The ''Texarkana Gazette'' is a daily

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

founded in 1875 and currently owned by WEHCO Media, Inc. It serves a nine-county area surrounding Texarkana.

History

The newspaper was acquired through the consolidation of several newspapers in 1933 through the efforts of

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

-born businessman Clyde E. Palmer. Palmer established a newspaper and radio station chain that reached into

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, Camden,

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, and

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Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

. In 1952, Palmer acquired the television station KCMC, which became

KTAL-TV KTAL-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Texarkana, Texas, United States, serving the Shreveport, Louisiana area as an affiliate of NBC. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside MyNetworkTV affiliate KSHV-TV (channel 45); Nexs ...

in 1961. It serves both Texarkana and Shreveport. Through a reorganization in 1968, '' The Camden News'' in Camden, Arkansas, technically became the parent company for the Palmer newspapers, including the ''Texarkana Gazette''. Palmer's ''Texarkana Gazette'' still circulates in Bowie, Red River,

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, and

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counties in Texas and

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, Hempstead,

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, Sevier,

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and Columbia counties in Arkansas. Newspapers are also delivered into

McCurtain County McCurtain County is in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2010 census, the population was 33,151. Its county seat is Idabel. It was formed at statehood from part of the earlier Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory ...

in the southeastern corner of

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and into northern Caddo Parish in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. The ''Texarkana Gazette'' has more than 130 employees and some 120 independent carriers that deliver newspapers in a 60-mile

radius In classical geometry, a radius ( : radii) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The name comes from the latin ''radius'', meaning ray but also the ...

. The average circulation is about 25,000 daily. The previous afternoon daily, the ''Texarkana Daily News'', ceased publication in 1978. Rodger Dean Duncan, who later worked for two White House administrations and is now a prominent business consultant, was managing editor of the two Texarkana newspapers in the late 1960s. Palmer determined the key to newspaper success was the readers, the advertisers, the employees, the creditors, and the stockholders, in that order. The paper earned the coveted 2010 General Excellence award from the Arkansas Press Association, competing against eight other large dailies, including the ''

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette The ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' is the newspaper of record in the U.S. state of Arkansas, printed in Little Rock with a northwest edition published in Lowell. It is distributed for sale in all 75 of Arkansas' counties. By virtue of one of ...

,'' which placed second. For more than 85 years, the main office of the Gazette was located at 315 Pine Street on the Texas side. In September 2016, the Gazette's business, circulation, advertising, creative services, and editorial departments moved to the first two floors of the Landmark Building at 101 E. Broad St. on the Arkansas side, while the printing and distribution remained in the existing building. On December 12, 2017, the paper announced that it would close its Texarkana printing press in mid-January and begin printing in

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

, where sister paper the ''

'' is printed.

Controversy

In September 2013, the paper and editor Les Minor generated controversy when it refused to publish the wedding announcement of a gay couple. "The ''Texarkana Gazette'' publishes wedding, engagement and anniversary announcements related to marriages or impending marriages that are recognized by states in which it circulates," Minor said.

Notes

External links

''Texarkana Gazette'' official web site''Texarkana Gazette'' on Facebook''Texarkana Gazette'' on Twitter''Texarkana Gazette'' Sports on Twitter
{{WEHCO Daily newspapers published in Texas Newspapers published in Arkansas Texarkana Texarkana, Arkansas Texarkana, Texas Publications established in 1875