Editorial: Our family’s continuing commitment

It’s safe to say that most – if not almost all – Enterprise readers were taken by surprise last week when we announced online that we had purchased The Red River Sun. I still find it a little hard to believe myself. It all happened so fast.

We had talked back and forth with the owner of that paper and researched the possibility of expanding our business for a few months, but two days before Thanksgiving, we engaged the warp drive on the deal. We technically took the helm of the newspaper serving Childress, Wellington, and Memphis on December 1 in a leap of faith and then spent the next four weeks ironing out the details and signing the purchase agreement on December 30.

More than a decade ago, The Childress Index, The Wellington Leader, and The Hall County Herald (previously known as The Memphis Democrat) along with a newspaper in Hollis, Oklahoma, were all combined into one regional newspaper – The Red River Sun. Coverage of Hollis was dropped at some point, and the paper has gone through a couple of different owners, the most recent being Hicks Media, which until last year owned several other newspapers in Texas. The Sun was the company’s last newspaper holding, and they were in search of a buyer.

Our family – with more than 75 years of newspaper ink in our blood in Donley County – decided it would be a good fit for the Enterprise to acquire the Sun. Our communities have so much in common here in the Greenbelt of the Texas Panhandle. We share the history of the railroad, ranching and farming heritage, and more. Clarendon College serves all our communities, and we share our water supply.

More than anything, we saw an opportunity to preserve and promote local journalism in the southeast Panhandle. In addition to being the first paper in the Panhandle in 1878, the Enterprise is one of the most decorated weekly newspapers in the state with regional, state, and national awards to its credit. Like Farmers Insurance, “We know a thing or two, because we’ve seen a thing or two.” When we take our experience and share it with the amazing staff at the Sun, our entire region will reap the benefits.

We appreciate the graciousness of Mark Hicks during the process of the sale and transition. We also want to thank our new staff members – Managing Editor Elizabeth Tanner and Circulation Director Synghyn Beasley-Vasquez in the Childress office and Associate Editor Bev Odom and Reporter / Sales Director Shauna Salinas in the Wellington office. They have been a great team during the changeover, and we look forward to working with them going forward.

The Childress Chamber of Commerce and the Childress Municipal Development District have helped make this venture possible, and it is clear they are serious about wanting what is best for their community and the area.

I’d be remiss if I did not thank Ashlee for her steadfast support of this new chapter in our lives, as well as Ben and Ella for their unwavering dedication to the old man and our family business. And we can’t leave out Advertising Manager Tara Allred, who sometimes thinks I’m crazy but never says “no” when we take on something new.

Changes will be in store for the Sun, but what’s next for the Enterprise? First and foremost, The Clarendon Enterprise will continue as its own publication. It will be the flagship of our expanded family business, and its commitment to the people of Donley County will not waiver. We will continue to cover the news, we will continue to stand for the public’s right to know and for government transparency, our defense of the Freedom of the Press as a foundation of democracy will not change, and we will hold fast to our belief that a strong community deserves a strong newspaper.

But we do have some things in mind to make the Enterprise even better. We will be redesigning the paper to give it a fresh look, and we will be working on ways to expand coverage in Hedley and Howardwick. We plan to combine the classified pages of the Enterprise and the Sun to expand the reach of those sections, and we will offer local advertisers more ways to reach readers in the area.

Ultimately though, the “what’s next” for this newspaper (and any newspaper really), depends entirely on readers and advertisers. A mentor of mine likes to say a newspaper’s first duty is to be here tomorrow. If we don’t plan and work for the future and have the backing of readers and advertisers, then even the greatest reporting won’t save us. Local journalism matters – now more than ever. We’ll do our part. We ask you to keep doing your part. Let us know if you have an event happening. Send us your pictures and news items. Buy an ad or buy a subscription or both!

Our family of newspapers has a strong history in the Greenbelt area. Now, it’s time to get busy writing their next chapters.