2021 Better Newspaper Contest Rules & Hall of Fame Nominations
Entries for the 2021 Better Newspaper Contest are due February 4, 2022.
Click here for complete contest rules and Hall of Fame nomination instructions.
PPA holds 111th meeting in Amarillo
The 111th annual meeting of the Panhandle Press Association was held July 23-24, 2021, in Amarillo.
The convention opened with a Past Presidents Reunion Luncheon on Friday attended by 17 past presidents and two former PPA secretaries. An afternoon roundtable focused on the use of podcasts and Facebook Live to connect with a wider audience and as a possible revenue source. Friday evening, the PPA was welcomed with a reception at the Amarillo center of West Texas A&M University, and members then enjoyed an Amarillo Sod Poodles baseball game with an after-game fireworks show.
Saturday’s activities featured the return (virtually) of PPA-favorite Russell Viers as he remotely wowed those in attendance with tips and tricks for getting the most out of Adobe Creative Suite. Russell, speaking from an undisclosed location, “appeared” to be in several locations in the Panhandle. The training sessions were also held at the WTAMU center as was the PPA ethics panel discussion that afternoon, which featured current issues presented by Don Richards.
During a Friday luncheon, the late Grady and Jo Ann Harrison of Spur were inducted into the PPA Hall of Fame. Grady Joe Harrison (1929-2020) and his wife and partner, Jo Ann, represent the dedication and deep community knowledge of the mom-and-pop weekly newspaper operation, as publishers of the Texas Spur for nearly four decades. A sports fanatic and an Army veteran who once worked for The Stars & Stripes, Joe Harrison came to Spur after graduating from Texas Tech University in 1957 and bought the newspaper the following year. He and Jo Ann ran the business until 1996, receiving the General Excellence Award from the West Texas Press Association, among several awards in news writing, sports writing, column writing, and advertising initiative. They shepherded the transition from Linotype to phototypesetting to the digital era. Spur benefited from the couple’s chronicling of its life, as well as their service in school, sports, church, and civic activity. Jo Ann Pirtle Harrison (1931-2020) worked alongside her husband, Joe, at The Texas Spur for most of the nearly 40 years they owned the newspaper. Jo Ann, who married high school sweetheart Joe in 1949 and came to Spur with him and their first son in 1957, parlayed her college coursework and experience as a secretary in the banking industry into 35 years as the newspaper’s advertising director. She was also active in school, sports, church, and civic life, and received the highest citizen award in the state of Texas for women, “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” by then Gov. Mark White. She was voted Spur’s Citizen of the Year in 1984.
Creed Huff of Fritch was recognized as the PPA scholarship recipient for the coming year.
In the PPA Better Newspaper Contest, The Canadian Record won General Excellence honors in Division One, and The Canyon News topped Division Two. The Clarendon Enterprise and the Moore County News*Press were named as the
recipients of the Ken Towery Community Service Award for Divisions I and II respectively.
Tara Huff of the Eagle-Press in Fritch was recognized for her service as PPA president this past year. The membership elected Jeff Blackmon of Hereford to lead the PPA for 2021-2022 along with Vice President Tim Ritter of Canyon and Secretary/Treasurer Roger Estlack of Clarendon. The membership also elected Shane Lance of Quanah and Mary Dudley of Perryton as board members. They will join the following current directors for the coming year: Mary Smithee of Canadian, John Lee of Pampa, and Michael Wright of Dumas. Huff continues on the board as the PPA’s Immediate Past President.
Next year’s Panhandle Press Convention will be held in Hereford on March 25-26, 2022.
2021 Convention Registration & Hall of Fame Ballot
Registration is now open for the 2021 PPA Convention in Amarillo July 23-24.
Important Deadlines:
Hall of Fame Ballots Due: June 30, 2021
Hotel Reservations Due: July 2, 2021
Convention Registration Deadline: July 9, 2021
2020 Better Newspaper Contest Rules & Hall of Fame Nominations
Entries for the 2020 Better Newspaper Contest are due February 19, 2020.
Click here for complete contest rules and Hall of Fame nomination instructions.
PPA holds 2020 awards dinner in Amarillo
The 110th annual meeting of the Panhandle Press Association was held July 24 in Amarillo at the Hoffbrau Steakhouse.
The association’s annual convention was scheduled for March 20-21 in Perryton, but the COVID-19 pandemic call off that plan, leading to the PPA’s main events being distilled into one banquet.
PPA Scholarship winner Faith Douglas of Canyon (center) stands with PPA Secretary Roger Estlack, Canyon News editor Tim Ritter, PPA President Tara Huff, and PPA Vice President Jeff Blackmon. Not present: PPA Scholarship winner Kade Miller of Panhandle.
