circumstances. Mrs. Brown dug into the facts behind the dramatic daily events, as well, and obtained her stories in spite of the bitterest political opposition, showing professional skill and courage.