Dateline: January 23, 2003

Kidd wins award from Texas Press

By Ashlee Kidd, Clarendon Enterprise

Ashlee Kidd of Clarendon High School was named a winner in the small school division of the Lone Star Journalism Writing Contest last Saturday in Irving at the Texas Press Association’s 56th Midwinter Conference & Trade Show.

Kidd, the daughter of Doug and Nancy Kidd, received a certificate and a $75 check for her feature article “A Warm Heart and A Gentle Touch,” which was published in The Clarendon Enterprise last October.

TPA and the Interscholastic League Press Conference have teamed together for the second year to present the Lone Star Journalism Writing Contest that pairs students and local newspapers. The awards were expanded this year to include a category for both small schools (A-3A) and large schools (4A to 5A). Local newspapers around the state had students write features, published them, then entered the work in the contest. The winners were chosen by the judges in the ILPC office.

Other winners in the small school category were Mandy Countryman of Scurry-Rosser High School and Ryan Keser of Wylie High School. 

Winners in the large school category were Victoria Williams of Duncanville High School, Kristy Gillentine of Santa Fe High School, and Meaghan Owens of Westlake High School.

Kidd was joined at the conference by her mother and Enterprise editor Roger Estlack.

Also attending the TPA convention was former local publisher William Dean Singleton, who gave a report from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) and his views on the current state of the newspaper industry during a luncheon on Friday.

Singleton, who is currently serving as the NAA president, established The Clarendon Press in 1972 and was its publisher for several years. Today, Singleton is vice chairman and CEO of MediaNews Group, Inc., which publishes 49 daily newspapers and 94 non-daily newspapers. The company’s largest paper is The Denver Post, of which Singleton serves as the chairman of the board and the publisher.