GACK on Suzanne Bellsnyder

 Per communication I've seen, she's peddling an op-ed by Hawk Dunlap for other newspapers to use.

Problem? Oh, just one.

He's a currently active candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission.

So, you're offering free advertising to a political candidate, assuming you're doing this in your own newspapers. That means you're managing them as badly as the farm and ranch, which if it's like the rest of your county in the Panhandle, is overdrawing water from the Ogalalla Aquifer. 

As for Dunlap the candidate? He's almost certainly better than GOP incumbent James Wright. Doesn't matter. 

To me, this is cardinal rule No. 1 of newspapers — not giving away free advertising in general and certainly not to state-level political candidates. 

As for the election? Dems have a candidate for the general. Greens? Nobody. Alfred Molison, who ran in 2024, move over to the Ag commissioner race. 

(I am guessing that for Bellsnyder, the primary IS the general election. That's fine as a personal decision, but, beyond giving away free advertising to a political candidate, as an editor, or unofficially an editor/general manager, I would never do that for readers, unless it was a Q-and-A, which many papers do, of ALL primary candidates, or in the general, ALL candidates there.) 

Another voice of semi-concern about Hearst's growing semi-monopoly in Texas

 At the Texas Observer, Justin Miller has a fair amount of skepticism about the long-term fallout from its acquisition of the Morning Snooze, more than did Dick Tofel, whom he references. It wasn't quite as skeptical as my take here, in part from not mentioning Hearst's private ownership.

Miller was also, in his brief reference to the Texas Tribune, not at all skeptical of it, though its various "sponsors" likely have influenced the Trib's lackadaisical at best coverage of environmental issues. 

Someone at the Observer should know better. 

Ballantine Communications is not THAT nice

 It's a good newspaper company, but having a single reporter split between Cortez, Colorado and Farmington, New Mexico? Or so I understand the advertisement? If you want reporters for each city separately, shouldn't you advertise them separately?

Actually, I think they are separate, as Ballantine's original first newspaper's town, Durango, Colorado, is almost squarely between the two. And, if you are doing partnered reporters, why wouldn't it be Cortez and Durango, in the same state?

And, also, if these are for separate papers? Yes, I am sure Journalism Jobs charges for listings. But, do they charge that much?