Ellis County, Texas
Ellis County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2020, its population was estimated to be 192,455. The county seat is Waxahachie. The county was founded in 1849 and organized the next year. It is named for Richard Ellis, pres ...
. Its daily circulation is 2,300.
History
The Waxahachie Daily Light started publishing in 1867 and it is the only paper serving Ellis County that started before 1900 and is still operating today. Though papers such as the Waxahachie Argus, the Enterprise, and the Telegraph preceded the Waxahachie Daily Light, by 1917 only the Enterprise and the Daily Light were still in operation.
In 1962, the Waxahachie Daily Light became part of Craco, Inc. and Donald L. Coppedge became co-publisher of the paper with Craig Woodson. In 1969, the paper purchased machinery and equipment for printing papers and began printing in off-set and later in four-colors. They were also printing 13 other papers, and continued to do so until 1970.
Macquarie Media Group
Southern Cross Media Group (formerly Macquarie Media Group) is one of Australia's major media companies, as the parent company of Southern Cross Austereo. Its headquarters are in South Melbourne.
History
On 3 July 2007 Southern Cross Broadca ...
of Sydney purchased the paper, along with 40 other titles, from American Consolidated Media, Inc. in 2007. In 2014,
New Media Investment Group
Gannett Co., Inc. () is an American mass media holding company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.Gatehouse Media.
National attention and controversies
After the tragic
New London School explosion
The New London School explosion occurred on March 18, 1937, when a natural gas leak caused an explosion and destroyed the London School in New London, Texas, United States. The disaster killed more than 300 students and teachers. , the event is ...
in 1937, the Waxahachie Daily Light covered stories of survivors and of families whose children were killed. The New York Times reported that the Waxahachie Daily Light called for an Easter Sunday memorial to be held in every Texas community in honor of the hundreds of teachers and children who died.
The Waxahachie Daily Light received national attention for its reporting on the Sherita Dixon Cole controversy. In May 2018, a woman named Sherita Dixon Cole reported that she was kidnapped and raped by a Texas state trooper, who had arrested her for her "attitude" after she was pulled over for suspected intoxicated driving (she passed all DWI/DUI protocols, including a breathalyzer test). The woman's report received national attention when activist
Shaun King
Jeffery Shaun King (born September 17, 1979) is an American writer, civil rights activist and co-founder of Real Justice PAC. King uses social media to promote social justice causes, including the Black Lives Matter movement.
King was raised ...
wrote a post on Facebook about it. The Texas Department of Public Safety issued a response indicating that the dashboard camera footage did not support Cole's report. The Waxahachie Daily Light then published a statement from the Texas Department of Public Safety and published the dashboard camera footage. The article also questioned whether or not Cole's lawyer is authorized to conduct business in Texas. Cole's lawyer later retracted her claims and called for the police officer to be cleared of all claims of wrongdoing.