OA Online News Index -
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Published on: 11/3/2003
Last Visited: 11/4/2003
The newspaper's staff include, from left, Tom Shuford, news editor; Kay Taylor-Burnett, owner-publisher; and Roy Hamric, editor.
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"Out here, there's a circle - Fort Davis, Marfa, Alpine and Marathon," said Roy Hamric, editor of the Desert-Mountain Times."People drive around to the different cities, and they all know each another."Hamric, one of 10 staff members employed by Publisher Kay Taylor Burnett, said the paper's "Life in …" feature typifies what it tries to do.
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"The people all come out and walk the streets just before dark, but javelinas can be a problem," said Hamric."Sometimes, they can't go out because the javelinas are roaming down the street."Printed 90 miles away by the Monahans News, the Desert-Mountain Times is distributed each Thursday in Brewster, Presidio and Jeff Davis counties, and circulation is its most daunting challenge.Normally printing 4,000 copies but last week putting out 7,000 for the Terlingua Chili Cookoff, it's on indoor and outdoor news racks in every town and city in the 12,000-square-mile three-county area.A growing list of correspondents are being hired, and the Times has bought a cultural-travel magazine, the Desert Candle, from Ocotillo Enterprises.Its first issue will be distributed with the paper and in 12 other counties in January.Hamric, a former journalism professor at the University of Texas in Arlington, has been working 12 to 13 hours a day, seven days a week, since the paper opened Sept. 1 in Alpine."We didn't even have a pencil," he said.Now the Times has sections on news and lifestyle, business and sports, emphasizing local events and issues, like water, that all readers are interested in, Hamric said.