SNYDER—After it publishes its March 10 edition next weekend, the Snyder Daily News will adopt a new name and switch from a six-day-aweek publication to a twiceweekly newspaper, coming out on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
The first edition of The Snyder News will be published March 11.
“This isn’t a decision we take lightly, but feel like now is the right time to make the switch,” publisher Bill Crist said. “We feel like this will allow us to focus more of our time getting outside the office and visiting with people, taking pictures and bringing Snyder and Scurry County the news it has repeatedly told us it wants—which is local news about our community.
With the change, the newspaper will drop its Associated Press content, which will allow reporters to focus time on local coverage rather than spending time filling pages with wire stories.”
Crist said the newspaper’s website will continue to provide breaking news through social media and that some staples, like obituaries, will be updated daily online. Current subscribers will have their subscriptions extended to compensate for the schedule change, he said. Some customers who live outside the Snyder city limits will also be changed to mail delivery.
“Change isn’t easy for any of us, and I know this is a big one,” Crist said. “But as we’ve always known, what happens in our hometown is important and the community’s newspaper staff should focus its time and energy on their hometown. This change will allow us to do that.”
The Snyder Daily News’s origins harken back to the 19th century. Founded in 1887, the Coming West newspaper dated from the town’s origins as a buffalo hunting ground. Renamed the Signal in 1911, the newspaper had few competitors. Assorted newspapers would come and go. In 1923, the Signal combined with the recently established Scurry County Times (which thereafter claimed the older paper’s 1887 start date as its own). In 1950 the newspaper became the Snyder Daily News. On March 10, 2020, the word Daily drops from the newspaper’s name.
Last month the Snyder Daily News announced that it was shutting down its printing operation. In fact, its own newspaper will now be printed at the Lamesa Press-Reporter. Area newspapers such as the Crosby County News have used the SDN as their printing vendor and will now have to find a new press.
The Snyder Daily News and the Lamesa Press-Reporter are owned by Roberts Publishing Company, based in Andrews.
Roberts Publishing acquired the Snyder Daily News in 1976. Publisher James Roberts of Andrews founded the company in 1967 with a master plan of founding a chain of newspapers based in county seats.
At Roberts’ death in 1997, his company owned the newspapers in Andrews, Azle, Brownfield, Copperas Cove, Gatesville, Granbury, Hereford, Lamesa, Quanah, Seminole, Springtown, Snyder and Vernon. In 1996 Roberts’ son Randall started Basin Broadband, a regional internet provider, while still serving as publisher of the Andrews County News, and diversified the company business. Basin Broadband now has offices in Andrews and Midland. Roberts remains as president of Roberts Publishing.
In 1999 James Roberts’ nephew Don Ingram began managing the Andrew County News.
In 2017 Roberts Publishing president Randall Roberts named his son, Blake, 30, as publisher of the Andrews County News. Blake Roberts will continue to assist his father as vice-president of the regional internet provider business while serving as publisher of the Andrews County News.
In 2018 Roberts Publishing began selling some of their individual newspapers to new owners, including the community newspapers in Quanah and Hereford.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.
