Time marches on and all things change.
It seems the older I get, the more this sentiment resonates.
Every chapter’s end leads to the beginning of a new one, and the staff of the News-Record has started multiple new chapters in recent months.
Not only have we merged two legacy weekly newspapers in Grayson County, but we have also moved to a new location.
I locked the doors for the last time at the old News-Record office building at 130 East Main in Whitesboro.
The newspaper had been there since 1985.
My wife and I purchased a building along with the newspaper three years ago.
As Jennifer and I have strategized to grow and diversify our business, it became evident that we just did not need the space anymore.
There was a time when a weekly newspaper staff required the 2,800 square feet that old office building provided.
Those days are gone.
We were thrilled to find a new owner for the property, who promises big plans in the future.
It is exciting to know that 130 East Main will continue to be an economic driver in downtown Whitesboro.
Someone asked if I had any sentimental attachment to the old building.
I’m not sure that I do, but I do have sentimental attachment to the memories there.
As I said before, the newspaper has been in that office since the mid ‘80s.
I have been involved with the newspaper for most of my life.
My first newspaper gig was shooting Whitesboro Bearcat football for the News-Record.
I was a freelancer when I was in the 7th grade. I’ve been in and out of that old office building ever since.
I came to work there full-time in 2007.
I left and came back three different times over the ensuing 15 years.
And in 2023, we purchased the newspaper and the property.
In the 30 years or so that I’ve been associated with 130 East Main, I have known some amazing newspaper people who worked there.
Jim and Xina Davison took great care of the News-Record for the 40+ years that they owned it.
They were the ones that moved it to the old Judd’s Department Store at 130 East Main back in the ‘80s.
Jim was my first newspaper boss. He gave me a camera and a roll of film when I was in junior high school and taught me how to go get photos.
Jim and Xina have both passed on.
There was Jean Woods, Audrey Proffet and Linda Darnell— and Brad Stone, Carolyn Bartolomucci and Sharon Lively.
The list goes on.
Bob Lusk planted the seeds for his award-winning magazine while working at the News-Record.
During my tenure at the helm, I have hired some amazing people that have come through the old office building.
Courtney Killian took her first job as a reporter for us at the News-Record.
She is now a kindergarten teacher in Washington.
Thomas Otto won statewide awards in photography and sports coverage at the News-Record.
Juwan Lee started his journalism career with us in the old office. He is now the assistant sports editor at the Tulsa World.
Jason Chlapek did a stint with us at the old News-Record office. He is closing the purchase on his own newspaper on Sept. 1.
Legendary Texas newsman Dan Eakin came through the old office.
We’ve had brilliant college interns.
We’ve had countless community contributors.
The thing I love the most about what I do is the number of amazing people I get to do it with.
The most amazing person to ever come through 130 East Main was my grandmother Jacquita Lewter.
She worked at the newspaper when I was a kid, and I tagged along.
Years later, I became the editor, and she was my first hire.
We worked together.
She taught me so many things, and she would say, I taught her a few as well.
She was the heart and soul of that old office building during the time that she occupied it.
She was the best feature writer I ever knew and one of my best friends.
So, as I walked through the empty old building one last time Tuesday night— I remembered all the great people who have passed through those doors.
So many of them have now passed on.
You ask me if I’m sentimental for an old building that needs a lot of work.
No, but I am sentimental for the people who did all the work in that building for all those years.
It is their legacy that we carry on into the future.
It is their legacy that propels us to put our best foot forward.
It is their legacy that fuels what we do.
We didn’t move far.
The News-Record is now located at 128 East Main— right next door.
We have an updated building and fresh paint on the walls.
It is less space, yet we are growing. We are covering more ground than ever before.
And in a day and age when many communities are losing their newspaper, it is a point of pride for us that we’re just trading up in space and growing our business.
None of this would be possible without you— our readers, our advertisers, our subscribers.
Next year, the News-Record will celebrate 150 years of publication.
The future is bright, and the legacy is great. It is that legacy that propels us forward.