News Briefs

Mission PT owner calls it quits after 50 years

MISSION — Mission Progress Times editor, publisher and owner June Brann sold the newspaper July 1 to Jim Brunson.

The sale includes Mission Publishing Company and Times Media Group and the Winter Texan Times.

Brann started her nearly 50-year career in 1954 with the Mission Times and later managed that paper in the mid 1960s. She became a partner in operation of the Upper Valley Progress in 1978, buying out her partners in 1980. She changed that name to Progress Times in 1994.

Brunson joined the Upper Valley Progress in 1981 as advertising manager and soon became general manager. He was instrumental in establishing the Winter Texan Times, a publication for winter Texans, and served as co-publisher and co-owner since its inception. He was named co-publisher of the Progress Times in 2002.

D Magazine purchases People Newspapers 

DALLAS — D magazine’s Wick Allison has purchased a majority interest in People Newspapers, publisher of Park Cities People.

Allison’s City Newspapers L.P. is now the official publisher in the deal that closed July 21 and includes Northside People. Kay McCord had been sole owner of the 22-year-old company since 1991 and retained a minority interest in the community newspapers that serve Highland Park, University Park and north Dallas.

Allison will serve as editor-in-chief and said no changes are planned in the papers’ frequency or staff. Patricia Martin will remain as publisher. Allison co-founded D magazine in 1974 and is its editor and publisher and sole owner.

Park Cities People is a TPA member.

Southern buys competitor weekly in Kerrville 

KERRVILLE — Southern Newspapers Inc., on Aug. 4 completed the purchase of The Mountain Sun, which has published since 1879.

Southern also owns the Kerrville Daily Times. Company spokesmen said both newspapers will continue to publish and operate independently of one another as they have in the past.

“For many years, each newspaper has served readers in their own, distinct ways,” said Greg Shrader, publisher of The Times and a vice president of Southern. “Our company respects the tradition and accomplishments of the staff of The Mountain Sun. We think the partnership will strengthen both papers.”

Shrader said some operational changes are planned. For now The Mountain Sun will continue to operate at its own office.

For the past two and a half years, Texas Heritage Newspapers published The Mountain Sun. Dennis E. Thomas is the owner of Texas Heritage, which also publishes the Hill Country Recorder in Boerne and the Bandera Review.

The Mountain Sun has 4,698 circulation and The Daily Times has 9,283 circulation.

Southern and its affiliated companies now operate 17 newspapers — 12 in Texas, four in Alabama and one in Georgia. The company is owned by the Walls family of Houston.

Pecos publisher buys Monahans weekly 

MONAHANS — York M. “Smokey” Briggs and his wife Laura purchased the Monahans News from Buckner News Alliance.

Briggs will remain in his current position as publisher of the Buckner-owned Pecos Enterprise, where he has been since 1999.

He said no staff changes are planned in Monahans and the current publisher Linda Stephens will remain in place.

The newspaper is the first for the Briggs to own. They are only the fifth owners of the News in its 72-year history.

The weekly started on Feb. 5, 1931 under B.W. Barnes. Fred Landers bought it in the mid-1930s and Hugh P. Cooper took over in 1936. The Cooper family owned it until selling to Buckner in 1996.

Beeville buys Refugio weekly

REFUGIO — Beeville Publishing Co. and David S. Holden Co. Inc. announced the sale of the Refugio County Press.

Beeville Publishing, which owns the Beeville Bee-Picayune and The Progress in Three Rivers, will assume publication of the Press on Sept. 1.

Holden had published the newspaper since 1999. 

Mart weekly sells list

MART — The Mart Texan ceased publication in June and owner Carolyn Potts sold its subscription list to the start-up Mart Messenger.

The Messenger is run by John and Pam Sellman, who published the Mart Herald for 28 years before leaving the area 10 years ago. They also worked for newspapers in New Mexico and John Sellman’s father owned the Bridgeport Index.

The Mart Herald ceased publication in March 1993 and the Mart Texan began publication under ownership by the Groesbeck Journal. Carolyn and Thomas Potts became the owners in 1997. Carolyn Potts had worked for the Texan since its inception.

The Mart Daily Herald was established April 8, 1913 and the Mart Weekly Herald was established April 12, 1901.

Waco, Moody weeklies sold

WACO — Bill Foster sold the Waco Citizen and Moody Courier to Betty Zuspann.

The Citizen was founded in 1946 by Foster’s father, W.S. Foster.

In 1989 Foster bought the Courier after a string of other owners. It was founded in 1892.

Zuspann also publishes a veterans newspaper. She relocated the newspaper offices to a new site in Waco.

Former Denison daily to pay back development funding

DENISON — The Denison Post will pay back about $10,500 out of the more than $95,000 it received from the Denison Development Alliance according to an agreement finalized in June, the Sherman/Denison Herald Democrat reported.

In the agreement the Post acknowledged that it defaulted on its deal with the DDA because it “failed to maintain daily publication of a newspaper,” the Herald Democrat reported.

The Post launched as a weekly in April 2000 and went daily in June 2001 under an funding agreement with the city’s economic and development board that stipulated the newspaper publish daily, maintain a minimum payroll and employ at least 20 people.

In April the Post cut back to semiweekly, publishing on Sundays and Wednesdays, and moved to all local content. The newspaper also restructured its staff and eliminated six positions.

DDA declared the paper in breach and demanded it return to daily schedule but the newspaper told DDA it was unable to financially return to daily publication or meet its three-year payroll obligations, the Herald Democrat reported.

The DDA accepted a compromise and allowed the newspaper to continue as a semiweekly so long as it continued to publish until May 31, 2004. Under the agreement the Post will make 12 monthly payments of about $876 to DDA. The penalty was spelled out in the original contract for the funding.

According to the Herald Democrat, the agreement was in effect for three years.

The newspaper reported 2,508 paid circulation on its October 2002 postal statement.

Star-Telegram to expand its 9-year-old Spanish paper

FORT WORTH — The Fort Worth Star-Telegram plans to expand its 9-year-old Spanish-language semiweekly newspaper, La Estrella, to five days a week.

The newspaper, which was publishing on Tuesdays and Fridays, also will double its staff and open an office in Dallas. It is distributed free throughout the Metroplex and claims about 75,000 readers weekly. It carries original content, translated stories from the Star-Telegram and copy from wire services.

The expansion plans, which managers say have been in the works for two years, came on the heels of an announcement by The Dallas Morning News in June that it will launch a Spanish daily in the fall.