COVID claims Del Rio’s last news source

“Trusted by the Queen City of the Rio Grande,” was the reassuring slogan used by the Del Rio News-Herald, a modest community newspaper with roots going back to the 19th century.

That trusted local voice spoke for the last time Wednesday, as the News-Herald became the latest Texas newspaper to be silenced by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Closing this newspaper is not what we wanted to do,” said Leonard Woolsey, president of Southern Newspapers Inc., which owned the Herald.

“However, with the current economic conditions and the trendswe can see, we can no longer continue to serve thecommunity at the level we feel it deserves,” he said in a news release.

In its final edition last week, the obvious banner storywas the News-Herald’s closure. Other articles captured the routine ebb and flow of life in a border city of 35,000 people.

They included results of the “Border Bass Battle” at Amistad Reservoir, an update on construction planned for Frontera Road, and a feature story about a local teacher’s dreamto “keep an educational farm alive.”

“I’m kind of in disbelief. I did not have a hint this was happening,” Del Rio Mayor Bruno Lozano said. “We were already struggling to reach some of our audiences, the older generation. Now they are going to feel disconnected.”

The closure leaves Val Verde County without a newspaper or local television station.

In April, because of the pandemic, the Herald had gone from publishing five days a week to two in an effort to cut costs.

And it was not alone.

Across the state this year, more than other 32 newspapers also reduced their frequency of publication, according to the Texas Press Association.

Among the area papers now appearing less frequently are the Victoria Advocate, the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung and the Kerrville Daily Times. Southern Newspapers owns both the Herald-Zeitung and the Daily Times.

Eight other newspapers closed down, four others merged, and five new ones opened in 2020, leaving the net number of papers in Texas at 402, according to the press association.

Nationwide, the situation for the business is even more grim and has given rise to the term “news desert” to describe communities without local news coverage.

According to a study published in 2018 by theUniversity of North Carolina, over the prior 15

years, the country lost 2,100 newspapers, a fourth of its total.

While not a complete surprise, the closure of the News-Herald still came caught some public officials off-guard.

“I really wasn't expecting it. I understood they were having a hard time, but I assumed someone would come in and buy it or they would come up with a different plan,” said Val Verde County Commissioner Beau Nettleton, who was looking over the final edition Wednesday morning.

The sudden absence of a newspaper will cause the county significant inconveniences, he said.

“It's our only mechanism to get news out, especially all our postings and requirements for public notices, and all those types of things,” he said.

Former reporter and managing editor Jen Guadarrama, who worked there from 2005 to 2013, recalled the News-Leader as both booster and watchdog.

“The biggest thing is how they were so community focused. They were really a cheerleader and it's a huge loss for Del Rio,” she said. “And the sports coverage was unparalleled.”

But, said Guadarrama, now news director for the San Angelo Times, the Del Rio paper kept a close eye on public figures and would hold their feet to the fire when needed.

“We attended every city council meeting and every county commissioners meeting, keeping an eye on how they spent tax dollars,” she said.

Diana R. Fuentes, a former editor and publisher of the News-Herald, also mourned the closing of the paper.

“I started out as a cub reporter there one summer in the late 1970s, not long after graduating from high school,” recalled Fuentes, Express-News deputy metro editor. “I covered police, city hall, military ceremonies, society parties, baseball games — I even burned plates for the press.”

“Dan Bus, may he rest in peace, was the editor. He was an old-school journalist, somewhat jaded, kind of like Lou Grant. I think he thought I would get bored or hate theweird hours. No way! He always had such interesting stories and I was enthusiastic about everything. He taught me what you don't learn in school,” she said.

Decades later when Fuentes returned as NewsHerald editor and publisher, she would meet people who had fond memories of Bus, she said, and get instant credibility: “He was long gone, but he was still opening doors for me.”

“‘A good newspaper,' he told me, ‘is the heart and soul of the community it serves.' That was the Del Rio News-Herald,” she said.