Faith Douglas of Canyon and Kade Miller of Panhandle were recognized as scholarship recipients for the coming year.
Dr. Robert Riza of Riza Executive Leadership was the keynote speaker for the evening. Dr. Riza focused his remarks on staying relevant in a changing world and encouraged papers to seek out new partnerships and offer new services to continue to serve their communities.
The late Harry Koch of the Quanah Tribune and the late Nancy Young of the Borger News-Herald and the Pampa News were inducted into the PPA Hall of Fame.
Koch, at the age of 24, purchased the Quanah Chief in 1891. Three years later, he acquired the Quanah Tribune. He combined them into the Quanah Tribune-Chief. He was the editor/owner for 50 years until his death. Through the newspaper, Koch was an advocate for Quanah and its growth. He was involved with the Panhandle Press Association from its inception. He was actively involved in other press associations as well and was the Texas Press Association president in 1918-19, the West Texas Press Association in 1918, and the North West Texas Press Association in 1903-04. He also served as vice president of those associations as well as vice president of the PPA in 1935-36.
Nancy June Christian Young was a lifetime Stinnett resident and worked in the newspaper industry for more than 40 years at both the Borger News-Herald and the Pampa News. She was the editor of the Stinnett Herald during the 1970s and 1980s before working as a reporter at the Borger News-Herald. In the early 1990s, Nancy went to Pampa. In 2003, she came back to Borger, and was named editor in 2004. She remained there until her retirement in 2006. After her retirement, Nancy began an online newspaper named Hutchinson County. Highlights, as she called it, provided former and current residents information about Borger, Fritch, and Stinnett. One of her key concerns was sharing the background and history of Hutchinson County with its residents. As Facebook became popular, Nancy saw another avenue in which to ensure information was passed on and created the Stinnett Rattler Page. Nancy died Aug. 30, 2019, at the age of 76.
Winners of the 2019 PPA Better Newspaper Contest.
In the PPA Better Newspaper Contest, The Clarendon Enterprise won General Excellence honors in Division One, and The Canyon News topped Division Two. Clarendon and the Moore County News*Press were named as the recipients of the Ken Towery Community Service Award for Divisions I and II respectively. Complete contest results can be found here: Division One and Division Two.
Tara Huff of the Eagle-Press in Fritch was recognized for her service as PPA president this past year. The membership re-elected Huff to lead the PPA for 2020-2021 along with re-electing Vice President Jeff Blackmon of Hereford and Secretary/Treasurer Roger Estlack of Clarendon. The membership also elected John Lee of Pampa and Mary Smithee of The Canadian Record as new board members. They will join the following current directors for the coming year: Mary Dudley of Perryton, Tim Ritter of Canyon, and Michael Wright of Dumas. Joni Yara of Booker continues on the board as the PPA’s Immediate Past President.
Next year’s Panhandle Press Convention will be held in Amarillo at a date to be determined later.
CONVENTION POSTPONED
ATTENTION: Due to the COVID-19 threat and in light of Gov. Abbott’s orders today, the Panhandle Press Convention scheduled for this weekend in Perryton has been postponed. We will keep you up to date, once this crisis subsides, of the selection of an alternate date for the convention.
Register to win grand prizes!
REGISTER & ATTEND TO WIN! PPA is pleased to offer TWO big prizes for those newspapers that attend our welcome lunch on Friday, March 20, in Perryton.
The GRAND PRIZE, worth more than $1,110 includes a MICROSOFT SURFACE PRO 4 and the following online graphic services from Metro Creative Services: the 2020 Holiday Advertising Service free; three free months of the main Metro Newspaper Service (for new customers) to give you the tools you need to make and sell amazing ads; and 3 months free of Metro’s spec ad customization tool wizard!
The RESERVE GRAND PRIZE, worth $220, includes all you need to shoot great video and interviews with your smart phone, including a Sunpak – Lighted Portable Vlogging Kit for Smartphones; a JOBY – Smart Stabilizer for Mobile Phones; and an IK Multimedia iRig Mic Lav microphone!
The details: Rule #1 – Each person you register for Friday’s luncheon will count as a separate entry for your newspaper. (i.e., The Daily Planet brings five people to the lunch, it gets five tickets in the drawing.) Rule #2 – You must be present to win.
2020 PPA Convention Registration
Register today for the 2020 PPA Convention in Perryton! Hotel reservation deadline is March 13. Hall of Fame Ballot Deadline is March 6. Convention registration Deadline is March 12.
Click here for convention information, registration form, and Hall of Fame Ballot.
CURRENT CONTEST RULES
Contest entries for the 2019 PPA Better Newspaper Contest can be by clicking here. Early bird entries are due January 18, 2019. Final deadline for entries is January 25, 2019.